Please note this story may contain information that is triggering to readers. Survivors and those impacted by residential schools can call the 24-hour national Indian Residential School Crisis Line for support services: 1-866-925-4419. Support is also available through Hope for Wellness helpline at 1-855-242-3310 or at hopeforwellness.ca.
With the revelation that Sechelt Mayor John Henderson had a book at municipal hall that the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) has called “racist misinformation,” Sechelt’s six councillors endorsed a resolution rejecting residential school denialism Wednesday evening. They did so without the support of the mayor.
According to council discussion and Coast Reporter conversations with the mayor and councillors, in late January Henderson had Grave Error: How The Media Misled Us in municipal hall and was discussing it with senior staffers.
The collection of essays published last December, which accuses the media of perpetuating a false narrative of residential schools and questions the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, prompted controversy in Quesnel in March when it came to light that the mayor’s wife had been distributing the book to residents. The ensuing controversy saw the Quesnel council sanction the mayor and saw him banned from the local Lhtako Dene First Nation’s lands.
A letter from UBCIC dated Aug. 12, specifically addressed to the councils of Powell River, West Vancouver, Sechelt, Kamloops and Quesnel, as well as all B.C. municipalities, informs of a resolution unanimously endorsed by the UBCIC Chiefs Council in June. The resolution calls on all levels of government and the public to reject residential school denialism, to uphold the findings and reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), to implement the TRC’s 94 calls to action, to advance policies acknowledging and taking responsibility for the “history and harmful legacy of residential schools” and to support healing for survivors.
The UBCIC letter continues to say the organization “rejects any and all Residential School racist denialism and ardent dissemination of racist misinformation put forward by the authors of Grave Error – How the Media Misled Us and perpetuated by members of the public and elected officials.”
Asked for comment, a statement on behalf of shíshálh Nation Council said the Nation supports the UBCIC’s resolution.
The book in Sechelt
“I have read the book. I had it in council,” Henderson told Sechelt Council at their Sept. 4 regular meeting, “I have had it elsewhere.”
Henderson said he’s concerned that this book has been singled out, that he reads a lot of books, then listing several books by Indigenous authors.
Of Grave Error he said, “It's a series of essays, and I think it's an important thing to [read] because we – I, certainly – read to learn.”
“I think the assessment of the assertions in the letter are, frankly, worrying, [I think] that we should be encouraging people to read everything they want to read,” said Henderson. “It doesn't mean that I support all the claims or the comments in that book, or indeed in any other book, but I don't think it's acceptable for anybody to attempt to dictate what any individual can or cannot read.”
Henderson proposed responding to the letter thanking UBCIC for their views. He also said he has one or two members of shíshálh Nation prepared to accompany him to visit the chiefs of the UBCIC. “I think it's an important step in learning for all of us, because I could go on a great length about the complexities of reconciliation, but I think the first thing that we have to do is engage with each other.”
Councillors’ reactions
Councillors came out strongly against the book. “I have trouble reconciling how one can speak about reconciliation and then residential school denialism in the same breath,” said Coun. Brenda Rowe. “Nobody is saying you can’t read a book.
“You had it at municipal hall, discussing it with senior staff –– that's inappropriate in a community that you're leading with a First Nation neighbour and partnership, in my opinion,” Rowe told the mayor.
Coun. Darren Inkster said, “These are our neighbors but this is a shared community.” He pointed to the land acknowledgment on the agenda (but referenced that Henderson didn’t read the entire acknowledgment out loud at the top of the meeting) and that some see land within the community as unceded territory. “We can read whatever book we have, but [to] bring it into a public building, and to have it where it was and to present it to who it was, I just don't think it's appropriate.”
“I have a history interest, but I would never bring Mein Kampf around the District of Sechelt and the employees,” said Inkster.
Coun. Donna Bell encouraged Henderson to take up the opportunity to talk with his shíshálh friends and with UBCIC chiefs. “It would be good to hear the outcome of that, if it provides an opportunity for you to have a conversation and to be able to speak about how they feel in terms of why we're on this list.”
“We might have some damage control to do here,” said Bell. “It's important that I think we're all saying we don't support this. We don't support this book.”
Coun. Alton Toth pointed to the Sechelt strategic plan, which states among its values work with shíshálh Nation. “I haven't had this conversation with any of the members of shíshálh Nation Council and I'm not sure how to have this conversation with them,” said Toth. “Because I also don’t believe that the book belongs in municipal hall offices.”
He added, given that, through the CAO, Sechelt staff are council’s subordinates, “There's a power differential there, that I don't think it's appropriate to present such a book to them.”
“When you look at residential school damages, they're not our truth to tell,” said Toth. “Nobody at this table attended residential schools. It's not our truth to tell. It's not our truth to question. If somebody tells you that they hurt, you listen to them. You don't question them.”
