“One of the worst aspects of totalitarian societies is the pressure exerted on individuals to betray and ultimately denounce friends, relatives, even their own parents or spouse. This odious practice is now being demanded by some Canadian ‘Indigenous’ leaders and local activists in a northern B.C. town – under the guise of “reconciliation”. The crime? A prominent local woman purchased an ‘unapproved’ book and dared to suggest that a few acquaintances read it. Now her husband – the local Mayor, who had nothing to do with it – is being pressured not only to resign his office but to denounce his own wife for her thought-crime.”

–C2C Journal

These councillors should have tried reading the book before making complete virtue-signalling fools of themselves:

“Councillors in Quesnel, B.C., voted unanimously to censure their Mayor, saying his actions related to a book that denies the harms of Canada’s residential school system {which it doesn’t} have jeopardized the city’s relationship with ‘Indigenous’ {sic, Aboriginal} communities.

“A report to council said Mayor Ron Paull “attempted to distribute” a copy of the book – titled “Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools)” – at a Cariboo Regional District board meeting where he was representing the city.

https://www.amazon.ca/Grave-Error-Misled-Residential-Schools/dp/B0CP465ZPP

“Paull denied “distributing” the book and told Tuesday’s meeting that his work on advancing reconciliation with ‘Indigenous Peoples’ is a matter of public record.

“Prior to the votes, the mayor read a letter saying he brought his wife’s copy of the book to a Cariboo Regional District meeting and showed it to two colleagues in the context of wondering what the district’s library might do with it.

“Paull said he would give those “launching this charge” against him “the benefit of the doubt”, adding “this is all based on a misunderstanding”. He said one of his colleagues claimed he had referred to the book as a “good read”, but he has not read it so he couldn’t have made such a direct statement.

“I do recall, however, saying that according to the online reviews of the book, many reviewers noted the book as a ‘good read’,”

Paull said in his letter to council.

“The mayor apologized for “picking the wrong book” {?} to bring to the regional district meeting in nearby Williams Lake, B.C., saying he “didn’t mean any harm”.

“The book’s editors introduce it as a response to “moral panic unleashed” after the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc ‘First Nation’ {a ‘nation’ of 1,463 people} announced in May 2021 that it had identified what it believed to be the unmarked graves of more than 200 children at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

{A claim for which not a shred of evidence has yet – 3 years later – to be produced!}

“The revelation from the ‘First Nation’ {Indian Band} sparked a countrywide awakening about some of the darkest chapters in Canada’s history.

{No, it sparked – excuse the pun – the torching and vandalizing of over 80 Canadian churches, with NOTHING in the way of graves actually being produced… Never mind the loud and endless virtue-signal posturing from people like the irresponsible Canadian Prime Minister. Quesnel Council’s actions are another example of this.}

“Quesnel council voted to pass the motion censuring the mayor after Paull left the room on Tuesday. The motion says he had “damaged the relationship” between the City and ‘Indigenous’ communities, including the Lhtako Dene ‘Nation’ {a ‘nation’ of 206 people}.

“It also says Paull’s actions were “disrespectful to the {unbalanced} history of residential schools” and contrary to the city’s goals of mutual respect and {one-way} ‘reconciliation’.

“The councillors then voted unanimously on a motion placing sanctions on the Mayor, including not allowing him to represent the city at the Cariboo Regional District and Northern Development Initiative Trust. Paull has also been removed from city committees, and his travel budget for conferences such as the Union of B.C. Municipalities gathering has been suspended.

“The council agreed to revisit the sanctions in 90 days.

“Speaking in favour of censuring the mayor, Coun. Laurey-Ann Roodenburg said Paull’s actions carry potential financial consequences for the city. Quesnel has received money from the province after agreeing to ‘Indigenous’ engagement requirements related to emergency and disaster management, she said, and if they city can’t fulfil its responsibilities, it would have to return the funds.

“She noted the Lhtako Dene ‘Nation’ has passed a resolution saying it would continue working with city councillors, but it would no longer work with the Mayor, who has been banned from entering the ‘nation’s {claimed, former} ‘territory’ unless he is invited.

{Charter Mobility Rights?}

“The resolution, dated April 17, 2024, says Paull condoned the distribution of the book that implies “cultural genocide did not happen” at residential schools.

“The agenda for Tuesday’s council meeting also includes a transcript of remarks by Lhtako Dene Chief Clifford Lebrun from a meeting earlier in April, where elders and other members of the ‘nation’ {Band} voiced their concerns about the situation.

“This definitely hurts our people”, {?}

the transcript said.

“Not just the ‘survivors’ {the Aboriginal Industry pejorative for ‘former students’} that have to relive it again and wounds that have just been healed a little bit from the findings”,

he said, referring to the {unfounded, unproven} ‘revelations’ {lies?} about unmarked graves in residential school sites across Canada.

“A report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission detailed the emotional, physical and sexual abuse of {some} children at {some of} Canada’s residential schools. The commission has documented at least 4,100 deaths at the institutions.

