NDP push to declare residential schools a genocide defeated in House

An NDP bid calling on the government to recognize the residential school experienceas genocide has been rejected in the House of Commons.

Winnipeg CentreNDPMP LeahGazanoriginally pointed the finger at Conservative MP John Barlow for blocking unanimous consent to push the parliamentary motion forward.

The NDP later said some Liberals also voted against the motion, but party whip Mark Holland denied that and said only Conservatives said "nay."

"It is unfortunate that parliamentarians continue to deny the genocide that occurred in residential schools,"Gazansaid.

"There is no reconciliation in this country without truth. I will continue to work with leadership, Indigenous families, nations, survivors to push for justice."

Reached byCBCNews, Barlow declined to saywhether he yelled "nay."

Conservative Leader ErinO'Toole'soffice pointed to a commentO'Toole made last week acknowledgingthe residential school experience as cultural genocide.

The NDP says that, had themotion received unanimous consent,it would have shown Parliament's willingness to acknowledge genocide and couldhave hadimplications in residential school-related litigation.

Gazansaid shebelieves the residential school era meets the definition of genocide draftedby the United Nations, which describes it as an attempt "to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."

The UN definitioncites variousforms of genocide:killing members of a group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of agroup, deliberately inflicting conditions to bring about agroup's physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures to prevent births and forcibly transferring children from one group to another group.

Debate continues over use of word

Some experts disagree with using the word genocideto describe the residential school era.

Frank Chalk, a history professor and co-founder the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University, said hedoes not see evidence of criminalintent, which is required by theUN convention on genocide.

Instead, Chalk said, he sees evidence of criminal negligence in the attempt to strip Indigenous children of their languages and beliefs.

"All of those steps constitute part of what we call ethnocide the attempt to destroy a group's culture," Chalk said.

Chalk also said the debate over genocide distracts from work the federal government should be doing to advance Indigenous rights.

"If we quibble endlessly over the legal definition of genocide and how it applies to the victims of the residential schools, we will distract ourselves from concrete measures that we need today," Chalk said.

"The real issue is how do we institutionalize in the future ...respect for Indigenous cultures, land rights, clean environments and jobs, as they choose them,not as we choose them in the colonial sense."

Chalk said he prefers the term "cultural genocide", which was used by the commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)in their final report on residential schools.

'A different kind of genocide'

But Gazan said the word genocideneeds to be used because"cultural genocide"does not exist in international law.

Fannie Lafontaine, a law professor at the University of Laval who holds a Canada Research Chair on International Criminal Justice and Human Rights, agrees.

Lafontaine said the TRC didn't have a mandate to decide on legal liability and she believes the residential school experience should be recognized as a genocide.

"You can destroy a group by destroying its social fabric, its social unit, and I think this is what Canada has been doing across decades," Lafontaine said.

"Canada has committed a different kind of genocide."

Lafontaine said the definition of genocide is not limited tomassacres and can include events that occur over a long period of time. She pointed to the forcedtransfer of children from their families to residential schoolsas an example of a genocidal act.

Lafontainecontributed tothe 2019 legal analysis for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which concluded violence against Indigenous women and girls amounts to genocide.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeauused that wordafter he accepted the inquiry's final report and repeated it last week when the national action plan was released.

Lafontaine said there are legal consequences to the government acknowledging genocide consequenceswhich require full implementation of the inquiry's recommendationsand those ofthe Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

"It's structural change," she said."It's recognizing the damage that colonization has done and undoing that by giving back the power to Indigenous nations."