Resolution endorsed
When councillors moved to endorse UBCIC’s resolution and send a copy of that support to shíshálh Nation, Henderson responded that this is a contentious issue in our communities. “We do need to focus on, how do we move forward, and we need to do that with information. We need to focus on activities that we can share in and have a win, win.”
“I have grave concerns at the moment that too many things are being held up that will benefit us. So we need to focus on building up our communities, improving opportunities, embracing mutual respect for everyone and creating prosperity for everybody,” said Henderson. “I think that that's far more important than getting locked into a debate about what is or isn't appropriate in the world.”
Henderson stated that he is not a residential school denier. “I'm not in favor of this motion because I think it frankly continues a process that we need to get past,” he said.
Noting that other councillors have not read Grave Error, he said, “If you haven't read the book, it's hard for me to understand how you can be critical of it.”
Support for UBCIC’s resolution passed six to one, with the mayor against.
Questioned by the audience
Janice Keuster, a Sechelt councillor from 2018 to 2022 and member of Spuzzum First Nation, addressed council during question period. “I'm appalled that this was brought into this community,” she said, asking the mayor, “what is your position on all the missing children that never came home?”
“To the extent there are children that are missing, I'd love to see them be brought home,” answered Henderson. “So if they are buried in cemeteries, graves or elsewhere, I think what we must do is find them and bring them home for a proper burial.”
Keuster brought her own reading material to offer councillors –– copies of Gladys We Never Knew: The life of a child in a BC Indian Residential School, about a girl who died attending a residential school and whose sister didn’t return home, which is taught in schools.
“As a member of this community, as a member of a nation, I'm absolutely appalled that [Grave Error] was brought into city hall and presented to staff,” she reiterated.
Francis Widdowson, a contributor to Grave Error, virtually attended the meeting and asked who on council had read the book. Only the mayor said he had read the book.
Rowe responded, “absolutely not. I don’t read Playboy either but I know what’s in it.”
Toth concurred, “I will not read the trash, I won’t even pirate it.”
When Widdowson countered, asking whether it was appropriate for councillors to take a position on a book they had not read, Rowe answered that she thinks, “It’s totally appropriate for me to take that stand.”
“I think this is an example of totalitarianism that is taking over city councils across British Columbia,” Widdowson answered.
UBCIC comment
In an emailed statement, UBCIC shared that the letter was sent to all B.C. municipalities and was specifically directed at several municipalities where the organization was “aware of discussions about residential school issues, denials of the history of the injustice of residential schools and actions contrary to the letter and spirit of reconciliation.”
“We hope that the Resolution will assist in discussions within those communities towards a greater understanding of the well-documented harms against Indigenous peoples and the importance of reconciliation,” said the statement.
Reached for comment, UBCIC president Grand Chief Stewart Phillip pointed to rising violence toward racialized peoples and the need to condemn such sentiments.
Asked if Sechelt was sent the letter because the book had been in the municipal hall, Phillip answered no. “Unfortunately, regretfully, it's much broader than that, insofar as racialized violence is becoming a very serious and grave issue on a global scale, and particularly within British Columbia.” He said racialized violence needs to be challenged and that residential school denialism has become a hobby horse for those who hold discriminatory views.
The municipalities specifically named in the letter, he said, were ones “most noteworthy in regard to this becoming a very disruptive issue in business.”
“What we're witnessing in these particular communities is a colossal failure of leadership on the part of the subject mayors,” said Stewart. “Those particular mayors are demonstrating a very autocratic style of leadership whereby they make unilateral decisions on particular issues without any real consultation with their council members.
“I applaud the council members in these instances that have spoken up against their mayors and have carried a view that respects human rights and respects the fact that we're all here to stay and we need to accommodate our unique histories and faith and cultures,” he said.
Residential schools on the Sunshine Coast
A kilometre down the road from where municipal hall now stands, a residential school operated in Sechelt from 1904 until June 30, 1975. Between 1904 and 1924, the institution was run by the Sisters of Instruction of the Child Jesus, then the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate from 1924 to 1969. The federal government managed and operated the school from April 1969 until its closure, and funded the institution for more than 70 years. During that time, members of more than 50 First Nations attended the institution, including members of shíshálh Nation.
While five names are listed on the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation’s virtual memorial dedicated to Sechelt Residential School, also known as St. Augustine’s – with other government documentation referencing a total of approximately 10 deaths – the Nation has long said that number doesn’t come even close to the number of children who died attending the institution.
In 2023, a shíshálh Nation ground penetrating radar investigation found 40 unmarked graves on the institution’s former grounds and statements at the time said that was a “very conservative number,” that not all the children have been found and that many will never be found.
“We have always known the truth, our Elders have told us and we always believed them. We want to show the little ones to know we haven’t forgotten them, we love them, and they are important,” lhe hiwus yalxwemult (Chief Lenora Joe) said in a statement at the time. “The children have spoken, and we are listening. We have heard their voices.”
– With files from Keili Bartlett, Sophie Woodroffe
