Former Manitoba justice minister hopes for vindication after being branded residential school ‘denialist’

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A former Manitoba Progressive Conservative MLA and justice minister is hoping for vindication after being “cancelled” for his views on Canadian Indigenous residential schools.

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After publishing articles that some say downplayed abuse in the residential school system, former Attorney General James McCrae told the Winnipeg Sun his service to Manitoba residents was “erased” after being called a residential school “denialist.”

In May 2023, then-PC Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen apologized for appointing McCrae to the Court of King’s Bench masters selection committee, which selects judicial officers for the court.

Goertzen said there was a issue with the vetting process. McCrae voluntarily stepped down.

“It was a terrible blot on the history of our country,” McCrae said of systemic residential school abuse.

“I’m having a real problem with being called a residential school denialist. I can’t think of anything more serious to call somebody – when you think about the hurt of so many Indigenous kids and the way so many of them were treated.”

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McCrae’s appointment to the King’s Bench masters selection committee came after six years of serving as chairman of the province’s Social Services Appeal Board.

“I spent eight years visiting Indigenous communities as a court reporter and witnessing first-hand the conditions that were completely foreign to most Canadians, the poverty and dependence that led to crime, despair and so many other problems and disparities,” he said, speaking from Brandon.

“I spent 13 years as an MLA and minister, again visiting Indigenous communities, meeting with their leaders, and enjoying very much the company of ordinary Indigenous children and adults.”

After all the controversy, McCrae isn’t backing down from his opinions or apologizing to his detractors.

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He wants the truth told about Canada’s residential school system, including the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia that made international headlines in 2021 for containing the “unmarked graves” of 215 children found with ground penetrating radar.

The New York Times reported a “mass grave of Indigenous children.”

In 2023, reports circulated that the Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc Nation in Kamloops began referring to the graves as “anomalies.”

None of the 215 anomalies have been archaeologically confirmed as graves, reported the National Post in 2024.

“There has been no RCMP investigation,” McCrae said. “We don’t know the names of any of those 215 and it may be because they’re not there.”

Dozens of Canadian Christian churches have since been burned down or vandalized, said McCrae.

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“Decent people in this country have lost their jobs just for having opinions and for exposing facts and documented evidence,” said McCrae, who has written articles in the Western Standard that claim the number of Indigenous children in residential schools was overestimated.

“My good name and reputation are a small part of the issue,” he said. “It’s not about denying the mistakes of the past but about ensuring our children learn the truth.”

An Indigenous voice

Niigaan Sinclair, an associate professor and program director in the department of Native studies at the University of Manitoba is concerned over the rise in what he calls residential school denialism.

“The work of denialists is insidious,” he said in a 2023 article co-written with assistant professor Sean Carleton. “It can be difficult to detect, but it has harmful effects. It attempts to twist, downplay or minimize established facts and survivor accounts.”

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McCrae said Sinclair has an intense dislike for his ideas – citing a private email.

“(Some) people are pretty high and mighty in this country, and they’re pretty sanctimonious,” McCrae said. “The fact is, they’re not helping Indigenous kids with this particular narrative.”

Update from Kamloops

The Winnipeg Sun reached out to the Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc to interview a residential school survivor and was told the investigation into alleged atrocities committed at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, as documented by survivors, is ongoing.

“Elders and survivors have always spoken of children dying and disappearing while at the school,” said Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc Chief Rosanne Casimir in a statement. “Men speak of, as boys attending Kamloops Indian Residential School, being woken in the middle of the night, and asked to dig holes that seemed like graves, in the dark, and not being told why.”

The community is committed to working with many other communities and nations whose children were taken to the Kamloops Indian Residential School, said Casimir. Over 128 communities and 32 nations had children at the school.

“At this time, we are deep into the investigative work,” she said. “Our investigators’ findings to date are consistent with the presence of unmarked burials.”

Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca

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