“Canada had more than 130 residential schools, with the last one closing in 1996.”

–‘Quesnel, B.C., censures mayor, saying his actions jeopardize Indigenous relations’,

Brenna Owen, Canadian Press, May 02, 2024

https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/quesnel-b-c-censures-mayor-saying-his-actions-jeopardize-indigenous-relations/

Background:

“There are growing calls for Quesnel Mayor Ron Paull to resign after revelations his wife has been handing out a book that, according to promotional material from its publisher, questions whether residential schools were fundamentally harmful to ‘Indigenous’ communities and people who attended them.

“More than 200 people marched outside city hall Tuesday evening before packing into an emotionally-charged council meeting in the city of roughly 23,000 people, located in B.C.’s Cariboo region about 400 kilometres north of Vancouver.

…

“The meeting also heard from the mayor’s wife, Pat Morton, and one of the authors featured in the book who had travelled to Quesnel to speak to council.

https://youtu.be/BVUhy3reeTc

“The controversy is a blow to {one-way} ‘reconciliation’ efforts, which have been at the forefront of city business. Council began a process of working with the Lhtako Dene in 2015, formally acknowledging them as ‘partners’ on whose {former claimed} land the city was built. In the years since, it has taken other steps toward what it calls “true reconciliation“, which include restoring ownership {?} of a downtown park to the ‘First Nation’ {Extended Family}

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/quesnel-reconciliation-lhtako-dene-park-1.5027336

and being the first city to officially co-host the B.C. Winter Games with an ‘Indigenous’ community earlier this year.

…

“In publicity material for the book, publishers True North and Dorchester Books say statements that residential schools traumatized ‘Indigenous’ people across generations and destroyed ‘Indigenous’ languages and culture are either “totally false or grossly exaggerated“. It also promises to {and does} challenge the notion that ‘Indigenous’ people were forced to attend residential schools, and whether the residential school system can appropriately be defined as ‘genocide’.

…

“One of the criticisms in ‘Grave Error’ is that a number of early media reports referred to these {“mass grave”} sites as unmarked graves without including context that they were unconfirmed, which the authors say have helped shape a false public narrative…

“There is no evidence of unmarked graves“,

Widdowson told council, a statement she repeated as people in the gallery started to drown her out with drumming {They were not evicted from the premises}.

“Does council support misinformation?“

“In response, Coun. Laurey-Anne Roodenburg pointed out Widdowson had been fired from Mount Royal University in Calgary after espousing the benefits of residential schools.

{Because providing documented historical balance and perspective is now a crime at some so-called ‘academic’ institutions…}

“You really have no place here“,

Roodenburg told Widdowson.

“We really don’t want to hear from you.“

“Roodenburg was one of three councillors, along with Scott Elliot and Tony Goulet, who formally asked Paull to resign during the meeting.

“Mr. Mayor, you have lost the trust of our ‘First Nations’ {Indians}, myself, and the vast majority of our community“,

Elliot said.

“I have no choice but to ask for your official resignation, so we can repair the ‘damage’ done by you and your wife.“

“Elliot and Goulet accused the Mayor of handing out the book at a local government meeting, a charge that Paull denied, saying he had simply brought it up during a discussion of what books should or should not be available at a local library.

{And it most certainly SHOULD be available at the local library…}

“I have not distributed the book“,

he said.

“If you’re going to accuse me of a lie, I’m going to fire right back at you because you lied. “

…”

–‘Calls grow louder for B.C. mayor to resign over residential school book incident’,

Betsy Trumpener & Andrew Kurjata, CBC News, Apr. 05, 2024 Updated: April 6

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/quesnel-residential-school-report-1.7163588

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

“Dear Quesnel, BC, Councillors

“I have just read a CBC report and viewed a video of the April 2, 2024, Quesnel Council meeting where the book, “Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools)” was discussed. It is the most disturbing municipal council meeting I have witnessed in years. Every principle of decency, decorum and democracy was ruthlessly eviscerated by mob behavior abetted by a complicit council.

https://youtu.be/BVUhy3reeTc

“I am not going to comment on the book, itself. That is a separate topic. What I wish to address is the appalling, anti-democratic process I witnessed at the meeting.

“The bias of the chair and council was astounding. Numerous spokespeople for the anti-book side were given unlimited time to pontificate about anything they wished — including an attack on people’s skin colour — while the two lone speakers trying to explain or defend the book were told they could only ask one question and, even then, were cut off and drowned out by boos, hoots, cat-calls, and even drumming, by an uncontrollable mob. There was no effort by the councillor chairing the meeting to be fair and to intervene and halt this annihilation of the democratic process.

“When an unruly, intimidating gang can selectively shut down certain speakers and eliminate rational dialogue at a council meeting, democracy has officially succumbed to tyranny.

