OTTAWA — First Nations chiefs say the federal government is enabling residential school denialism by failing to make it a crime.

The chiefs passed an emergency resolution at the Assembly of First Nations meeting in Ottawa this week calling on the feds to criminalize residential school denialism as hate speech.

Chief David Monias of Pimicikamak Cree Nation says the truth is not optional and that reconciliation cannot exist without it.

He says there is extensive documentation of the abuse those institutions perpetrated on First Nations children and efforts to downplay that history distort the truth.

More than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools, the last of which closed in 1996.

An estimated 6,000 children died in the schools, though experts say the actual number could be much higher.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2026.

Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press