Quesnel city council condemns controversial residential school book distributed by mayor's wife

Quesnel's city council voted unanimously to de‐ nounce a book the Lhtako Dene Nation says down‐ plays the harms of residen‐ tial schools, after the First Nation and councillors raised concerns the may‐ or'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 Resi‐ dential 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 con‐ cern about the issue from the First Nation.

Morton did not respond to multiple requests for com‐ ment from CBC News.

The Lhtako Dene Nation 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 sys‐ tem.

"It just rips your stomach out," the First Nation's ad‐ ministrator 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 Rec‐ onciliation Commission on Tuesday night.

WATCH | Quesnel coun‐ cillor says book distribu‐ tion is disturbing:

A motion to reaffirm the city's memorandum of un‐ derstanding (MOU), which formalizes a collaborative re‐ lationship with the Lhtako Dene First Nation, was also approved unanimously. In addition, council accepted an invitation to visit the First Na‐ tion's longhouse to hear from Elders and residential school survivors.

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 residen‐ tial 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.

"You'd love to be a fly on the wall," he said in a Wednesday interview with CBC. "We get talking about things like First Nations, resi‐ dential schools, COVID and Donald Trump, but at the end of the day, we're best friends."

The book is 'very hurt‐ ful'

The First Nation said many of its members survived resi‐ dential schools and continue to deal with its traumatic ef‐ fects.

"The book adds to that hurt," Bara and other Lhtako Dene leaders wrote in a let‐ ter dated March 19 to Paull and the council.

The book also contests findings of evidence of un‐ marked graves at several res‐ idential schools across Cana‐ da in recent years.

"The calling into question of what our nation went through is a slap in our peo‐ ple's collective faces and it is very hurtful to them," they said in the letter.

WATCH | The full council discussion surrounding Grave Error book:

Coun. Tony Goulet, who is Métis and whose father is a residential school survivor, said Morton gave a copy of the book to his mother.

"It's very, very, very trau‐ matizing, it's very, very, very disrespectful to an Indige‐ nous community and espe‐ cially [an individual] to re‐ ceive 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 book was also mailed to the Quesnel Board of Edu‐ cation, which denounced it in a Thursday news release.

A picture of the First Na‐ tion's letter posted on social media by Elliott Tuesday evening has drawn more than 200 comments from community members, the vast majority of whom dis‐ agreed with Morton's actions.

Tuesday's motion is the second time city council has had to restate its commit‐ ment to the MOU due to Morton's actions, Coun. Lau‐ ry-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 short‐ ly after he was elected, Rood‐ enburg told CBC on Wednes‐ day.

Denialism is "the last step in genocide," according to Canada's independent speci‐ al interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves associated with resi‐ dential schools.

"Denialism is violence. De‐ nialism is calculated. Denial‐ ism is harmful. Denialism is hate," Kimberly Murray said last June.

On Wednesday, an inter‐ im report from an interna‐ tional group hired to provide advice on identifying and lo‐ cating the unmarked graves of children who attended res‐ idential schools said Canada should continue funding searches beyond 2025.

The report from the Inter‐ national Commission on Missing Persons, based in The Hague, also recom‐ mended Ottawa ratify the United Nations International Convention for the Protec‐ tion of All Persons from En‐ forced Disappearance.

An estimated 150,000 In‐ digenous children were forced to attend residential schools across Canada.

A national movement to find and commemorate un‐ marked graves began after ground-penetrating radar de‐ tected possible remains at the former Kamloops Resi‐ dential School in 2021.