Manitoba premier opposes criminalizing residential school denialism

WINNIPEG · Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says residential school denialism is detestable but should not be criminalized, putting him at odds with a federal New Democrat MP from his province. Kinew told CBC Manitoba Information Radio on Friday he disagrees with efforts by Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan to amend the Criminal Code to outlaw denying or minimizing the residential school system. He said the continued work of educating people and combating misinformation is the better approach. Gazan first introduced her private member's bill in October 2024, but it died when the 2025 election was called.

"I have a lot of respect for MP Gazan, but I don't think we can criminalize this. I think we have to just do the continued work of educating people and trying to combat misinformation," Kinew said. Gazan reintroduced the bill, known as Bill C-254, in October 2025. It seeks to make it illegal for anyone to condone, deny, justify or minimize the Indian residential school system through any statements beyond a private conversation. The bill has only passed first reading and must go through two more readings, committee reviews and final debates before it could become law.

"If the government is serious about reconciliation, then they need to protect survivors and their families from hate," Gazan said when she first introduced the legislation. "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." For more than 150 years, from the 1830s until 1997, First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were taken from their families to government-funded, church-run schools designed to assimilate them. An estimated 150,000 children attended the schools, and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has documented more than 4,000 deaths.

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Kinew pointed to recent educational efforts, like the province's purchase of a former campground that was part of the Brandon Residential School site, as ways to keep history alive. On Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Kinew announced Manitoba partnered with the City of Brandon to buy the property, which contains a former school cemetery. The province said the site still contains the remains of children. Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, which owns the land where the school once stood, is guiding decisions and working with researchers to identify the more than 50 children believed buried there.

"It's very well-documented. It's very historic. So let's make sure that we keep that history alive in our living memory as a province," Kinew said. Rev. Stan McKay, a residential school survivor and the first Indigenous person to lead the United Church of Canada, called the land purchase a “very important piece” of reconciliation. "It was not a good place," McKay said of the Brandon school, which his maternal grandparents and eldest sisters were forced to attend. McKay said he would like to see more education in Manitoba schools localized to stories about the 18 residential schools that operated in the province.

Kinew agreed more education is needed, noting students today learn far more than previous generations did. "How much did we learn about residential school in K-12 versus what a kid today learns? It's night and day in terms of being so much more," he said. He added there is also a need to educate adults in workplaces, churches and sports venues. Kinew recalled that while preparing for the Brandon site announcement, even some of his own staff were shocked to learn the documented number of children who died in the schools. He said the goal is to prevent this history from fading from living memory, which could allow negative lessons to re-emerge.

With files from CBC News