B.C. Conservative MLA refutes charge of residential school denialism
A B.C. Conservative MLA has refused her leader's request to take down a social media post that critics say amounts to residential school denialism — a charge Official Opposition attorney general critic Dallas Brodie Dallas refutes.
Brodie is facing backlash for a post on X.
"The number of confirmed child burials at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site is zero. Zero. No one should be afraid of the truth. Not lawyers, their governing bodies or anyone else."
Brodie, a lawyer, was coming to the defence of another lawyer, James Heller.
Last year, Heller pushed the Law Society of B.C. to change its training material to say there were "potentially" burial sites at the former residential school in Kamloops — instead of more definitive language.
Heller is suing the society for what he calls "false and defamatory" allegations of racism.
Brodie says she's not denying what happened at residential schools.
"The stand I'm taking is rooted in the need for truth. And I don't think standing for truth takes away anything from the severity of what happened at the residential schools," she told reporters in the legislature Monday. "I'm a lawyer. I believe in evidence, truth and pursuit of truth, and I think lawyers should be allowed to ask questions."
However, Brodie's Conservative colleague, A'aliyah Warbus, a member of the Sto: lo Nation and the party's house leader, said on social media:
"Inform yourself, get the latest facts, research, AND talk to survivors. Questioning the narratives of people who lived and survived these atrocities, is nothing but harmful and taking us backward in reconciliation."
Conservative Leader John Rustad said he asked Brodie to take down the post. She's refused.
"When the tweet was first put up, I was concerned it may be misinterpreted as opposed to being about the fact that there haven't been any graves ... or any bodies at that particular site exhumed or found, versus the whole issue of the residential schools," Rustad said. "I asked her to take ([he post] down because of that concern."
Rustad says there is no denying the horrors of residential schools.
"[Children] went to school. They were taken from their families, and more than 4,000 children did not return home. Those children died in residential schools."
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs says Brodie's comments cause pain to residential school survivors and their families.
"I find such remarks to be absolutely disgusting, repugnant and ugly," he said.
B.C.'s attorney general, Niki Sharma, says during her law career, she worked with residential school survivors, who have fought hard for decades to have their truth recognized.
"It's been a long and painful journey to those people," Sharma said. "I'm disappointed that her first question to me as critic would be based on a form of denialism of residential schools.
Former Kamloops Indian Residential school now a national historic site
11 days ago
Duration 2:52
The former Kamloops Indian Residential School, where, in 2021, Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc shared that preliminary findings from a ground-penetrating radar survey had found some 200 potential unmarked graves on the institution's grounds, has been designated as a national historic site. The CBC's Jennifer Norwell got an inside look at the school with the chief of the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc.
Sean Carleton, an Indigenous Studies professor at the University of Manitoba, said residential school denialism is not just denying that residential schools existed, but involves a "strategy to try and shake public confidence in established truth by minimizing, downplaying and twisting facts… to shake public confidence in the truth."
Carleton is concerned that some politicians are using such statements as a wedge issue.
"If they can delegitimize Kamloops, then they can delegitimize the entire residential school narrative," he said.
In 2021, the Tk'emlúps First Nation said that ground penetrating radar provided "confirmation of the remains of 215 children" at the school site, but last year changed the wording to 215 anomalies. News stories have referred to them as"potential burial sites or potential unmarked graves."
Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir, chief of the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, was not available for comment Monday.
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has documented that at least 4,118 children died at residential schools.
