Photos of handmade signs in the yard of a suburban Winnipeg home are now in the hands of the Winnipeg police’s hate crimes unit.
The signs dismiss the harms caused by residential schools, reconciliation, denounces the “gay agenda,” and the orange shirt movement which, according to the signs, is a “terrorist entity.”
“I do not support reconciliation or the infantalization (sic) of Indian people”, “The orange shirt movement is a terrorist entity that burns churches, tears down statues, and hides behind murdered kid (sic). Lies”, as well as “I do not support the gay agenda or the sexualization of kids and school libraries”.
The third sign’s message spills over into the so-called ‘parental rights’ movement, which aims to ban schools from offering 2SLGBTQ+ books in their libraries and to prevent students from being taught about 2SLGBTQ+ rights and sexual education in the classroom – among other things.
The signs have Lee Gott wondering where the line between free speech ends and hate speech begins.
“I was taken aback and said like, ‘wow, this is still happening,’” said Gott, a day school survivor who contacted APTN News about the signs. “It did affect me.”
Gott, a member of Pine Creek First Nation in Manitoba, had many relatives who attended residential schools including an aunt and two uncles who disappeared and never returned home.
He says he grew up hearing their stories of abuse suffered at the genocidal institutions and struggles with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder himself due to his experience in day school – institutions where students went home at the end of class unlike residential schools where students lived on the premises for months at a time.
He says the signs diminish their experiences, and wonders if the statements constitute a hate crime.
“Feelings come up like, who do they think they are?” says Gott, who believes the signs should be taken down.
He likens the signs’ rhetoric to holocaust denialism, an antisemitic conspiracy that believes the holocaust didn’t happen or wasn’t as bad as society is made to believe.
Denialism in Canada
Residential school denialism seems to be on the rise in recent years as steps toward reconciliation advance in the mainstream.
But despite the federal government’s apology in 2008 for its part in creating the residential school system, publicly denying the atrocity happened is not currently an offence in the criminal code like it is for denying the holocaust, a genocide which saw millions of Jews murdered.
NDP MP Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre) is hoping to amend the criminal code with her private member’s Bill C-413 which would have residential school denialism included as a hate crime.
The change would target anyone “willfully misrepresenting well-documented historical facts to promote hate against Indigenous people and very more specifically with the intention of targeting survivors, families, and communities,” says Gazan.
If passed, a person guilty of publicly promoting denialism could be imprisoned for up to two years.
This includes willfully condoning, downplaying, or justifying the residential school system.
Private conversations like table talk between friends are not included, but Gazan says it’s up to the courts to determine where each case may fall.
“The reason why we need the bill – there’s growing extremism in the country. There’s growing hate movements in this country … Survivors, families, and communities have a right to be protected from hate,” says Gazan, who has both First Nations and Jewish ancestry.
Signs still up a week later
Gott calls the signs “offensive” but according to Winnipeg’s mayor, the signs don’t violate city by-laws.
In a statement to APTN News, Scott Gillingham did not directly acknowledge the signs but said in part, “Residential schools were real, and a dark part of Canada’s history. Their devastating impact is still felt today. Denying or minimizing this truth only deepens the harm and slows the path to healing.”
APTN reached out to the Winnipeg Police Service for comment but did not hear back before this story was published other than to say the information about the signs were forwarded to their hate crimes unit.
We tried to ask the homeowners on two occasions why they posted the signs, but left twice without a response.
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As for Gott, he thinks the family should be spoken to and perhaps even invited to a pow-wow or other event to learn more about Indigenous peoples and their history.
“We’re good people,” says Gott.
He proudly shares his message of ‘Every Child Matters’ with his own yard sign and an orange shirt hung near his front door.
“I was ashamed of being an Indian at one time but now today, you know, I have long hair,” he says, referencing IRS students having their braids cut off by nuns as an act of forced assimilation.
“I’m proud of who I am, being an Anishinaabe. And I can stand up and speak.”
