Uh, Niigaan, what was it about, uh, some of these, uh, other people's stories that, uh, you wanted to include in this?

So to tell the story of residential school, um, you need to have firsthand the survivors of the schools.

We have those.

Um, we have those who were directly impacted by the schools.

Those who are members of our families and our communities.

That's people like myself and many, uh, intergenerational survivors that exist in the book.

And then what you have is individuals who have spent decades, almost all of their career, studying the issue of residential schools, um, in, uh, you know, overviewed, credentialed institutions, uh, and are subject to vigorous peer review, uh, elements of every part of their work.

Uh, aside from not voting for these individuals, uh, what should society's response be here?

Sean, is that something you would support?

Well, I mean, I think we need to start, actually, with why the Liberal government decided not to include residential school denialism in a bill that is about combating hate and racism, knowing how, uh, severe residential school denialism has become.

Um, despite their, you know, efforts, uh, to say that they're, they want to challenge it, didn't include it in the bill in the first place.

And I mean, I know that there is a lot of, um, discussion about whether this is the right move, um, and, and a lot of people will say it's an infringement on free speech.

Um, um, and, and Niigaan and I have actually, uh, explained how, um, criminalization of, of Holocaust denialism, for example, hasn't necessarily been the most effective way o- of challenging it.

So there's lots of different arguments, but I think what is important in this conversation is that currently, um, in, in 2022, the Conservatives, um, introduced a private member's bill that then got picked up by the Liberals, um, to criminalize Holocaust denialism, right? The willful downplay, uh, minimization of a genocide far away a long time ago.

Um, and this has created a situation where the willful downplay, denial, um, minimization of a genocide much more recently in our own backyard, um, is fine, and this has created, I think, a legal imbalance that many Indigenous, uh, leaders, um, and legal experts have pointed out and called for the Canadian government to address, and I think that's, you know, in short, why we're here.

Sean, can you walk us through that?