Hope-area First Nation chief says he’s willing to go to jail over residential school bill/views

HOPE – Chawathil First Nation Chief Aaron Pete says he’s willing to go to jail after a Senate human rights committee passed an amendment that would jail people whose statements promote “hatred” by downplaying the impacts of residential schools.

According to IPolitics, a Canadian political news site, senators on a human rights committee voted this past week to modify the federal Liberal government’s anti-hate bill and criminalize residential school denialism. The amendment from Nunavut Sen. Nancy Karetak-Lindell’s passed during a clause-by-clause study of Bill C-9 on Monday (June 1), with only one senator voting against the change.

Karetak-Lindell said the amendment was necessary because of growing anti-Indigenous racism, violence and rhetoric surrounding the enduring harms of Indian residential schools.

Chawathil FN Chief Pete, a graduate of the Allard School of Law at UBC who hosts a popular online podcast, has a different take on the amendment. He’s known for interviewing people across the political spectrum, from B.C. Green Leader Emily Lowan to current Premier David Eby and on to former B.C. Conservative Party leader John Rustad. He’s a firm believer that it’s OK to hear a diverse range of informed opinions.

For perspective on the residential school issue, he says his grandmother Rita Pete went to St. Mary’s Indian Residential School and endured terrible abuse.

“As a consequence, she struggled with alcohol use most of her life,” Chief Pete posted on X/Twitter Tuesday, June 2. “My mother was born with FASD as a consequence of her using alcohol to cope with her trauma. I am Chief of my community Chawathil First Nation. I am working to address the longstanding impacts of these past policies through renovating homes, building new homes, creating childcare, and growing businesses through economic development.”

At the same time, Chief Pete says he has interviewed people who were extremely harmed by residential schools as well as those who attended these same schools and emerged with a more complicated view on things.

“I have interviewed people who went to Indian Residential Schools. I have interviewed people who believe Indian Residential Schools were awful, horrible schools, meant to remove the Indian from the child. I’ve also interviewed people who believe they were well intended, generous investments by Canadian taxpayers meant to assimilate a society and had shortcomings,” Chief Pete said. “Like with many things, the history is dark, complicated, and with any policy that existed for a long time, across a whole country – there were different experiences. No one story tells us everything. No report shares the full experience of the individuals who went. No commentator today can disprove someone’s lived experience with statistics.”

He says the path forward is not to criminalize speech, questions, or debate.

“The path forward is empathy for past attendees. The path forward is truth based on facts,” Chief Pete said. “The path forward is real conversations. The path forward is to lean into complexity. If the government criminalizes this, then I will be a criminal for having these conversations. If I am a criminal by the laws definition, then I am committed to going to jail over this.”