I engage a lot with Fanon’s work, but had never read A Dying Colonialism until this week. I’m glad I took the time to sit with this book, about Algeria as a French settler colony and the liberation struggle there that started in 1954. Here are some thoughts 🧵 What's interesting is that, after 130 years of colonialism, Fanon offers thoughts about the dying, the withering of settler colonial power in Algeria. There's greater relevance of his ideas today, in the context of the global reckoning with histories of colonialism/slavery.

What do all of these four people have in common? Answer: they all engage/promote residential school denialism. Here's a 🧵with the receipts. First, residential school denialism is not the denial of the Indian Residential School system’s existence, but rather the rejection or misrepresentation of basic facts about residential schooling to undermine truth and reconciliation efforts. Learn more: theconversation.com/truth-before-r…

New publication 🚨 Reid Gerbrandt and I are pleased to release "Debunking the 'Mass Grave Hoax': A Report on Media Coverage and Residential School Denialism in Canada." Read the full report on @CHRRmanitoba's website: . Here's a 🧵on our key findings: chrr.info/other-resource…
Many people — in Canada and internationally, especially on the far-right — are accepting and promoting a “mass grave hoax” narrative that casts doubt on the searches for missing children and unmarked burials being undertaken by First Nations across Canada.

As folks put away their orange shirts, let's talk about what we can do all year round to help put truth before reconciliation. Listening and learning from Survivors remains the key, but settlers learning how to identify and confront IRS denialism is also part of the "climb"🧵 At the Ottawa #NDTR event on Saturday, the @NCTR_UM called on Canadians to confront the growing trend of IRS denialism but in ways that would not allow denialists to hijack the day. Following the NCTR's lead, I held off on dealing with denialism until now: aptnnews.ca/national-news/…

The shíshálh Nation says ground-penetrating radar has identified what are believed to be 40 unmarked graves of children on or near the site of the former St. Augustine's Residential School. As an IRS historian, here is more information about the school: cbc.ca/news/canada/br… The school, also known as the Sechelt Indian Residential School, was run by the Catholic Church between 1904 and 1975 on the sunshine coast in British Columbia:

🚨APRIL FREE BOOK DRAW 🚨Another month, another draw to win a *free* copy of my new book, Lessons in Legitimacy: Colonialism, Capitalism, and the Rise of State Schooling in BC. To be entered, simply comment below, send me a DM, or contact me through my website (link in bio). The deadline to enter for April's draw is this Sunday, April 23. I’ll contact the winner and send the book in the mail asap.

I've had a lot of requests to share some free and accessible resources that folks can use to help identify and confront the growing phenomenon of residential school denialism as they see it, so here is a 🧵 Back in 2019, Murray Sinclair argued that residential school denialists posed the "biggest barrier to reconciliation" in Canada: aptnnews.ca/national-news/…

Thanks to the overwhelming majority of Twitter users who challenged the Dorchester Review's residential school denialism, a disclaimer is now been attached to the post highlighting the "extensive historical and firsthand evidence" debunking this claim. Here's a🧵 Quickly, denialists deliberately seek to twist or misrepresent basic IRS facts to undermine public confidence in truth and reconciliation. Daniel Heath Justice and I have written this easy to read primer: theconversation.com/truth-before-r…

The Government of Canada unanimously passed a motion on Thursday to recognize residential schooling as genocide. Unsurprisingly, the National Post published an oped today by Chris Dummitt debating the definition of genocide. Here's a thread on how this kind of denialism works🧵: Debating the definition of genocide and trying to narrow it to exclude Canada's IRS system, despite evidence to the contrary, is the #1 denialist talking point Daniel Heath Justice and I outlined in this primer on identifying IRS denialism: theconversation.com/truth-before-r…

Alberta's new premier, Danielle Smith, has faced a lot of criticism for her ignorant and incorrect statements about Russia's war in Ukraine and the pandemic, and she's since apologized. But she also needs to be challenged on her promotion of residential school denialism, a 🧵: The image above was shared with me, and it is verified from Smith's Locals page, a creator platform popular on the right. It was created by Dave Rubin when Jordan Peterson left Patreon re: free speech issues. Subscribers can view content for free, but you must pay to comment.

