A majority of senators rejected an amendment by the Senate Human Rights Committee that would have made Indian residential school “denialism” a criminal offence.
A total of 41 senators voted against the amendment on June 3, while 32 senators voted in favour, and two abstained. Prior to the vote, Sen. Pierre Moreau, the government representative in the Senate, said there had been “online backlash” to the amendment, and that he would vote against it.
The proposed amendment to the Liberal government’s anti-hate legislation Bill C-9 said that any Canadian who “wilfully promotes hatred against Indigenous peoples by condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying the Indian residential school system” would be guilty of an indictable offence punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment, or could be prosecuted by summary conviction. The amendment would apply to statements made “other than in private conversation.”…