AGAR: Senator’s amendment to criminalize residential school denialism a dangerous move

Sen. Nancy Karetak-Lindell's proposal was voted down, though it's concerning that 32 senators voted for it

Published Jun 08, 2026  •  Last updated 6 hours ago  •  3 minute read

Then-Nunavut MP Nancy Karetak-Lindell, left, is pictured at the unveiling of the new logo for the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) in Ottawa in this 2002 file photo. Photo by ROD MACIVOR /THE OTTAWA CITIZEN/Postmedia Network

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If you want to know how quickly freedom can be taken away, you need only look to the Canadian Senate.

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Sen. Nancy Karetak-Lindell, a residential school survivor, proposed an amendment to Bill C-9, the Liberal government’s Combatting Hate Act, saying, “I went to residential school. I lived through it. I’ve had people say to me, ‘Well, you got educated. Isn’t that a good thing to come out of having gone to residential school?’ It only points to one section of our experience.”

Her amendment to a bill read, “Everyone who, by communication statements other than in private conversation, willfully promotes hatred against Indigenous Peoples by condoning, denying or downplaying the Indian Residential Schools System (a), is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or (b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.”

Some say it’s no big deal because the Senate voted the proposal down.

It is a big deal as 32 senators voted for it. That is an uncomfortable percentage of the chamber of “sober second thought” to show they don’t think it should be legal for some people to have thoughts at all.

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Further, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) reports, “Several assemblies representing First Nations across Canada are expressing ‘profound disappointment’ over the Canadian Senate’s vote against an amendment that would have rendered residential school denialism a punishable crime.”

I was contacted by people listening to my radio show when I reported on this who expressed the opinion that anyone voicing anything other than the government-approved messaging of the residential schools deserved to be in prison.

‘The Banality of Evil’

Such people exemplify the term, “the Banality of Evil.”

The term was coined by Hannah Arendt following the Holocaust. It means that evil is not always carried out by monsters. It is carried out by people who come to believe that they are merely furthering a moral purpose — one that they have failed to think through.

They are overcome by an obsession with conformity, feeling totally comfortable taking other people’s freedom.

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I’m not aware of any other person who has called, as I have, for an accounting from those former ministers who ran the residential school system who are alive today. Not to jail them; to get their story.

APTN didn’t seem to take an interest in that proposal.

The school experiment was racist. It did damage that continues today.

Policing people’s thoughts

Having said those things, would I be protected from conviction and incarceration, in the opinion of those who supported the proposed amendment, should I ask an interview subject on my show, “Did you at least get an education?”

What if I asked whether any of those schools were run in a caring and nurturing environment? I don’t know the answer, but I’d like to hear it.

I certainly should not be afraid to ask it.

APTN (a network I enjoy) quotes Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige, of Anishinabek Nation, saying, “Canada is picking and choosing which human rights they protect, no longer even trusting the very Senate committee established to provide a human rights-specific perspective.”

No one has a human right to protection from offence and hurt feelings.

No insensitive idiot can do as much damage as a government that would jail people for not following government-mandated thought.

Does that sound like Canada?

We came too close this past week.

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