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Or sign-in if you have an account.Senator Nancy Karetak-Lindell introducing an amendment to the Combatting Hate Act to criminalize residential school denialism. Photo by SenVuCanadians could be jailed for up to two years for so much as “downplaying” the Indian residential school system under an 11th-hour amendment introduced in a Senate committee.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorOn Monday, the Senate’s standing committee on human rights introduced a one-line clause to the Combatting Hate Act criminalizing the act of “condoning, denying or downplaying the Indian residential school system.”Any Canadian caught doing so, unless it was in “private conversation,” would be “guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment not exceeding two years.”This newsletter from NP Comment tackles the topics you care about. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays)By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againThe amendment to Bill C-9 was introduced by Nunavut Senator Nancy Karetak-Lindell, who said it was necessary for “affirming the importance of protecting survivor truth.”“Meaningful reconciliation cannot occur if the foundational truths of the residential school system are publicly denied, minimized or justified in ways that foster hatred towards Indigenous people,” she said, comparing her amendment to existing Canadian laws criminalizing Holocaust denial.Karetak-Lindell is one the Senate’s newest members. She was appointed in December 2024 in one of the last official acts of outgoing prime minister Justin Trudeau. She was previously the Liberal MP for Nunavut between 1997 and 2008.Karetak-Lindell’s amendment mirrors the language of a private member’s bill tabled last year by NDP MP Leah Gazan.Gazan’s bill also seeks jail terms of up to two years for “condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying the Indian residential school system.” Gazan’s bill, C-254, passed first reading in October but has remained on the order paper ever since.The Senate amendment was approved after 45 minutes of discussion, with one committee member expressing his hope that it could be used to send a message to “various leaders across the country.”“I share the concern that we’re seeing far too much residential school denialism in society and the concerns that that has for anti-Indigenous racism,” said Alberta Senator Kristopher Wells, who was appointed to the Senate in 2024 by then prime minister Justin Trudeau.Calling denialism “a pressing problem,” Wells said the amendment would “call out the comments from various leaders across the country.”Of the two Conservative senators present, one of them, Yonah Martin, abstained. The other, Newfoundland and Labrador’s David Wells, approved the amendment.Ultimately, seven senators voted for the amendment, three abstained and only one voted in opposition.The only senator to oppose the amendment was Patti LaBoucane-Benson, and her criticism was primarily that it didn’t go far enough.“While I agree with you wholeheartedly (I did my doctoral research on this) I’m afraid that we might be watering our wine and not going for the full force of what should happen with residential school denialism,” she said, before casting the committee’s only “nay” vote.Senator Flordeliz Osler raised concerns that the amendment didn’t specify the terms of what it meant by “Indian residential school system,” stating only that its denial was a crime.“Is that a problem if there is no definition of the ‘Indian residential school system’ either in the Criminal Code or in this bill?” she asked. Osler ultimately abstained.Otherwise, the general reaction from senators was to praise the amendment.“First of all I want to thank you and your team for the way you’ve captured so much of the evidence that we’ve received at this committee, and how you have addressed what is clearly a gap in this bill,” said Manitoba Senator Marilou McPhedran after Karetak-Lindell’s read-out of the amendment, and her reasons for it.McPhedran expressed concerns that the amendment was a late-stage addition that hadn’t been subjected to consultation, but ultimately voted in support.“In putting a clause in a bill or an amendment to a bill, there’s not a necessity to have consultation, there’s not a necessity to have even evidence,” said Newfoundland and Labrador Senator David Wells.The amended Combatting Hate Act still has to pass third reading in the Senate, after which it will return to the House of Commons, where the “denialism” clause will be voted on by MPs.The bill would also modify the Criminal Code to create a new offence for blocking someone’s access to a place of worship and criminalize the act of promoting hate by displaying a hate or terror symbol. 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