“Councillors were complicit in this naked assault on unfettered discourse by constantly shouting out “Point of Order” over and over every time they heard something they did not like from the two victimized speakers. Having served on two municipal councils, I can tell you that a point of order requires the chair to rule on it. The chair failed to rule on these points of order, instead letting the councillors continually raise and use them to interrupt the two speakers. “Points of order” were not raised against the anti-book speakers although they, by far, failed to adhere to the rules of engagement and strayed all over the place. You folks need to read “Robert’s Rules of Order”, which is the go-to guide for running a formal council meeting. You have no idea how to properly run a meeting.

“Forgive my impudence, but I like to hear all sides of an issue and then decide for myself what is truth and what is not. I don’t want a swarm of hooting, hollering hellions forcing me to hear only their viewpoint.

“I would have been far more impressed with councillors and the mob had they specifically pointed to pages in the book to demonstrate what was in error — assuming that is the case. Then, I would have actually learned something. That’s how you deal with views with which you disagree. You challenge them. You destroy the errors with logic. You don’t destroy free speech itself by engaging in character assassination and refusing to listen to the other side. As the cleric Martin Luther once put it: You don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. But on April 2, that is exactly what Quesnel councillors did.

“Particularly incomprehensible is the fact that some councillors have denounced the book without even reading it. When ignorance is a prelude to action, society is truly doomed.

“By allowing and contributing to this abhorrent behaviour, you did much more than take away the right of two people to speak. You took away everyone’s right to hear. That is the compound injustice that takes place when free speech is guillotined.

“It does not matter what side of an issue you are on — the values of good manners and democratic principles should be maintained. That’s how democracy works. That’s how a council meeting should work.

“I was brought up with the fast-fading value that free speech is the underpinning of democracy and when it falls, democracy falls. People have a right to be heard even if you disagree with them. I refer you to a quote/paraphrase of an old saying, variously attributed to both French author/philosopher Voltaire and English author Evelyn Beatrice Hall:

“I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

“The right to hold opinions with which others disagree — and the moral obligation of every democratically-minded person to safeguard that right — is the lifeblood of democracy. Those who take a hatchet to that vital vein of freedom are deserving of the utmost contempt.

“Quesnel’s protocols and policies allow people to come and address council. But Councillor Laurey-Anne Roodenburg — after casting aspersions on Professor Frances Widdowson’s background and credentials — compounds her offence by telling Widdowson:

“You really have no place here. We really don’t want to hear from you”.

“Councillor Roodenburg, I have viewed your LinkedIn profile and while I respect your background as a “retail clerk” at “Suzanne’s” clothing store for nine years (the only real work experience I could find on your profile, outside of politics), let me politely suggest that a long-time university professor such as Widdowson — imbued with doctoral credentials and years of professional, academic research into sociological matters — should at least be given the courtesy of equal standing to your own lived experience and the unparalleled wisdom you choose to grace us with. Let me put it more succinctly: In a democracy, your opinion is not the only one that matters.

“More to the point, if you did not want to hear Widdowson speak, why did you and your fellow councillors implicitly invite her by leaving her on the agenda and letting her come to the podium in the first place? Was it just a ruse to lure her into a public lynching? Shame on your contradictory behaviour (come and speak to us, but “we really don’t want to hear from you” and “you really have no place here”. Duh?)

“It’s a good thing hypocrisy isn’t painful or the screams coming out of the Quesnel council chambers would be loud enough to break eardrums.

“The other outrageously-objectionable behaviour at the meeting was the demand after demand after demand that the Mayor step down for something his wife did. She committed the heinous, unforgivable crime of circulating a book. (Never mind burning the book — or the witch — burn the witch’s husband.)

“This hateful illogic is a classic manifestation of sexism. But none of you spoke up to challenge this attack on equal rights for females. Instead, you toppled yet another pillar of democracy. The Mayor’s wife is not a slave. She is a person in her own right. She has a right to her own opinion. We are long past the days when a man can browbeat his wife into submission. But that is precisely what speaker after speaker implicitly demanded {Because that’s what happens in Aboriginal culture?}. And not one councillor challenged this sexism.

“Shame on all of you for taking us back to caveman days.

“The fact that this brutal act of patriarchy was carried out by several women speakers only demonstrate​s how the struggle for modern feminism launched in the 60s and 70s is being undermined by a brainwashing “woke” ideology that is so pernicious, it even blinds latter generations of women to their own self interest.

“In short, what I witnessed on April 2 was a disgraceful abandonment of every principle of sound municipal management and a profound betrayal of the public trust.

“The mob behaviour — shouting down speakers, casting aspersions on someone’s skin color (the accusation of “white” privilege that vomited from the mouth of more than one speaker), drums beating, hooting, hollering — all made the council meeting look more like a Ku Klux Klan rally than a rational exercise in democratic process. You people have totally abdicated your responsibility as faithful guardians of our public institutions.

“Quesnel Council’s rudeness, contradictory behavior and disregard for fundamental democratic concepts is beyond distasteful — it is frightening. It is frightening because such vicious intolerance of dissenting views is becoming all too commonplace in far too many of our Canadian institutions.

