'I don't need any more education': Senator Lynn Beyak, residential school denialism, and attacks on truth and reconciliation in Canada. (2nd October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Carleton, Sean
• Is Part Of: Settler colonial studies. Volume 11:Number 4(2021)
• Page Start: 466
• Page End: 486
• Publication Date: 2021-10-02
• Subjects: Residential schools -- denialism -- settler colonialism -- truth and reconciliation; Colonies -- Periodicals; Postcolonialism -- Periodicals; 325.3
• DOI: 10.1080/2201473X.2021.1935574
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2201-473X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In 2017, Lynn Beyak, a Canadian Senator, delivered a controversial speech defending Canada's Indian Residential School system (1883–1996) as being 'well-intentioned.' Made shortly after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released its final report to show Canadians the evidence of how residential schooling for Indigenous children and youth constituted genocide, the Senator's speech sparked national debate. This article historicizes and theorizes the role of denialism in colonial settings to argue that speech acts such as Beyak's can be understood as a discursive strategy used by colonizers to legitimize and defend their material power, privilege, and profit. The article examines Beyak's public comments as well as 100 support letters she received and published on her Senate website to show how they embrace anti-Indigenous racism generally and employ residential school denialism specifically to attack and undermine truth and reconciliation efforts in Canada.