Our commitment to reconciliation
We stand for Truth and Reconciliation and commit to addressing the Calls to Action made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. We support and advocate for the Calls for Justice from the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
From ReachOut newsletter November 2025
Calls to Action
Confronting residential school denialism: our ethical and shared responsibility
Content warning: This article may be triggering or cause distress because it discusses colonial violence, Indian residential school denialism and human rights violations. For support, contact Hope for Wellness or Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS).
“Knowing the truth about what happened in residential schools in and of itself does not necessarily lead to reconciliation. Yet, the importance of truth telling in its own right should not be underestimated; it restores the human dignity of victims of violence and calls governments and citizens to account. Without truth, justice is not served, healing cannot happen, and there can be no genuine reconciliation…”
–Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Residential school denialism is the rejection or misrepresentation of basic facts about residential schools to undermine truth and reconciliation efforts. Denialists do not reject the existence of residential schools or their damaging effects but manipulate facts to undermine public trust, defend those responsible, and overwrite Indigenous history. Denialism peaks during significant dates, such as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, often with far-right media, politicians and conspiracy theorists spreading misinformation.
Residential school denialism use strategies such as demanding impossible “proof,” discrediting survivor and expert testimony, and attacking the reputations of researchers. Denialists often present themselves as “skeptics” or “truth seekers,” and mask harmful narratives as an expression of free speech and form of rational inquiry.
Residential school denialism is connected to the global rise of far-right movements and resistance to efforts to confront colonial histories, slavery and systemic racism. Sean Carleton, an assistant professor of Indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba, explains that denialism is “a strategy to twist, downplay, misrepresent, minimize residential school truths in favour of more controversial opinions that the system was well-intentioned.”
Harms caused by denialism
Hugh Braker of the First Nations Summit Political Executive shares, “Denying or ignoring the truth about one of the most horrendous parts of Canada’s history is an obstacle to reconciliation and does nothing except cause residential school survivors’ additional pain and suffering.”
Denialist efforts to delegitimize survivors, researchers, and advocates fuels backlash, online hate, anti-Indigenous racism and colonial narratives.
Denialists and members of media breached cultural protocols by taking videos and pictures of the suspected unmarked grave sites at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. The 2023 report Sacred Responsibility: Searching for the Missing Children and Unmarked Burials describes more disturbing behaviours: “Denialists entered the site without permission. Some came in the middle of the night, carrying shovels; they said they wanted to ‘see for themselves’ if children are buried there.”
Taking a stand and speaking out
Public truth sharing, apology, and commemoration that acknowledges and redresses past harms is a guiding principle of reconciliation. Confronting the truth about Canada’s Indian Residential Schools system and disproving and discrediting denialism is part of our collective responsibility and work towards reconciliation.
Learning the history of residential schools, identifying common denialism tactics, correcting misinformation and standing with survivors, their families and Indigenous communities are actions everyone can take to challenge denialism.
In October 2024, Kimberley Murray, the Independent Special Interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves at residential schools, released Upholding Sacred Obligations: Reparations for Missing and Disappeared Indigenous Children and Unmarked Burials in Canada. The final report lists 42 legal, moral, and ethical obligations that governments, churches and other institutions must uphold to support Indigenous-led search and recovery work. The report identifies civil and criminal legal remedies to limit residential school denialism. Murray specifically calls on the federal government to: track the spread of residential school disinformation and misinformation, regulate tech companies to stop and remove denialism on their platforms, and provide support to communities subjected to online hate and harm.
On October 31, NDP MP Leah Gazan reintroduced her private member’s Bill C-254 to amend the Criminal Code to recognize residential school denialism as inciting hate. “If the government is serious about reconciliation, then they need to protect survivors and their families from hate,” said Gazan. “The residential school system was a genocide — designed to wipe out Indigenous cultures, languages, families and heritage. To downplay, deny or justify it is cruel, harmful and hateful. This should have no place in Canada.”
For more information, visit the Office of the Independent Special Interlocutor.
Calls for Justice
Moving the Indigenous Women’s Justice Plan Forward
“The Indigenous Women’s Justice Plan is a comprehensive, Indigenous-led response to the rampant violence and discrimination that is continuing to harm our Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people.