“These outrages in word and deed by Quesnel Council are so massive and blatant that they can only be explained by understanding the myopic, self-induced sense of false virtue that is typical of all true-believer zealots who labour under the self-delusion that they, and they alone, are the repository of absolute truth. In sociological terms, we call this “fanaticism”.

“It is profoundly ironic that those who claim to be champions of “inclusivity” are the very ones who denounce, demean, deny and “exclude” anyone who disagrees with them.

“Frankly, councillors, people like you — those who would commit ‘genocide’ against free speech — are today’s greatest threat to democracy and our liberal democratic way of life.”

​Sincerely,

Robert Roth

(Robert Roth is a retired newspaper editor and publisher and has held positions with a variety of news media, including the Toronto Star and Ottawa Citizen. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in sociology from York University and a Master’s degree in journalism/communications from Carleton University. He was the founding publisher of ‘Media Magazine’, the official publication of the Canadian Association of Journalists. He is also a former lecturer in journalism/communications/political science at Carleton, Algoma and Laurier universities. In addition, he was a councillor and deputy reeve in two Ontario municipalities for a total of 10 years of elected municipal service.)

–‘An Open Letter to Municipal Councillors of Quesnel, BC’,

Woke Watch Canada Newsletter, APR. 08, 2024

https://wokewatchcanada.substack.com/p/an-open-letter-to-municipal-councillors

‘Frances Widdowson and the Quesnel Mob’

“There’s terrible censoriousness that’s happening in Quesnel, and people are punishing people for discussing this book.”

–Frances Widdowson, comment during CBC interview

“My last update on the Quesnel file was on Tuesday. Professor Frances Widdowson who, like me, is one of the authors of the controversial book, “Grave Error”,

https://www.amazon.ca/Grave-Error-Misled-Residential-Schools/dp/B0CP465ZPP

was on her way to attend the Quesnel City Council meeting, and hopefully say a few words in defense of our book.

{“Read ‘Widdowson Takes Quesnel to get up to speed’:

https://wokewatchcanada.substack.com/p/widdowson-takes-quesnel }

“The Quesnel council meeting was held yesterday. It was an embarrassing and shocking clown show. It was the inspiration for the title of this piece: “Empathy or Totalitarianism?” And it is clear from the video of the meeting (https://youtu.be/BVUhy3reeTc ) that toxic levels of ‘woke’ empathy and broken thinking have saturated public institutions across the country, and taken on a totalitarian character. Quesnel’s city council is the epitome of this.

“At 1:20 minutes, Frances’ time begins. Her question concerned the claim of the discovery of unmarked graves in Kamloops, BC, which had been discussed without challenge at the previous council meeting:

“Does the council concern itself with misinformation? Does it oppose misinformation being spread and entered into the record?”

–Frances Widdowson

“The council did not provide an answer. It is obvious to anyone who takes the time to watch this council meeting that the participants were terribly biased, disrespectful and unwelcoming. There was no interest in understanding the motivations of Pat Morton (the Mayor’s wife), the Mayor, Frances, or anyone critical of the claims of the Aboriginal Industry. And even though it has been made clear through various Canadian media that the book is a bestseller, there is no interest in its contents, only in denouncing it.

“For over an hour, the council permitted various activists and ‘indigenous’ {sic} leaders to speak freely for as long as they liked. Many of them spoke emotionally and aimlessly at length. They were not interrupted, and were offered every indulgence to express themselves – one of them even spoke in an ‘indigenous’ language that no one in the room could understand.

“However, when Pat Morton and Frances had their turn to speak, the rules and the tone changed dramatically. All of sudden, a strict adherence to a ‘one question’ rule was enforced. The other gallery members in attendance and the city councilors themselves were openly hostile to Pat and Frances. It was a disgrace, and extremely difficult to watch an admired colleague and friend treated so disrespectfully.

“During a segment where an ‘indigenous’ person was questioning the Mayor, an unidentified speaker from the gallery can be heard saying, obviously referring to Pat Morton:

“Mess up your wife a little”.

“The situation in Canada has turned into an alarming totalitarian catastrophe entirely hostile to our liberal democratic tradition. I commend Frances Widdowson for once again shining a much needed sliver of light on what has rapidly evolved into a dark and existential hour in Canadian history. In an email exchange with Frances earlier today, she had the following to say:

“I have concerns about how the pursuit of truth is under threat and the breakdown of democratic principles such as equality under the law.

“Besides the fact that Quesnel city councilors completely manipulated procedures to stop members of the public from questioning what they were doing, it seems to me that there are three main issues about “Grave Error” that have come to the surface:

“1. The May 2021 false claim that the remains of 215 children were found at Kamloops, and the continued acceptance of this (even by a CBC Associate Producer);

“2. How contesting the idea that the residential schools were genocidal is seen as arguing against gravity or for a flat earth (Sean Carleton, the Canadian Historical Association, etc.); and

“3. The refusal to accept that the residential schools provided educational benefits to students, even though some kind of “colonial” school system was necessary to educate pre-literate tribal societies.

“Of all of these issues, the Kamloops case is key, because the Politically Correct Totalitarians don’t care about the evidence; all they want to do is impose their own views on others and use anti-democratic measures to stop people from contesting them.

