Multiple members spoke out against a resolution they said fed into residential school denialism
Law Society of British Columbia members expressed frustration with the movers of a resolution presented at the organization’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, rejecting the movers’ argument that they were seeking accuracy by pushing to change a reference to an “unmarked burial site” at a former residential school to a “potentially unmarked burial site.”
Out of 3,182 total votes, LSBC tallied 1,499 votes in favour of the resolution, with 1,683 against. Another 590 members abstained from voting.
During a discussion of the resolution, LSBC member Andrea Glen noted that the fourth volume of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was released in 2015, confirmed the deaths of 3,200 residential school students.
The report said that in “thirty-two percent of those cases, the government did not record the name of the students who died. In 23 percent of those cases, they didn’t record the genders of the students who died. In almost half the cases, they didn’t record the cause of death,” Glen said. “Thousands of children also never came home that are not reflected in these records. So, obviously, the work of figuring out what happened… is ongoing.
“In light of this significant body of evidence across the country, to quibble over the language of whether something is a ‘burial site’ at a particular location or a ‘possible burial site’ or a ‘probable burial site’ obviously completely misses the point,” Glen said.
Daleen Thomas, another LSBC member, told attendees at the meeting that “resolutions should be made in good faith and not vexatiously, or for the purposes of causing a rage.
“I respectfully request future motions by either of you be grounded in our obligations and duties as lawyers to protect others and work towards positive changes for everyone,” Thomas added.
The resolution was brought to the LSBC by lawyers James I. Heller and Mark T.K. Berry, who asked the organization to amend a phrase in an Indigenous cultural competency training course that LSBC members have been required to take since 2021. The training materials currently reference the “discovery of an unmarked burial site containing the bodies of 215 children on the former Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds.”
Heller and Berry argued that the phrase should be replaced with “discovery of a potentially unmarked burial site on the former Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds.” The lawyers also urged the LSBC to remove the phrase “the discovery confirms what survivors have been saying all along.”
According to their resolution, these changes are warranted for several reasons. These included a statement by Dr. Sarah Beaulieu, the radar expert hired by the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc Nation to investigate the former Kamloops school, saying that no remains have yet been found on the school’s grounds. In May 2021, the community announced that a ground-penetrating radar survey had confirmed that the school grounds contained the remains of 215 students.
Heller and Berry also cited the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc website, which uses the word “anomalies” instead of “remains” to refer to findings at the site, and a recent BC Court of Appeal decision that absolved a lower court judge of “apparent or actual intolerance, denial or bias” when she referred to “potential” remains at the Kamloops school.
Heller and Berry’s resolution was roundly condemned by the BC First Nations Justice Council, the BC Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, and the BC Civil Liberties Association. In a statement the LSBC issued on the resolution, the law society referenced the BCFNJC’s stance that the resolution was “racist and harmful.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Berry said he “wanted to make two things clear: I do believe that there are likely unmarked graves associated with residential schools across this country. I also believe in the realities of intergenerational trauma arising from the disaster that was those schools.”
After detailing his work as a criminal defence lawyer and noting that his clients included Indigenous defendants, Berry said, “the public’s ability to access justice depends… on our ability to prioritize the fact-finding process. There is no exception for sensitive subject matter. The law society seems to have a different view.
“They choose to denigrate us by calling us racists and denialists for identifying the inaccuracy,” Berry said.
Heller said at the meeting that he contacted the law society three times over the summer to request a change to the training materials but received no response, prompting him to file the resolution.
LSBC member Christina Cook said Heller and Berry’s implication that there were no remains at the Kamloops school “because actual bodies have not been excavated in a timing that suits the movers of this resolution is ghoulish and disgusting.”
Cook added it was “distressing” to discover that more than 1,400 LSBC members had voted in favour of the resolution, noting the resolution failed to mention a statement Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc issued this May detailing its ongoing investigation of the former Kamloops school grounds. The statement said the investigation’s findings were currently confidential but “are consistent with the presence of unmarked burials.”
Later in the meeting, LSBC member Martin Buhler said, “I don't know if people have taken the time to go out and see the extent of residential schools denialism that is out there or how this very resolution is being used to support it.
“Part of the reason we need to vote against this resolution is because we can’t focus on the trees [instead of] the forest,” Buhler said. “Why on earth are you doing micro-editing of our training materials? The bigger picture is, whether the people who moved this intended to or not, this argument… is a springboard into broader residential school denialism.”
During the meeting, several speakers alluded to a resolution Heller brought to the LSBC in 2021, which attempted to open a debate on a practice directive of the BC courts on how to use gender pronouns during court proceedings. The resolution did not pass.
“So who is next, Mr. Heller?” Thomas asked, referencing the 2021 resolution. “Indigenous children were this year. So, who’s next? Women’s rights? Who are you going to go after for fabricated outrage next?”
Editor's Note: this story has been updated to clarify that Christina Cook said "ghoulish and disgusting" not "foolish and disgusting".
