When NDP MP Leah Gazan re-introduced her bill to make “residential school denialism” a criminal offence, she did so from a place of compassion. Her intent was to protect survivors from cruelty disguised as skepticism–to stop people from mocking the dead or trivializing one of Canada’s darkest chapters. But the debate her proposal has reignited goes beyond one bill. It cuts to the core of how a democracy handles truth, grief, and dissent.

Under Gazan’s proposal, an amendment to section 319 of the Criminal Code would make it illegal what the bill calls “condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying the Indian residential school system” — unless done in private conversation. The maximum penalty: two years in prison. The bill mirrors provisions in Canadian law that criminalize Holocaust denia

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