Backlash as ad calls residential school harms a myth

SASKATOON • A radio ad airing in Saskatchewan is asking whether Canadians are being told the truth about residential schools.

The radio spot, which aired recently across multiple private radio stations, was made by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, a Winnipeg-based think-tank.

“We have been told that the residential school system deserves the blame for many of the dysfunctions in Indigenous society — abuse of alcohol and drugs, domestic violence and educational failures can all be blamed on the school system which did not finally end until the 1990s,” veteran Prairie broadcaster Roger Currie says in the ad.

Currie says it was a myth residential schools robbed Indigenous children of their childhood because the average stay was less than five years and the piece claimed most Indigenous children never went to the schools.

The two-minute-long spot also suggested it wasn’t true residential schools robbed Indigenous children of their language and culture, and disputes that the harm of residential schools was passed through generations.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard from more than 6,000 witnesses over six years and found that residential schools amounted to cultural genocide. Around 150,000 Indigenous children went to residential schools and it’s estimated around 6,000 children died.

Tammy Robert said she was shocked and appalled when she heard the spot on the radio while sitting a restaurant in small-town Saskatchewan. “In my mind, the implication of that piece is that residential school survivors and their families are lying, or at the very least exaggerating and not telling the truth,” said Robert, a communications specialist.

No one from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy agreed to be interviewed about the radio spot.

The commentary, posted on the centre’s website Sept. 14, was removed Monday afternoon after an online backlash. It was replaced by an edited print version of the comments and included a link to an essay published by the centre in August titled Myth versus Evidence: Your Choice by Mark Dewolf.

The Winnipeg radio station where Currie volunteers issued an apology Monday for any implied connection with the radio commentary. CJNU said it did not air the piece and is investigating.

Currie was paid for the voice work but had no editorial control, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy said in a written message.