Premier Wab Kinew told CBC Manitoba’s Marcy Markusa that he respects MP Leah Gazan but believes denialism should be met with education, not criminalisation. He said the province should continue teaching the truth and combat misinformation.

Indigenous leaders quickly pushed back. Hilda Anderson‑Pyrz, president of the National Family and Survivors Circle, said Kinew’s comment “creates further harm” for residential‑school survivors and called for accountability mechanisms. The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs posted that it was “extremely disappointed” with the premier’s stance.

Leah Gazan, the NDP MP for Winnipeg Centre, has introduced a private‑member bill that would add residential‑school denialism to the Criminal Code, mirroring the existing Holocaust‑denial provisions. The proposal would make it illegal to condone, deny, justify or minimise the residential‑school system in any public statement beyond a private conversation.

The bill has not yet reached a second reading in Parliament, meaning it is still in the early stages of the legislative process. Gazan argues that education alone is insufficient and that criminalisation is needed for “extreme cases” where powerful figures spread misinformation.

From the 1830s until 1997, roughly 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were taken to residential schools across Canada. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has documented more than 4,000 deaths among those children, underscoring the system’s devastating legacy.

The debate matters because it pits two approaches to historic injustice: education versus legal penalties. For survivors, the outcome could affect how quickly harmful denialism is stopped and how the law recognises their suffering, shaping future Canadian policy on Indigenous rights.