Handling Tough Questions About Denialism

There isn’t a single public school in Canada or in the United States that features a graveyard out back next to the football field. [1]

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president, Union of BC Indian Chiefs

My personal and professional goal has always been to “change the world, one person at a time.” When I initially began delivering Indigenous awareness training for a large utility company in my home province of BC in the late 1990s, I was up against a certain level of intolerance towards Indigenous Peoples that was the norm for the era. While visiting some towns to deliver a training session, my sense of vulnerability was acute. I represented change to the status quo coming down the pike. I persevered, and after a few rough sessions, I noticed a shift in attitude.

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I have always taken great pains to deliver training without guilt or shame to the learners. I wasn’t there to make people uncomfortable with history. I was there to present facts and a perspective they may not have encountered or considered, as well as practical tips and insight on developing effective, respectful and sustainable relationships with Indigenous communities and individuals. I launched my own company, Indigenous Corporate Training Inc., in 2002 and was soon asked to train all over the province, across Canada and beyond our borders. I found the growth in demand for Indigenous relations training heartening as a business owner and as a Canadian.

Change was happening, but it was from the top down. Corporations and organizations, particularly in the resource extraction sector, realized that positive working relationships with the Indigenous Peoples impacted by their projects were good for their bottom line.

And then, in 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada published its reports and 94 calls to action for reconciliation. The reports brought to light the atrocities 150,000 Indigenous students endured at the 139 church-run, federal government-funded residential schools between the late 1880s and 1997. An estimated 6,000 children died or disappeared from those schools. For many Canadians, the existence and conditions of residential schools came as a complete shock.

Thousands of Indigenous children were subjected to violence, abuse, disease, and neglect in these institutions, and many of them died. Their death rates were far higher than those of non-Indigenous school-aged children. When they died, government and church officials often did not return the children to their families and communities for burial. They were buried instead in cemeteries at the institutions, often in unmarked and mass graves that were sometimes dug by other children. Many of these cemeteries and burial sites are neglected, abandoned, and unprotected. Families were provided with little information about what happened to their children. [2]

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have so far documented 4,117 deaths of First Nations, Inuit and Métis children in residential schools across Canada. Identifying the children is a slow process due to inaccurate record-keeping by the schools and the government.

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Following the publication of the Truth and Reconciliation Reports, Canadians took the calls to action to heart. We began to see land acknowledgements (in some Indigenous cultures, territorial acknowledgement is known as protocol) at meetings, sports events, film festivals, on websites, and in email signature blocks. We saw curriculum changes in grade school and post-secondary institutions. We saw the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) receive Royal Assent under the federal Liberal government. In BC, we saw the provincial government under the NDP unanimously pass the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (Declaration Act). Every September, the country is awash with people of all ages wearing orange t-shirts. In 2021, the federal government declared a new statutory holiday on September 30 to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

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Change was happening, but now it was driven from the grassroots level. Individuals, mom-and-pop shops, not-for-profit organizations, churches, and families were having difficult conversations and looking at what they could do to support reconciliation.

Then Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc, in 2021, announced that ground penetrating radar (GPR) had detected anomalies suspected to be graves on the grounds of Kamloops Indian Residential School.

Elders and Survivors have always spoken of children dying and disappearing while at the school. Men speak of, as boys attending Kamloops Indian Residential School, being woken in the middle of the night, and asked to dig holes that seemed like graves, in the dark, and not being told why. [3]

Tk’emlups te Secwépemc Kúkpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir

The news shocked Canadians and made international headlines. Since then, the grounds of many residential schools have been tested with GPR. Each time the gut-wrenching results are announced, there is an outpouring of support for the communities, the survivors, and their families.

But there has also been an outpouring of anger and denialism. The rise of denialism and its impact on residential school survivors and the erosion of progress with reconciliation since then is of such concern that in 2024, an NDP MP introduced a private member's bill to add residential school denialism to the Criminal Code. If Bill C-413 is passed, anyone convicted of “wilfully promoting hatred against Indigenous peoples by condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying the Indian residential school system in Canada through statements communicated other than in private conversation” [4] could face up to two years in jail.

Hand in hand with denialism is resentment of government funding for communities to conduct the GPR testing to find the missing children.

Finally, the Indigenous file reaped even more rewards, including $91 million for communities to “document, locate and memorialize burial sites at former residential schools” — which some contend, erroneously, to be evidence of genocide. Another $5 million has been set aside to combat “residential school denialism,” which the Liberals contemplated criminalizing last year. [5]

The National Post, April 18, 2024

The increasing presence of denialism, hatred and resentment in discourse is concerning. It feels as if Canada is in danger of sliding backwards on the progress made in reconciliation and Indigenous relations. However, I don’t think putting people in jail is the answer. Nor does my father, Chief Robert Joseph, a residential school survivor.

In this interview, "Dealing with Residential School Denialism," on CBC radio, the interviewer asked my father if he agreed with jail time for residential school denialism. He responded that if you lock someone up, you are never going to bring them on board, and you are sending them the message that they are hopeless (paraphrased). I am sure many listeners were surprised by his answer.

I agree with my father’s wise words but want to expand on how dialogue fosters understanding. One of the training skills I was taught and shared with all our trainers was to thank everyone for all questions, whatever their nature, and to treat the question and the asker with respect.

Questions are the portal to dialogue, and it is through dialogue that we can share knowledge and different perspectives and learn from one another. But for that to happen, people have to feel safe asking their questions. As facilitators, we are adept at answering awkward questions. We answer to the group rather than focusing on the person who asked the question.

Our trainers have all experienced profound group discussions arising from a single awkward question, be it about denialism or one of the many myths about Indigenous Peoples. We know we may not lead the person to accept a different perspective, but we know the greater group has benefitted from the dialogue.

Awkward comments and questions about Indigenous Peoples often arise in social settings. How should you, a supporter of reconciliation, respond? Here are two articles with some insight and tips to help you navigate these situations safely.

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As Canada continues its journey along the reconciliation path, there will be setbacks, but we can’t let them push us off course. Like my father, I believe we can all learn to live harmoniously together while respecting our diversity.

When I published 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act in 2018, the response was astounding. It quickly became a national bestseller and was listed as one of the top 20 books of that decade. Sales of the book continue to outperform expectations. It may seem like I am tooting my own horn here, but I am not. I am expressing gratitude to all those Canadians who want to learn about the past so they can help shape the future.

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I dedicated the book to Canada and reconciliation. I used this quote from Canada’s former Governor General Michaëlle Jean at the relaunch of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2009.

When the present does not recognize the wrongs of the past, the future takes its revenge. For that reason, we must never, never turn away from the opportunity of confronting history together - the opportunity to right a historical wrong.

To me, this quote puts into perspective the bigger picture of reconciliation's importance.

By Bob Joseph, Co-Founder & President

[1] ‘Deeply disturbing’: 3rd anniversary of 215 suspected unmarked graves found in Kamloops, CityNews Everywhere, May 27, 2024
[2] As quoted in Sites of Truth, Sites of ConscienceUnmarked Burials and Mass Graves of Missing and Disappeared Indigenous Children in Canada, Office of the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools, 2024, p 7
[3] ‘Deeply disturbing’: 3rd anniversary of 215 suspected unmarked graves found in Kamloops, CityNews Everywhere, May 27, 2024
[4] Bill C-413 An Act to amend the Criminal Code (promotion of hatred against Indigenous peoples) openpaliarment.ca
[5] Liberals, again, use federal budget to advance demographic favoritism, National Post, Apr 18, 2024

Featured photo: Jason Woodhead, Flickr.