“We are in serious trouble. The emerging totalitarianism must be fought with everything that we have, before it is too late.”

“I share Frances’ concerns. There is an encroaching totalitarianism in Canada that is undeniable. The Quesnel City Council meeting was a Kafkaesque nightmare come to life. We are indeed in serious trouble.

“It is mind-boggling, the extent to which empathetic people have surrendered their critical thinking capacities over issues and narratives either dominated or imposed by the far-Left ‘Critical Social Justice’ totalitarians. ‘Indigenous’ issues in Canada – most notably anything that falls under the rubric of “reconciliation” – provides the most illustrative example of this trade-off between rational thinking and emotional outburst that has occurred within the psyches of too many Canadians who have fallen prey to the ‘Critical Social Justice’ mind virus.

“On Monday, Frances was interviewed by a “she/her” CBC journalist named Jordan Tucker. I mention that Tucker’s a “she/her” not because her “she-her”-ness isn’t obvious to anyone who sees her head-shot or hears her feminine voice during one of her interviews, but because the inclusion of this obvious-to-anyone-with-half-a-brain information is meant to signal that Jordan Tucker is a ‘woke’ maniac…

“By all means, formulate a defense of Jordan Tucker and the brainwashed ‘progressives’ {‘regressives’}, corrupt ‘indigenous’ leaders, genuflecting activists, and every sort of disingenuous, self-interested participant in the embarrassing circus that has been unfolding with steadily-increasing intensity since the publication late last year of “Grave Error”. If my colleagues or I have gone too far in any of our statements, or if we are incorrect in any of our claims, please hold us to account, and demand we correct the record. For the sake of truth, this is imperative.

“At times, I can’t help but feel that I must not be correct in my extreme condemnation of so many people (who the “Grave Error” co-authors and myself claim are spreading misinformation), I must have something wrong, some fact or argument I have not yet considered. The same must also be true of my colleagues. We simply must all have missed the plain and simple truth that the Quesnel city councilors, and the mob who attended the meeting, can see clear as day. What hurts the most, is that they can see this profound and unanswerable truth without the benefit of countless hours of the type of work engaged in by Frances, and researchers like Nina Green, and other writers associated with the IRSRG.

https://irsrg.ca/

“I’m the first to admit that it sounds like what my colleagues and I write about is a conspiracy (even though many of us repeatedly state we feel that the “Aboriginal Industry” is not a conspiracy, but a set of processes involving mostly well-intentioned people, and some self-serving people, which has corrupted the reconciliation that so many Canadians desire). But facts and evidence, of which “Grave Error” is not short of supply, matter far more than the emotions of hysterical people who have decided an issue has been decided, even though most of the details of that issue make little sense. As Frances wrote, they have equated criticism of the claims of “Truth and Reconciliation” – or of unsubstantiated, unmarked, clandestine graves of murdered ‘indigenous’ children – with being a “flat-earther”.

“There is a hysteria aimed at suppressing the truth. Anyone who criticizes the rhetoric of “Truth and Reconciliation”, or challenges the claim that residential schools were genocidal, is immediately branded a “residential school denialist”. Thanks to soulless activist-academics, and traitors to Canada’s founding ancestors – like Sean Carleton, and his ridiculous writings, interviews, and social media blather – further confusion and fuel to the fire has clouded the issue to an impenetrable opaque. This leaves ‘indigenous’ people – who are essentially being used by people like Carleton and others who benefit from their perpetual marginalization and suffering – left to languish indefinitely while the activist class advance their careers. Some, like Carleton, publish writings in esteemed academic journals, and make many appearances in prestigious mainstream media.

“The Tyee’s Amanda Follett Hosgood had her say earlier today:

https://thetyee.ca/News/2024/04/05/Quesnel-Mayor-Residential-School-Denialism/#edit-6429266541

“However, the best part of Hosgood’s hogwash was a comment by “Grave Error” co-editor Chris Champion. Here is his comment:

“As a co-editor of “Grave Error” (which has several chapter authors, of whom I am not one) I must correct at least one of several solecisms in this article by Ms Hosgood.

“She states that ‘The book makes the incorrect claim that survivors’ stories about Indian residential schools … are

“either totally false or grossly exaggerated.”’

“The book does not make any such claim and this, I think, shows quite clearly that Ms Hogwood has not read the book.

“Instead she misquotes promotional material at https://www.amazon.ca/Grave-Error-Misled-Residential-Schools/dp/B0CP465ZPP and manipulated it inaccurately. Here is the direct quote:

“Public discussion of Indian Residential Schools issues is now filled with the following assertions, all of which are either totally false or grossly exaggerated:

-Thousands of “missing children” went away to residential schools and were never heard from again.

-These missing children are buried in unmarked graves underneath or around mission churches and schools.

-Many of these missing children were murdered by school personnel after being subjected to physical and sexual abuse, even outright torture.

-The carnage is appropriately defined as genocide.

