Michael Higgins: Governor General has no business musing about 'denialism' - National Post
Governor General Louise Arbour speaks at the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation gathering hosted by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. Photo by HYUNGCHEOL PARK /PostmediaArticle contentGovernor General Louise Arbour is the latest political actor to give voice to the idea that Indian Residential School “denialism” is such a plague in this country that it must be stamped out.
If that means criminalize it, as others have demanded, then the former Supreme Court judge is doing nothing for truth and even less for reconciliation.
The movement to punish so-called denialism has flourished since questions first arose in the wake of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation issuing a statement in May 2021 stating that ground-penetrating radar “confirms” finding the remains of 215 children at Kamloops Indian Residential School.
The ground-penetrating radar confirmed no such thing, certainly not the remains of 215 children.
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But a nation, led by mourner in chief Justin Trudeau, was suitably shocked and appalled. Five years later, with no evidence of any remains being found, the country, rightly, is more questioning than shocked.
Following the Kamloops announcement, the Liberal government launched the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support fund to provide money to Indigenous communities to locate missing children at Indian Residential Schools. So far, the government has handed out $284 million.
When the government hands out more than a quarter of a billion dollars people have a right to know what it is being spent on and what are the results. This is not an issue of not listening to survivors, or denying “their truth,” it is a matter of good public policy in holding the government accountable for spending taxpayers’ money.
Further, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc statement pricked the conscience of a nation and when the federal government ordered flags lowered for six months it was a signal that a similar mourning period should be adopted by the public. After all that hullabaloo people have a right to ask what it was all about.
But to question the 215-dead-children-at-Kamloops narrative is for some a form of denialism, which is why it is so chilling to hear politicians — and Canada’s governor general — demand so forcibly that it be rooted out.
