“Every generation was an attempt to sever who I am,” one speaker said
Photo by Ethan Barkley.
On Dec. 2, B.C. MLA Dallas Brodie, Jim McMurtry, and Frances Widdowson attempted to host an unsanctioned event on UVic’s campus.
McMurtry is a former teacher, who was fired for controversial comments made regarding the residential school system, and is listed as a OneBC Party candidate for the Delta-South riding. Widdowson — a former professor at Mount Royal University — was also fired following remarks rejecting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s conclusion that the residential school system was a genocide. MRU has not confirmed the exact reason for her termination, stating they could not comment on a personnel matter.
Widdowson and McMurtry have both come under controversy for denying what the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc First Nation identified in 2021 as more than 200 unmarked graves at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Brodie was expelled from the Conservative Party of B.C. earlier this year for mocking the testimonies of residential school survivors.
“The rhetoric we have seen them share at other institutions across the country, have been re-traumatizing and harmful to Indigenous people,” UVic’s Native Students Union (NSU) said in a statement to the Martlet.
The Saanich Police Department told the Martlet in a statement that officers arrested one individual under the Trespass Act. Saanich PD did not provide their name, but both Brodie and Widdowson have stated that the individual arrested was Widdowson, who has since been released.
The Canadian House of Commons recognized the residential school system as an act of genocide in 2022 via a unanimous consent motion, a conclusion also reached by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and Pope Francis, who apologized in 2022 for the Catholic Church’s role in running many of Canada’s residential schools.
Brodie has tweeted numerous times, denying that a genocide against Indigenous peoples ever occurred.
Widdowson described the unsanctioned event at UVic in a Nov. 29 press release as a “free speech discussion” and an effort to discuss what she called “false assertions” by the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc First Nation. In response to a letter from UVic’s director of campus security services, Widdowson tweeted “Piss off @uvic. We’re coming in!”
“The [NSU] aims to support the academic, cultural, spiritual, and overall well-being of Indigenous students at UVic by providing safe spaces,” the NSU said in a statement to the Martlet. “We released a PSA and trigger warning for our community, as this unsanctioned event brought concern for the safety of Indigenous people on Campus.”
“We wanted to ensure our community members were informed about the event and the resources that are available to them, so we may support and uplift our community.”
On Tuesday, supporters of OneBC — a provincial party led by Brodie — attended the event, alongside a significantly larger group who gathered in opposition.
Members of Indigenous communities, from Victoria to northern Canada, shared songs, poetry, and speeches — not only to voice their opposition to the event, but to celebrate their resilience while drawing attention to Canada’s history of genocide. Many allies, including students, also attended. The Times Colonist reported a turnout of around 900, while CBC and Victoria News reported “hundreds”.
Victoria News credited Hayalthkin’geme, Carey Newman (Nulis) as the organizer of the gathering. However, in an interview with the Martlet, Newman said the term “organizer” may be generous, and that he worked alongside UVic faculty members Ry Moran and waaseyaa’sin Christine Sy to bring attention to the unsanctioned event.
Photo by Ethan Barkley.
Newman told the Martlet they had obtained permission for the gathering.
“Our message was to focus on telling our stories, on affirming what we understand to be the truth of residential schools, and to try as much as possible not to engage. [We’re] calling it peaceful non engagement”
Newman expressed his appreciation for the large turnout at the gathering, saying “seeing that many people who all came together around peace and solidarity and positivity. That’s beautiful.”
“I was overwhelmed by the number of people [who] came.”
“Recent events on our campus and attempts at denying the history of residential schools are part of a growing narrative that attempts to distort the values and the core mission of higher education institutions’ commitment to truth, critical inquiry, and knowledge dissemination,” Qwul’sih’yah’maht, Dr. Robina Thomas, said in a statement posted Dec. 2.
“This hurtful and divisive rhetoric should not be confused for academic inquiry and debate,” the statement continues.
The University of Victoria Student Society (UVSS) also released a statement regarding the event, stating: “Residential school denialism … is the rejection or misrepresentation of basic facts about the [Indian Residential School System] in a way that undermines Truth and Reconciliation.”
The UVSS said it remains “dedicated to supporting an inclusive and safe environment for all its members and does not support or condone events which may harm the UVSS community.”