-Many human remains have already been located by ground-penetrating radar, and many more will be found as government-funded research progresses.

-Most Indian children attended residential schools.

-Those who attended residential schools did not go voluntarily but were compelled to attend by federal policy and enforcement.

-Attendance at residential school has traumatized Indigenous people, creating social pathologies that descend across generations.

-Residential schools destroyed Indigenous languages and culture.

“These bulleted points are all, as “Grave Error” demonstrates,

“either totally false or grossly exaggerated.”

“There are other inaccuracies but I shall leave it there. The author, Ms Hosgood, should read the book.”

“I agree with Chris but would add, EVERYONE should read “Grave Error”, because Canadians have been misled for too long, and the totalitarians are here – they are taking over! This is code red, the eleventh hour, but there is still time to correct this grave error and catastrophe caused by the radical woke totalitarian subverters and our terribly incompetent, weak and pathetic leaders.”

–‘Empathy or Totalitarianism?’,

WOKE WATCH CANADA AND JAMES PEW, APR. 05, 2024

https://wokewatchcanada.substack.com/p/empathy-or-totalitarianism

See also:

‘Canada’s Most Dangerous Book: How Quesnel, B.C. Went Crazy Over a Local Woman’s Reading Choices’,

Tom Flanagan, C2C Journal, April 18, 2024

https://c2cjournal.ca/2024/04/canadas-most-dangerous-book-how-quesnel-b-c-went-crazy-over-a-local-womans-reading-choices/

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

More Background:

“There have been growing calls for Quesnel, B.C. Mayor Ron Paull to resign following the discovery that his wife had been handing out free copies of “Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools)”, an essay collection edited by authors C.P. Champion and Tom Flanagan, a huge Amazon bestseller jointly published by True North and Dorchester Books.

“Over 200 people marched outside Quesnel city hall the evening of April 2 before many rushed into a raucous council meeting in this central B.C. city of some 23,000 people. Three city councillors, several ‘Indigenous’ {sic, Aboriginal} Bands, and some locals are demanding the mayor of Quesnel resign after his wife’s allegedly-hateful book distribution.

“The issue of the book’s contents and distribution were addressed during the council’s March 19 meeting, following a letter from the 191-member Lhtako Dene Indian Band {Actually, it’s now a ‘nation’ of 206 people} expressing outrage over having to defend the existence of the Indian Residential Schools or the findings of the ‘Truth’ and ‘Reconciliation’ Commission charged with reporting on the origin, operation, and legacy of the schools.

“No, that’s not a typo: this “First Nation” totals 191 people, not 191,000, not 19,100, not even 1,910, all living on ‘Turtle Island’, a locale just as fanciful as ‘Gilligan’s Island’.

“Even the Monty Python crew couldn’t have dreamed up a tragicomedy this bizarre {!}.

“The legacy media, acting as stenographers for the city council and ‘Indigenous’ activist ‘allies’, failed to mention that none of ‘Grave Error’s writers or two editors questioned the existence of the Indian Residential Schools or the poor experiences of some of its students, especially those sent there from broken or orphaned homes.

“No mention was made either in the many mainstream media stories covering this issue, including the latest Apr. 5 CBC report, that the ‘Truth’ and ‘Reconciliation’ Commission’s findings have been roundly criticized as biased, skewed, and unverified in scores of carefully researched articles since its 2015 final report was released.

(i.e. From Truth Comes Reconciliation”, a 2001 publication by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

https://www.amazon.ca/Truth-Comes-Reconciliation-Assessing-Commission/dp/0987895435/ )

“Nor is there any interest in the just-published and truthful views of the respected Catholic News Agency that:

“In the years since the purported discovery (215 unmarked graves on May 27, 2021), however, questions have been raised as to whether there truly is a mass grave at the site. No remains have ever been discovered on the Kamloops school grounds, and there are no apparent efforts underway to excavate the radar-indicated alleged graves.”

“Instead, all the focus has been on undocumented generalizations and emotional outbursts, such as those of members of the minuscule Lhtako Dene Indian Band and their Quesnel city council enablers.

“The book was unanimously denounced by Paull and the council at their March 19 meeting, when the council reaffirmed its relationship with the Lhtako Dene and formally accepted the findings of the ‘Truth’ and ‘Reconciliation’ Commission. In doing so, the Mayor figuratively pushed his wife under the bus, naively thinking that this would save his political hide, a cowardly conjugal betrayal now backfiring on him big time.

“Since few people on the other side appear to have given the book even a cursory glance, it was possible for Lhtako Dene Chief Clifford Lebrun to declare,

“We can no longer work with this Mayor, and we will not work with the City of Quesnel until (the) issue has been resolved”,

“Translation: Fire the Mayor or else face the wrath of our 191-person nation.

“We can’t have a community that hands out hate literature and expects people to listen to us and to take it seriously”,

he also said.

