Senate votes to jail Canadians for ‘residential school denialism’

Senator Nancy Karetak-Lindell introducing an amendment to the Combatting Hate Act to criminalize residential school denialism. Photo by SenVu

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Canadians could be jailed for up to two years for so much as “downplaying” the Indian residential school system under an 11th-hour amendment introduced in a Senate committee.

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On Monday, the Senate’s standing committee on human rights introduced a one-line clause to the Combatting Hate Act criminalizing the act of “condoning, denying or downplaying the Indian residential school system.”

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Any Canadian caught doing so, unless it was in “private conversation,” would be “guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment not exceeding two years.”

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The amendment to Bill C-9 was introduced by Nunavut Senator Nancy Karetak-Lindell, who said it was necessary for “affirming the importance of protecting survivor truth.”

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“Meaningful reconciliation cannot occur if the foundational truths of the residential school system are publicly denied, minimized or justified in ways that foster hatred towards Indigenous people,” she said, comparing her amendment to existing Canadian laws criminalizing Holocaust denial.

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Karetak-Lindell is one the Senate’s newest members. She was appointed in December 2024 in one of the last official acts of outgoing prime minister Justin Trudeau. She was previously the Liberal MP for Nunavut between 1997 and 2008.

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Karetak-Lindell’s amendment mirrors the language of a private member’s bill tabled last year by NDP MP Leah Gazan.

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Gazan’s bill also seeks jail terms of up to two years for “condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying the Indian residential school system.” Gazan’s bill, C-254, passed first reading in October but has remained on the order paper ever since.

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The Senate amendment was approved after 45 minutes of discussion, with one committee member expressing his hope that it could be used to send a message to “various leaders across the country.”

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“I share the concern that we’re seeing far too much residential school denialism in society and the concerns that that has for anti-Indigenous racism,” said Alberta Senator Kristopher Wells, who was appointed to the Senate in 2024 by then prime minister Justin Trudeau.

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Calling denialism “a pressing problem,” Wells said the amendment would “call out the comments from various leaders across the country.”

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Of the two Conservative senators present, one of them, Yonah Martin, abstained. The other, Newfoundland and Labrador’s David Wells, approved the amendment.

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Ultimately, seven senators voted for the amendment, three abstained and only one voted in opposition.

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The only senator to oppose the amendment was Patti LaBoucane-Benson, and her criticism was primarily that it didn’t go far enough.

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“While I agree with you wholeheartedly (I did my doctoral research on this) I’m afraid that we might be watering our wine and not going for the full force of what should happen with residential school denialism,” she said, before casting the committee’s only “nay” vote.