Newman told the Martlet that denialist rhetoric “breaks [his] brain.”
“In the process of making [The Witness Blanket] we [gathered] over 80 testimonies from [residential school] survivors … including people who talked about siblings who just disappeared,” Newman said. The Witness Blanket is a national monument and art installation by Newman, made to honour the children and Indigenous peoples harmed by the residential school system.
The Times Colonist reported Brodie was initially at the event, but left to attend the afternoon’s legislature sitting.
On X, formerly Twitter, OneBC shared a photo of Brodie in front of CTV cameras with the caption: “The ‘news’ showed up.” Other posts from the OneBC X account also place Brodie at the university. The Martlet reached out to Brodie for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.
McMurtry was initially in attendance but was escorted away by police.
On X, McMurtry reshared footage posted by OneBC of an attendee vocalizing into a megaphone. McMurtry’s caption read “U of Vic president appeared briefly.” The person in the footage was not UVic’s acting president, but Juno Award and Polaris Prize winning artist and renowned Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq.
One attendee, who appeared to support the OneBC event, was seen holding a sign that read: “Truth speech is not hate speech, change my mind.”
The Union of BC Indian Chiefs also released a statement, saying: “Calls to exhume physical remains of children are a red herring and blatantly disregard the abundance of well-documented archaeological, archival, and testimonial evidence which demonstrate that First Nations children died under abusive conditions at Residential Schools across Canada.”
“This is not a matter of semantics or political debate,” the statement continues.
A small group of attendees are believed to have thrown smoke bombs. Tim Thielmann — OneBC chief of staff — told CBC that smoke bombs were also thrown at OneBC volunteers. The Times Colonist also reported finding unused smoke bombs on the scene afterwards.
Footage shared on the OneBC X account shows an individual grabbing a camera from a OneBC volunteer’s hand, followed by a physical altercation between the individual, the volunteer, and McMurtry. OneBC said the individual assaulted their volunteer, though the Martlet is unaware of any charges brought forward at the time of publication.
“Bye-bye fascism,” many gatherers chanted, following McMurtry as he was escorted off campus.
“We wanted to honour the commitment that we made to make this about affirmation, not countering [OneBC],” Newman said, referring to the gatherers who engaged with OneBC in the parking lot near Felicitas and the Clearihue Building.
“Those people were maybe aligned with us in not wanting denialism to be spread on campus, but they had differing opinions on strategy. We were pretty clear that we [did not] want to engage and [to] leave that process of removal to security and police.”
Many gatherers stayed in the quad, listening to speakers discussing the residential school system and the impacts of settler colonialism.
“That circle [on the quad] was peaceful. It was filled with [people] singing songs. People were telling stories … we had multiple drum groups come too … so the vibe there was pretty beautiful,” Newman said.
“This is why we did the work to inform our larger community on this event,” the NSU said.
“Hundreds of people [in] our community [including] staff, students, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, all came together and fought hate with love. Such a beautiful turnout, filled with stories, poetry, songs and drumming. It felt very surreal to see how many allies came forward.”
“The pain, the trauma, it’s real. It happens, and nobody can tell me that it didn’t, because I’m still here and I’ll be that voice,” one speaker said.
“It breaks my heart to know there are people in this world that forgot what love, compassion, and empathy are,” another speaker said. “I’m going to acknowledge the unmarked graves of the residential schools … those little spirits that didn’t get to go home … one grave is too much.”
“To see so many of our own people, to see so many allies here, shows this is a huge victory for all of us,” a speaker said.
“I think the response from UVic administration was the right response,” Newman said. “I don’t know what more they could have done…. I thought they set it up properly to be able to remove them as soon as they violated the order [to leave].
However, Newman told the Martlet he is disappointed with how Brodie is using her platform as an elected official.
In a Dec. 3 tweet, OneBC released a petition calling to defund UVic “and other radical leftwing institutions.” Brodie shared the tweet, stating “Leftwing universities are done indoctrinating our youth.”
The Indigenous Accountability Coalition is organizing for a recall of Brodie. B.C. Premier David Eby told CBC he is in support of recalling Brodie. If successful, Brodie would be the first MLA recalled in B.C. history.
Editor’s note: This article has been edited to include a statement from the Native Students Union.
