BC Conservative MLA is ‘Delegitimizing Residential School Survivors’, Critics Say

A BC Conservative MLA’s comments about a residential school in Kamloops, BC, generated negative headlines this week, but historians and Indigenous studies scholars say this is distracting from the real work of Truth and Reconciliation. 

Earlier this week, BC Conservative MLA Dallas Brodie reposted an article about a former residential school site in Kamloops, stating that “the number of confirmed child burials at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site is zero.”

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. 1/3https://t.co/ymtHLhdmZn

— Dallas Brodie (@Dallas_Brodie) February 22, 2025

Brodie, a past supporter of Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada, is only one of a number of BC Conservative candidates who has questioned the history of residential school abuse and promoted anti-Indigenous views. Brodie has also previously come under fire for claiming that First Nations communities need to “take responsibility” for “their people” on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. 

Despite criticisms in the media and political circles, some say the focus on numbers of bodies and debating details only serves the far-right by shifting the focus away from where it belongs. 

Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs President Grand Chief Stewart Phillip says Brodie’s comments are re-traumatizing for survivors and their family members.

“Residential school is intergenerational in terms of the trauma going to the children and grandchildren and any denigration of the survivors ripples through the entire family. It’s very hurtful and it’s so unnecessary,” Grand Chief Phillip told PressProgress.

“It’s completely out of hand and we can’t be cheerleading this kind of sentiment through public statements by elected officials in the highest level of the government in the BC legislature.”

Grand Chief Phillip also says in the case of elected officials in the BC Conservative caucus, these kinds of comments should come as no surprise.

“The publicly racist individuals in the Rustad opposition in the BC legislature are well-known with respect to their racist notions against Indigenous, Black and people of colour,” Grand Chief Phillip said.

“Those views were openly expressed during the election and you know and they were harshly condemned for that—quite rightfully so. But they’re continuing that commentary within the confines of the chamber and I think that’s reprehensible.”

Sean Carleton, a University of Manitoba history and Indigenous studies professor, says it is important to understand why and how Brodie’s comments “shake public confidence in the truth about residential schooling.”

“Brodie’s comments are part of this larger, mostly right-wing movement that is trying to delegitimize the truths of survivors, the truths of historians, the truth of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and basically say you’re all being duped into a false narrative about residential schooling to guilt you and make you feel bad and force reconciliation,” Carleton told PressProgress.

Carleton says the fixation on “bodies being found” detracts from what Kamloops has been saying about their findings about “possible remains,” given they haven’t completed their work and have not yet confirmed bodies at the school.

“(Many people) play into the trap that denialists like Brodie are laying, which is saying that there haven’t been bodies confirmed at Kamloops—there hasn’t,” Carleton said.

“Kamloops said ‘based on our extensive research, we believe that we have found the possible remains of 215 children based on the fact that we already know that more than 50 children died in the school,’ which was confirmed through church and state records.”

Carleton explains that focusing on sites where more work is still being done contributes to right-wing efforts to “attack truth and reconciliation.”

“Denialists are obsessed with trying to delegitimize Kamloops because they think that they can do that and therefore roll back reconciliation. But why are they not focusing on other schools like Williams Lake, which is also in the same province?” 

“The Williams Lake team is far enough ahead and have established relations with the Catholic Church to gain access to more than 60,000 records that have proven that the death rate in that school is actually three times higher than the Truth and Reconciliation report outlined. This is publicly available.”

Carleton says narratives like the one promoted by Brodie distract people from the real work of Truth and Reconciliation.

“Brodie is clearly influenced by almost a decade of right-wing denialist material being circulated, and she’s obviously regurgitating it as I would point out other BC conservatives have done, including John Rustad,” Carleton said.

“We’re seeing denialism move from the extreme far right into the mainstream political right. They are legitimizing it as a way of speaking to their base, telling them what they want—that reconciliation is a fraud and they’re fomenting this sort of anti-Indigenous hatred and dressing it up as just asking questions.”

Carleton warns this is why it is important that the strategies and tactics being used by the right need to be appropriately called out, so they can’t be further exploited by denialists. 

“The more that well-meaning people are criticizing Brodie for the wrong thing, it makes the wrong thing grow. This is how misinformation and disinformation spreads.”

Grand Chief Phillip adds this is why the real work of Truth and Reconciliation requires people to combat statements being perpetuated by far-right political figures in BC.

“It’s up to the individual rank and file British Columbians and Canadians to stand up and speak out against these very hurtful and damaging and dishonest statements and set the record straight.”