Did BC Supreme Court Justice Douglas Aird Hogarth say what the First Nations Leadership Council claims he said?
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By Nina Green
Did BC Supreme Court Justice Douglas Aird Hogarth say what the First Nations Leadership Council claims he said?
He did not.
In a media release on 20 March 2025 (copy included below), the First Nations Leadership Council said, quoting Hugh Braker, KC, of the First Nations Summit:
"Residential School denialists try to hide facts from the public. They intentionally fail to acknowledge or mention the dozens of people convicted of, or who have pled guilty to, sexually and/or physically assaulting First Nations children in Residential Schools. They also neglect to speak about the thousands of abusers located by multiple private investigation firms contracted by the Federal Government," said Hugh Braker of the First Nations Summit. These denialists purposely reject the words of the BC Supreme Court Judge, who at the sentencing of offender Henry Plint to 11 years in prison, stated that Residential Schools were '. . .factories for child abuse' and that 'the Federal Government has admitted that up to 6,000 Indian Residential School children died in Residential School.'" "Denying or ignoring the truth about one of the most horrendous parts of Canada's history is an obstacle to reconciliation and does nothing except cause residential school survivors' additional pain and suffering," Braker concluded.
Let's consider these statements. How true are they?
Firstly, Appendix 3 of the TRC Report lists only 31 persons who either pled guilty to, or were convicted at trial, of physically or sexually abusing Indian residential school students. 31 is not 'dozens'. It is not even three dozen. Why does the First Nations Leadership Council's media release not accurately state what the TRC Report itself concluded? Instead, the FNLC accuses Canadians of 'hiding from the public' that 'dozens' pled guilty or were convicted when the TRC Report states that it wasn't 'dozens'. It was 31. And as the names on the TRC's Appendix 3 list establish, some of the 31 persons who pled guilty or were convicted were First Nations staff at the Indian residential schools.
Secondly, Braker claims that Canadians deliberately 'neglect to speak about the thousands of abusers located by multiple private investigation firms contracted by the Federal Government'. This statement is a red herring. There is no specific information available to the Canadian public about 'thousands of abusers located by multiple private investigation firms contracted by the Federal Government'. It would be enlightening for Canadians if information about 'thousands of abusers located by multiple private investigation firms contracted by the Federal Government' were available. But since the information isn't available to Canadians, it's disingenuous, to say the least, for the First Nations Leadership Council to accuse Canadians of deliberately neglecting to speak about something Canadians know nothing about.
Thirdly, and most importantly, did Justice Hogarth state at the Plint sentencing (copy included below) that 'the Federal Government has admitted that up to 6,000 Indian Residential School children died in Residential School.'
Justice Hogarth did not make that statement at the Plint sentencing. In fact, Justice Hogarth said nothing at all about deaths of Indian residential school children, much less attribute an admission that there were 6000 deaths to the federal government.
It is highly misleading of the First Nations Leadership Council to claim that Canadians 'purposely reject' Justice Hogarth's words while 'quoting' words Justice Hogarth never said.
So who is actually spreading false information? Is it the Canadians the First Nations Leadership Council calls 'denialists', or is it the First Nations Leadership Council? In the case of this media release, it's clearly the First Nations Leadership Council that is spreading false information.
The First Nations Leadership Council should retract its misleading media release, and apologize to Canadians for issuing it, and hindering reconciliation.
Thanks for reading. For more from this author read, Is the CBC calling Prime Minister Mark Carney's father a residential school denialist?
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As far as I can tell, the “6,000” number is simply a claim made repeatedly by Murray Sinclair. This is quite odd, since the TRC Report he authored gives a different number (423 died at the schools, and a couple thousand died within a year of leaving the schools, making a total of 3200). Sinclair also said “6,000, maybe 5 times that many”. A claim doesn’t become a fact just because it is made repeatedly- except, apparently in BC where facts are irrelevant, and indigenous people are entitled to their own “truths”
“Excrementum vincit cerebellum.” (Bullshit Baffles Brains)
Brilliant, Nina !!! Your article perfectly defines the pathology that results when lies metastasize. Perhaps, in fairness, this may be attributed to the toxic affects of generational alcohol abuse and it's offspring, Fetal Alcohol Disorder Spectrum causing it's victims of not knowing right from wrong. Such continual hubris does make for a pretty interesting story if you are a fan of fictional horror. In keeping with the theme of the iconic childhood story of the Emperor's New Clothes would it not be timely for a small child to come forward and tell our delusional politicians that the genocide hoax is bereft of attire ??
"never let truth get in the way of a good story" ..... Mark Twain