NDP MP Leah Gazan is ramping up pressure on the Carney government to criminalize residential school “denialism,” declaring Ottawa has the power to act.
The Winnipeg Centre MP made the remarks Thursday amid controversy over Rebel News’ Orange Shirt Day merchandise, which features slogans including “Dig Deeper” and “Still No Proof.”
“We don’t need thoughts and prayers,” Gazan said.
“We’re not talking about freedom of speech. We’re talking about the incitement of hate.
“Everybody can go around and say, oh, we don’t like the orange shirt denialists, but this government actually has the power to criminalize it,” she added.
Gazan called on the Liberal Indigenous Caucus to pressure the government to adopt her private member’s bill as government legislation.
Her push comes months after the Senate rejected a committee report that would have added a residential school “denialism” offence to Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act.
The Senate Human Rights Committee amendment would have criminalized residential school “denialism,” which would be punishable by up to two years in prison.
The government opposed the amendment, citing a lack of consultation and legal analysis. On June 3, the Senate rejected the committee report 41-32. Bill C-9 passed third reading the next day without it.
Gazan is now pushing Ottawa to pursue the issue through her own legislation.
Her comments come amid outrage over Rebel News’ Orange Shirt Day shirts bearing slogans such as “Still No Proof” and “Dig Deeper.”
The Liberal Indigenous Caucus called the merchandise a “campaign of hate,” while former Crown-Indigenous Relations minister Marc Miller accused Rebel of “grifting off bigoted views.”
Rebel rejected those accusations.
Publisher Ezra Levant said the shirts do not deny that residential schools existed or that children were mistreated, but instead challenge specific claims surrounding suspected unmarked burial sites.
“Our shirts say ‘Dig Deeper’ and ‘Still No Proof.’ Nothing more,” Levant said.
“What they say is that a claim as large as 215 children in a mass grave in an apple orchard should be tested against evidence.”
“Asking to see the evidence is not hate. It is what journalists are supposed to do.”
The dispute centres heavily on the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
In May 2021, Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc announced preliminary ground-penetrating radar findings it described as “the confirmation of the remains of 215 children.”
Radar specialist Sarah Beaulieu identified 200 “targets of interest,” saying excavation was needed for confirmation. Tk’emlúps calls them “probable unmarked burial sites.”
As of February 2026, the investigation remained ongoing, with excavation among the potential next steps.
Tk’emlúps Chief Rosanne Casimir told senators in March that no remains had been recovered.
“The truth cannot be confirmed,” Casimir said. “Truth takes time.”
Ottawa committed $246.8 million across 161 agreements for searches, including $12.2 million for Tk’emlúps.
Levant argued there was an irony in funding searches while potentially criminalizing questions about what they uncover.
“We agree that people should be searching for the truth,” he said. “That is what ‘Dig Deeper’ means.”
“The difference is that we would like the digging to actually happen, and we would like Canadians to be allowed to talk about what is and isn’t found.”
Levant also addressed a viral image depicting a distressed child that circulated alongside accusations about Rebel’s merchandise.
“A good deal of the outrage was driven by a hoax,” he said, alleging the image was created by a social media user and falsely implied to be one of Rebel’s shirts.
“It never was.”
EXCLUSIVE: Liberals target Rebel News after ‘hoax’ post sparks residential school merch controversy
Rebel editor-in-chief Sheila Gunn Reid separately told Juno News that anyone claiming the image appeared on Rebel merchandise was “repeating disinformation.”
Levant also argued the controversy raises broader free-expression concerns, saying Orange Shirt Day participation has become compulsory in some schools and workplaces.
“Our shirts are for the people who are told they must wear orange and would rather ask a question,” he said.
“No Canadian should be compelled to endorse any political view, including this one.”
About 150,000 Indigenous children attended residential schools, which the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded amounted to “cultural genocide.”
The fight centres on whether questioning suspected burial sites amounts to residential school “denialism” or criminal hate.
Gazan argues legislation is necessary to protect survivors from hate, while Levant argues criminalizing such speech would threaten freedom of expression.
“Gazan is entitled to disagree with us, and we support her right to say so,” Levant said.
“But in a free country, the answer to a T-shirt you disagree with is not two years in prison.
“Nothing quite says ‘reconciliation’ like prosecuting people who disagree with you.”
No, that’s ridiculous! We have enough silly laws already. Whether we believe something or not is the same as free speech. We do not want to be penalized for speaking, thinking or having an opinion that others disagree with. This is supposed to be a free country, let’s keep it that way.
The whole idea of criminalizing this so called "denialism" is preposterous. What are we trying to do, establish our own version of the Iranian Regime? Why stop at criminalizing the sheer audacity of anyone daring to not buy in to the "genocide" of First Nations school children...why not hang them in the town square?
Ms. Gazan needs to give her head a shake. While I realize that there are some who think it is currently trendy to buy into all things First Nation, the majority of us do not like to be held hostage without some proof. Perhaps she would also like to also comment on the poor treatment received by some First Nations people, by their own people, after publicly stating that they went to Residential School and were not abused, but did in fact appreciate the education they received while there. But then that would go against the current narrative that they so badly want to keep front and centre...after all it is all about money and control.