Can someone please verify this post, shared with me, is officially from Danielle Smith's Locals page (looks to be from - possibly 7 July 2022). This is textbook residential school denialism, which she has previously distanced herself from within the UCP. #DanielleSmith #Abpoli Regardless, @ArchaeoMapper and I have already refuted the claims made above: cbc.ca/news/opinion/o…

I'm very honoured to have won the @CHEA_ACHE Best Article Prize for a piece I published in the @HistEdSocUK journal on Indigenous children attending public schools in British Columbia, 1872-1925. Thanks to my peers for the recognition! #histed Here is the article if you are interested: tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…. If you don't have access through your academic/public library, hit me up and I will get you access.

Historian of schooling here: efforts to rebuff anti-racist education are driven by the desire to protect the power/profits of white supremacy in settler capitalist societies like Canada. Treating racism as a bad apple - rather than a systemic problem - protects that system.

https://twitter.com/DrJaredWesley/status/1582144396988145664

Schooling has *never* been just about teaching "literacy, numeracy, and be skills and knowledge based." Never. It has always been, at core, also a tool of socioeconomic legitimization and colonial world-making, as I argue in this @ConversationCA piece: theconversation.com/reckoning-with…

Here's a thread about residential school denialism, using this example 🧵

https://twitter.com/jonkay/status/1574551810622226438

The thread will deal with difficult subject matter, so here is a resource list for those wanting to reach out for emotional support: IRSSS CRISIS LINE: 1.800.721.0066; 24hr National IRS Crisis - 1.866.925.4419; Hope for Wellness - 1.855.242.3310

Now that Pierre Poilievre is officially the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, let's examine his and the CPC's recent connections to residential school denialism, a thread🧵: Former leader, Erin O'Toole, was caught on camera in 2019 coaching right-wing students on how to use residential school denialism to score cheap political points. He argued that the goal of IRS was to "provide education" (it was forced assimilation): pressprogress.ca/erin-otoole-cl…

Since the Queen's death, there's been an uptick in people sharing the conspiracy theory that QEII disappeared 10 children from the Kamloops Indian Residential School during a trip in 1964. As an historian concerned with IRS misinformation and denialism, here's a 🧵debunking it: The main goals of this thread: 1. to debunk the conspiracy theory; 2. to suggest why people might be drawn to it; and 3. to explain why the sharing of this misinformation can fuel IRS denialism and further impede truth and reconciliation efforts.

Today is the deadline to submit a claim for the Indian Day School class action. In support of Survivors who are sharing their truth, here is a 🧵about the history and ongoing legacy of the IDS system, based on @jacksonpind and I's recent piece: theconversation.com/canadas-reckon… Most don’t realize that Canada’s system of “Indian education” was not limited to residential schools. It also included a network of nearly 700 federally funded and church-run Indian Day Schools, which were attended by an estimated 200,000 Indigenous people between 1870 and 2000.

Today is the 32nd anniversary of the start of the Siege of Kanehsatake, or the so-called Oka Crisis. Here is @EllenGabriel1 and I's #RememberResistRedraw poster about the Legacy of ‘Oka’ and the future of Indigenous resistance: You can read the full write up, by Ellen and I here: graphichistorycollective.com/project/poster…

Since Terry Glavin goes out of his way to say that his most recent piece is not "residential school denialism," let me quickly explain why it is. A thread on residential school denialism 🧵: To start, residential school denialism is NOT, as Daniel Heath Justice and I have explained, the outright denial of the Indian Residential School (IRS) system’s existence. It is, rather, an attempt to misrepresent basic IRS facts/info to undermine truth and reconciliation.

Historian of schooling here to point out why Jean Chrétien's comments are problematic and amount to residential school denialism. I break down his talking points in this🧵: cbc.ca/news/canada/mo… Chrétien's comments are based on a false equivalent he makes between his boarding school experience and residential schooling, which he then uses to downplay the effects of the IRS system and defend his role as Minister of Indian Affairs, from 1968-1974. This is misinformation.

Ahead of the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation tomorrow, I'm excited to share this new @ActiveHist piece by @katie_15m and myself on newspaper coverage of Dr. Peter Bryce's 1907 report about the horrors of residential schooling: activehistory.ca/2021/09/hiding… It is too easy for Canadians to say that the public was not made aware of Bryce’s report and apply blame solely to church and state officials who downplayed and ignored his warnings.