More than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend them in Canada, the last of which closed in 1996.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
National Observer
7 hours ago
- National Observer
Canada's Conservatives still aren't serious about housing
He was so close to getting it. Jacob Mantle, the newly-elected thirty-something Conservative MP for York-Durham, rose in the House of Commons on Tuesday to make a point about housing costs. 'Oxford Economics reports that Toronto's housing market ranks among the worst in the world for affordability. At the same time, mortgage delinquency rates in Toronto are higher than at any time during the pandemic. The financial burden is suffocating the next generation of homebuyers.' But Mantle wasn't actually interested in proposing solutions to that problem. Instead, he wanted to whine about the fact that the Carney government isn't going to table a budget until the fall, which the government has defended on the basis that it will be better able to account for the fallout from Donald Trump's tariffs by then. And despite his supposed concern over housing, Mantle was dismissive of the government's plan to embrace and scale up modular housing in Canada. 'My generation refuses to live in a shipping container,' Mantle said. For what it's worth, I suspect many members of his generation (and mine) would be happy to live in the sort of modified shipping containers that are being designed and built right now, including the ones in his own city. But modular housing is so much more than just the use and conversion of shipping containers. It's an entirely new approach to homebuilding, one that uses factories and their inherent economies of scale to drive down costs. They can be one or two-storey, single or multi-family, and configured in any number of layouts and sizes. In an environment where driving down construction costs is a nearly existential issue for Mantle's generation, you'd think he would be more open to new ideas and economic innovation — especially when it promises to use more Canadian materials and labour. Then again, if you've been paying close attention to the Conservative Party of Canada's approach to this issue, his behaviour was entirely predictable. Under Pierre Poilievre's leadership, the party and its MPs have repeatedly highlighted the very real problem of rising housing costs in Canada and the disproportionate impacts they have on younger people. But when it comes to actual solutions to that problem — ones, at least, that don't involve cutting taxes or regulations and assuming the market will magically solve the problem it has helped create — those same Conservatives either disappear into the metaphorical bushes or come out on the other side of the issue. In Calgary, for example, opposition to a city-wide measure to increase affordability and density while reducing sprawl came mostly from Conservative-leaning councilors like Dan McLean, Peter Demong and Sean Chu, with some conspicuous cheerleading work coming from federal Conservative MP Greg McLean. In British Columbia, provincial Conservative party leader John Rustad decided to go to bat for the very 'gatekeepers' standing in the way of new housing that Poilievre had repeatedly promised he would eliminate. Even in Ontario, where Conservative politicians have been more visibly and vocally on-side with pro-supply measures, the results of the Ford government's efforts have been underwhelming, to say the least. We are not in a moment where we can afford to reflexively turn our noses up at potential solutions. And yet, Conservative politicians like Mantle seem determined to find fault in every proposed approach that doesn't flatter their own pre-existing ideological and political biases towards cutting taxes and reducing government involvement. Modular housing will not be, in and of itself, the solution to a problem that has been building for more than two decades. But that's only because nothing on its own will, or could, be the solution. The Carney government has embraced modular housing as a way to lower costs and improve affordability in Canada's housing market. Canada's Conservatives, on the other hand, seem determined to miss the mass timber for the trees. Instead, we need every possible lever being pulled right now, from regulatory reform and improved operating efficiencies to direct government involvement, procurement, and even development. Mantle is right that the status quo has failed his generation. But he's wrong to indignantly oppose a good-faith effort at challenging and changing it, and all the more so as he pretends to speak on behalf of an entire generation. We can only hope that his party and its online proxies don't decide to turn modular housing into this year's iteration of the 15-minute city and throw a self-evidently good and decent idea into the stew of online conspiracies it always seems to have at low boil. Yes, that might feed the eternally hungry appetites of their increasingly online political base. But it won't do anything to address the problem Conservatives like Mantle claim to care about. At some point, Canadians may conclude that they're not actually all that interested in solving it.
Vancouver Sun
16 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
Criticism comes from all sides after B.C. Ferries awards contract to Chinese state-owned company
Criticism of B.C. Ferries' decision to partner with a Chinese state-owned company to build four new vessels intensified Tuesday, with calls from B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad to cancel the contract and reissue the request for proposals to make it more attractive to Canadian bidders. 'I think we should be doing everything we can to support jobs in B.C. and our economy in B.C.,' he told Postmedia News. If the B.C. companies can't build the vessels, then Rustad said the ferry service should be looking at procuring ships from other countries such as Germany and Poland that B.C. Ferries has worked with before and are more friendly to Canada. Stay on top of the latest real estate news and home design trends. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Westcoast Homes will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Rustad's comments echoed sentiments from B.C. Transport Minister Mike Farnworth who expressed concern about procuring ships from a country currently engaged in a tariff war with Canada. Farnworth, however, stopped short of saying he was going to take action against the decision. 'My main concern with B.C. Ferries' decision is the lack of Canadian content in the contract. My hope is that going forward B.C. Ferries will make a greater effort to require Canadian inputs into its new vessels,' said Farnworth, explaining he had shared those concerns with the corporation. 