For too long have their demands for justice gone unanswered and for too long have their recommendations sat gathering dust. The plan addresses this, ensuring that government partners and justice collaborators actively work with the BC First Nations Justice Council to respond to their needs and follow collaborative pathways of action and decision-making.”
—Lydia Hwitsum, BC First Nations Justice Council (BCFNJC) Council Member
Since the Indigenous Women’s Justice Plan (IWJP) Final Draft was released in April 2024 at the third annual justice forum and endorsed shortly after by the First Nations Leadership Council (BC Assembly of First Nations, Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, First Nations Summit), the BCFNJC Women’s Team has taken significant steps forward through collaboration and a commitment to uphold the voices of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people.
With 15 Strategies and 42 Lines of Action, the IWJP uplifts the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Calls for Justice, Red Women Rising, and Highway of Tears Symposium reports’ recommendations and visions for systemic change, rooted in truth, human rights, and safety.
Moving forward through collaboration
Last year, the Women’s Team met with representatives from 28 areas of the provincial government to discuss and support the IWJP, look for alignment, and build respectful relationships based on shared responsibilities and values. The Women’s Team continues to work with the province to develop a joint implementation plan which identifies shared priorities between BCFNJC and the BC government, including the IWJP, that will be addressed over the next fiscal year.
From September 2024 to February 2025, the Women’s Team reached out to 47 Indigenous-led and allied organizations, and met with eight, taking each opportunity to connect and share the IWJP, invite feedback and discuss ways to uplift each other’s work.
The Women’s Team continues to attend virtual and in-person forums, gatherings, and events to not only report out and gather feedback about the IWJP but to raise awareness, support and uplift initiatives with shared values. These moments help amplify the voices at the heart of this work that belong to the women, Aunties, and those whose safety and dignity are too often compromised.
In the spring of 2025, the Women’s Team underwent a prioritization process to move towards implementation. The focus for the next fiscal year will be on three strategies:
- Strategy 8: Man camps, resource extraction, and land exploitation
- Strategy 9: Crisis response
- Strategy 15: Legislation and policy (as it relates to Strategy 8 and 9)
The process of selecting these priority strategies was grounded in storytelling and Indigenous ways of knowing while also responding to the current political landscape, and high engagement to move forward with partners.
Responding to a changing political climate
Ongoing threats to Canada’s sovereignty and economic well-being since the change in the U.S. Presidency has led to the passing of Bill 14, the Renewable Energy Projects Act, Bill 15, the Infrastructure Projects Act, and Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act. These controversial bills have been criticized for giving the BC and federal governments sweeping legislative powers to fast track industrial and resource extraction projects, deprioritizing the climate crisis, and increasing risks to human health and the environment, especially for Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQIA+ people, who are directly exposed to increased gender-based violence in and around man camps.
Man camps are temporary accommodation facilities that the resource development industry relies on to house a transient workforce until a project is complete. Man camps and the influx of transient workers, toxic masculinity, gender-based violence, substance use, and human trafficking are strongly linked to the systemic and ongoing genocide of Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQIA+ people in northern remote and rural communities.
In response to these legislative changes, there are grave concerns about the increased risk of gendered and racialized land-based violence from the streamlined major resource projects within and surrounding First Nations communities identified by the BC and federal governments. The Women’s Team’s focus on the implementation of the three priority strategies is vital to addressing the increased violence that comes with man camps and fast-tracked resource development projects.
Gathering in circle
On September 5, the Women’s Team gathered in Vancouver with Indigenous women, youth, government partners and the Indigenous Women 2SLGBTQIA+ Steering Committee matriarchs whose wisdom continues to guide the IWJP.
At the centre of the gathering sat a chair draped with a red dress — a powerful reminder of a shared commitment and responsibility to those we’ve lost, those still with us, and those yet to be born.
The group came together with shared vision and values to focus on the implementation of the three priority strategies (as listed above) from the revised IWJP that call for immediate care and action.
The next steps for the Women’s Team include:
- Finalizing implementation plans for these priority strategies in collaboration with government and Indigenous partners.
- Exploring and advocating for longterm funding and partnering opportunities.
- Updating progress on BCFNJC’s Tracking Justice site to ensure accountability and transparency.
For more information on the Indigenous Women’s Justice Plan, visit Tracking Justice.