(Personal disclosure: I am the author of three ‘Grave Error’ essays and consider Chief Lebrun’s statement a libellous slur on my 50 years as a credentialed researcher and writer. Still, I take some consolation in knowing that writing truthfully about ‘Indigenous’ issues is like living inside a crazy Monty Python sketch, so I am trying to laugh, rather than cry, about this nasty labelling, a good enough reason to call the whole affair a tragicomedy.)

“The anger and despair expressed by those who appeared before the city council should not be dismissed as contrived, including Nazko Band Chief Leah Stump’s tearful address to councillors.

“We deserve better than having to come here to prove we went to residential schools, to prove that we were hurt and broken”,

she said.

“Yes, many genuine tears were shed by hurt people at the April 2 council meeting. But heartfelt emotion is not synonymous with solid empirical proof. What is misunderstood most is that after 1940, nearly all those enrolled in these boarding schools were the product of broken homes…a feature the residential schools were established to remedy. More particularly, the schools were an escape from these adversities because there were no orphanages or foster care services where they could be sent instead.

“That the book’s essays also employ well-documented historical accounts to successfully challenge the notion that ‘Indigenous’ children, other than those just referred to, were forced to attend residential schools is likewise incontestable. Nor is there a scintilla of verifiable evidence that the residential school system practiced genocide.

“Yes, there were tears and shouts aplenty from victims of what looks like mass hysteria, desperately trying to control what you and I can read and discuss — all of it in the name of a one-way “reconciliation” effort, in this case led by a 191-member Lhtako Dene Indian Band ostentatiously calling itself a “First Nation” in a deliberate but wrongheaded effort to subvert the legitimacy of the nation-state called Canada.”

–‘A Monty Python take on the Quesnel book banning’,

Hymie Rubenstein, Indian Residential Schools Research Group, April 9, 2024

https://irsrg.ca/articles/a-monty-python-take-on-the-quesnel-book-banning/

“Quesnel’s city council voted unanimously to denounce a book the Lhtako Dene ‘Nation’ says downplays the harms of residential schools, after the ‘First Nation’ and councillors raised concerns the mayor’s wife was distributing it to residents in the city about 630 kilometres north of Vancouver.

“Several copies of “Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools)” by C.P. Champion and Tom Flanagan have been circulated by Pat Morton, Mayor Ron Paull’s wife, city council members said in a meeting on Tuesday, after receiving a letter of concern about the issue from the ‘First Nation’.

“Morton did not respond to multiple requests for comment from CBC News.

“The Lhtako Dene ‘Nation’ {tiny Band} said statements in the book like “the truth has been turned into a casualty” deny the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by “implying that cultural genocide did not occur” in the residential school system.

“It just rips your stomach out“,

the ‘First Nation’s administrator Maynard Bara said on Wednesday.

“It’s just absolute bigotry and hatred.“

“Paull voted with the rest of the council {!?!} to denounce ‘Grave Error’ and to accept the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Tuesday night. A motion to reaffirm the city’s memorandum of understanding (MOU), which formalizes a collaborative relationship with the Lhtako Dene First ‘Nation’, was also approved unanimously. In addition, council accepted an invitation to visit the ‘First Nation’s longhouse to hear from Elders and residential school ‘survivors’ {former students}.

“In a social media post Tuesday night, Morton said that as the Mayor’s wife, she cares about truth and that there should be room for the “good stories” about residential schools.

“Paull said in Tuesday’s council meeting that he had not read the book. When pressed by Coun. Scott Elliott, Paull said he did not support his wife’s actions and that he doesn’t always agree with her.

…

“The ‘First Nation’ said many of its members ‘survived’ residential schools {learned to read and write} and continue to deal with its traumatic effects.

…

“The book also contests ‘findings’ of evidence {?} of unmarked graves at several residential schools across Canada in recent years.

…

“Coun. Tony Goulet, who is Métis {mixed-‘White’} and whose father is a residential school ‘survivor’, said Morton gave a copy of the book to his mother.

“It’s very, very, very traumatizing, it’s very, very, very disrespectful to an ‘Indigenous’ community and especially [an individual] to receive this book“,

Goulet said in an emotional statement to city council.

“And especially with my dad going through residential school … [Morton] brought up a lot of stuff.”

{The real irony is that they are only able to read what’s in the book because of the schools…}

“The book was also mailed to the Quesnel Board of Education, which denounced it in a Thursday news release.

…

“Tuesday’s motion is the second time city council has had to restate its commitment to the MOU due to Morton’s actions, Coun. Laury-Anne Roodenburg said during the meeting. Social media comments by Morton about the “good sides” of residential schools prompted the Lhtako Dene to write to Paull and city council on Nov. 1, 2022 shortly after he was elected, Roodenburg told CBC on Wednesday.

“‘Denialism’ is “the last step in genocide“,

according to Canada’s ‘independent’ {Aboriginal activist} ‘special interlocutor’ for missing children and unmarked graves associated with residential schools.

“Denialism is violence. Denialism is calculated. Denialism is harmful. Denialism is hate“,

Kimberly Murray said last June.