'With respect to China specifically, my concern is focused around the ongoing trade disputes between our nations and the fact China is deliberately attacking sections of the Canadian economy through unwarranted tariffs.' B.C. Premier David Eby has repeatedly criticized the Asian economic giant over allegations of money laundering, election interference and that it's arming Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. A recent trade mission by the premier intentionally skipped China, with B.C. instead choosing to focus on strengthening ties with Japan, South Korea and Malaysia. On Tuesday, B.C. Ferries announced it had signed a deal with Chinese state-owned Weihai Shipyards to build four new vessels between 2026 and 2031 as replacements for its oldest ships. Nicholas Jimenez, the corporation's CEO, has defended the choice by saying that there were no Canadian companies that applied for the project. In September, North Vancouver-based shipbuilder Seaspan said that 'Canadian shipyards and their supply chains cannot compete with low-wage countries that have lower employment standards, lower environmental standards and lower safety standards.' The company has urged the province to follow Quebec in providing tax breaks and forgivable loans and grants to help ensure ferries can be built in B.C. Jimenez also said that China has come to dominate the global shipbuilding industry with 60 per cent of all ships in the world today having been built by the Asian behemoth. 'In the last 10 to 15 years, the technological capabilities and shipbuilding prowess inside that country has grown immeasurably,' Jimenez told reporters Tuesday. 'We consulted heavily with our colleagues in Europe, who have been in the market for more than a decade. I would note even as recently as two months ago, another very large Italian ferry organization just signed a deal for nine vessels with the very same shipyard that we intend to build in.' Jimenez promised there are provisions in the contract that ensure Weihai will not be paid in full until the ships are delivered. Additionally, he said there will be oversight teams on the ground in China during construction to ensure compliance with the contract and address any security concerns. The full contract has yet to be release and B.C. Ferries isn't releasing the amount being paid to the Chinese company, citing the need to protect future bids. Ed Hooper, B.C. Ferries head of fleet renewal, said Tuesday that the corporation took the step of travelling to all the shipyards on its shortlist and that there was a sense of strong worker safety provisions and oversight at Weihai. He did acknowledge, however, that the dominance of China in the industry is deliberate. Neither Jimenez or Hooper were made available Wednesday for further questions. Joy MacPhail, B.C. Ferries board chairwoman and former NDP cabinet minister, was also unavailable. A corporation spokesperson said that they had been having regular briefings and meetings with the provincial government throughout the procurement process and had notified the federal government of their selection of Weihai ahead of time. They also said that all IT networks and vessel systems for the ships will be installed in Canada by local suppliers and that B.C. Ferries had sought the advice of an independent risk consultancy on security measures for the project. Rustad said that while Jimenez might not have concerns about the geopolitical ramifications of the deal, there is no telling when an international incident could occur between Canada and China that might put the delivery of the vessels in jeopardy. 'Obviously there's lots of rhetoric going back and forth between the United States and China, friction with Taiwan,' Rustad told Postmedia. 'Who knows what may happen? Hopefully nothing by 2029 to 2031 which is when these ships are going to start to be constructed and delivered.' Concerns over the contract have reverberated to the federal level with Jeff Kibble, Conservative MP for Cowichan-Malahat-Langford, questioning federal Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland during question period in Ottawa. 'The Liberals are set to hand over $30 million (in federal subsidies) to B.C. Ferries while B.C. Ferries hands over critical jobs, investment and industry to China,' Kibble charged. Freeland responded that she agrees the federal government needs to be supporting local industry and working with allies and trade partners but that the B.C. Ferries' contract wasn't a federal project. Jenny Kwan, NDP MP for Vancouver East, told Postmedia that Ottawa has a role in working with provincial governments to build up the country, including ensuring that domestic companies can compete for large procurement contracts. 'We have to re-examine how that procurement process is undertaken,' said Kwan.
Ottawa Citizen
19 hours ago
- Ottawa Citizen
Dayforce confirmed as replacement for Phoenix as federal government pay system
The federal government is set to move forward with replacing the plagued Phoenix pay system with Dayforce. Article content Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound announced Wednesday that the government would start the 'final build and testing phase' of the new platform. Article content Article content 'The Government of Canada remains committed to modernizing its HR and pay systems in a responsible and transparent manner,' Lightbound said in a statement. 'By investing in the future of HR and pay, we are taking an important step forward in ensuring an efficient, secure, and sustainable solution for public service employees.' Article content Article content The announcement came as the federal government continued to work to ease the backlog of pay issues. As of April 23, there were 327,000 transactions in the system remaining to be processed. Of that number, 49 per cent were more than a year old. Article content Article content The total of 327,000 represented an improvement on previous months. In late February, the backlog stood at 366,000 transactions and in October 2024 it was 402,000. Article content The Liberal government launched Phoenix in 2016 after the previous Conservative government had initiated the platform. Problems soon arose as public servants struggled to get paid fully and on time. Article content An auditor general report from December 2024 found that 32 per cent of federal government employees reported errors in their basic or acting pay during the 2023–24 fiscal year. That was up from 30 per cent in 2022–23 and 28 per cent in 2021–22. However, it was also a steep decrease from the peak of Phoenix's problems in 2019–20, when 51 per cent of employees had to deal with pay errors. The cost of Phoenix's failure for the government has also ballooned. Since 2017, the federal government has spent at least $3.5 billion on the Phoenix pay system. It has also cost the federal government money in settlements and compensation for public servants. Last November, the government settled a class-action lawsuit brought by non-unionized and casual employees over the payment system fiasco. And in 2020 Canada's largest public-sector union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, reached an agreement with the government giving 140,000 workers each $2,500 in compensation over the issues with Phoenix. Article content Article content