{She’s clearly a fanatic…}

…”

–‘Quesnel city council condemns controversial residential school book distributed by mayor’s wife’,

CBC News, Mar. 21, 2024

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/quesnel-b-c-mayor-book-1.7151371

“Dear Mr. Mayor and Council:

“It has come to our attention that a person related to a member of the City’s elected has been distributing a book entitled: “Grave Error – How The Media Misled Us (And The Truth About Residential Schools)”. This book makes many harsh comments including “truth has been turned into a casualty”, implying that ‘cultural genocide’ did not occur, and basically questioning the existence of Indian Residential Schools.

“The ‘Nation’ {a ‘nation’ of 206 people} should not have to defend the findings of the Truth And Reconciliation Commission, the T’Kemlups te Secwepem’c ‘First Nation’, and the Williams Lake ‘First Nation’ {a ‘nation’ of 996 people} (amongst others) that have been so severely castigated by the authors of the book. The calling into question of what our ‘Nation’ went through is a slap in our people’s collective faces and is very hurtful to them. The ‘Nation’ has a significant number of members who suffered through attendance at a Residential School and today suffer through the long-term trauma of what they went through. The book adds to that hurt.

“A major point made by the book is that “cultural genocide” did not occur at Residential Schools. “Cultural genocide” is defined by the Armenian Genocide Museum as:

“Acts and measures undertaken to destroy nations’ or other ethnic groups’ culture through spiritual, national, and cultural destruction”.

“In 2015, {irresponsible} Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin of the Supreme Court of Canada stated that Canada’s historic treatment of ‘Indigenous’ persons was an attempt at cultural genocide and the worst stain on the Canadian historic record. CULTURAL GENOCIDE DID OCCUR THROUGH PLACING ‘INDIGENOUS’ CHILDREN IN INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS!

{The schools that so many Chiefs demanded in Treaty negotiations. And they demanded them so that, in their own words, their children could ‘learn the White Man’s ways’.}

“We ask that the Mayor and Council reaffirm the terms of the Memorandum Of Understanding between the City and us. We would also appreciate the opportunity to have some of our Elders, who experienced Residential School attendance, meet with the Mayor and Council to provide first-hand knowledge of the treatment they were subjected to and ‘survived’.”

Yours truly,

Lhtako Dene ‘Nation’

–‘Lhtako Dene Nation calls out Quesnel councillor’s relative’,

Frank Peebles, Quesnel Cariboo Observer, Mar. 20, 2024

https://www.quesnelobserver.com/local-news/lhtako-dene-nation-calls-out-quesnel-councillors-relative-7331603

See also:

‘An Issue of Freedom of Speech‘ (Aboriginal Issues) {Feb.20, 2021}:

“At any given moment there is a sort of self-prevailing orthodoxy, a tacit agreement not to discuss some large and uncomfortable fact.”

– George Orwell

“The Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal establishments, for their own sometimes-selfish purposes — contrary to one of the most fundamental values of democracy: free and open debate on important public issues — have in effect declared a ban on free speech around this profound human rights issue…”

https://canadiansforlegalequality.wordpress.com/2021/02/20/an-issue-of-freedom-of-speech/

‘Teacher Cancelled For Telling The Truth’ (Abbotsford, B.C.) {Nov.9, 2022}:

“Canadian teacher gets cancelled for teaching truth about residential school deaths.”

(Video interview)”

https://endracebasedlaw.ca/2022/11/09/teacher-cancelled-for-telling-the-truth/

‘Tossed Out Of The Sandbox’ (Brock Professor) {August 21, 2018}:

“I have been driven over the edge by the systematic campaign over the last few years to blacken the reputation of our first and best prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, a campaign in which prominent aboriginals and some of their white ‘liberal’ fan club have played the predominant part.“

“Brock University has stripped a retired political science professor of his status as a ‘professor emeritus’, after he posted “intemperate and offensive” comments on social media deriding {some} ‘indigenous’ {actually, ‘aboriginal’} people…”

http://endracebasedlaw.ca/2018/08/21/tossed-out-of-the-sandbox/

‘Silencing Opposition’ (Law Society and Peter Best) {January 18, 2016}:

“Not a single word of his essay meets the Criminal Code criteria for “hate” speech or “incitement”, but the complainants…expressed the hope to the LSUC that Best would be “disbarred or suspended” unless he “completes a sensitivity training course and a Native Studies course”, as well as “apologiz(ing) for using his law practice to disseminate racist materials”.

https://endracebasedlaw.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/silencing-opposition

‘Cancel Culture Eats Itself’ (Victoria Theatre) {Mar.9, 2024}:

“A second play in Victoria has been cancelled after complaints that it puts too much focus on the voices of ‘oppressors’. “Sisters”, written by playwright Wendy Lill and staged by ‘Theatre Inconnu’, explores residential-school abuse. ‘Sisters’ received the Labatt’s Canadian Play Award at the Newfoundland and Labrador Drama Festival, and her TV adaptation of the play won a Gemini Award in 1992.”

https://endracebasedlaw.ca/2024/03/09/cancel-culture-eats-itself/

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