Poilievre defends candidate against residential school smears

Conservative candidate Aaron Gunn refuted claims last week that he denied wrongdoings were committed at residential schools. The filmmaker has produced documentaries on Indigenous and Canadian issues, having interviewed First Nations leaders.

Alex Dhaliwal
  |   April 07, 2025   |   News   |   2 Comments

 

Facebook / Aaron Gunn

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre defended Conservative candidate Aaron Gunn against what he called a false and misleading smear campaign. 

Former members of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs and local politicians, alleged that Gunn had denied the generational trauma caused by residential schools. Poilievre rejected the accusation outright.

“Yes, I do,” Poilievre said when asked if he still supports Gunn. “The letter is false. He has not denied the impacts of residential schools—that’s simply misinformation.”

Taxpayer-funded media have focused their efforts of late on a social media post from 2021, where Gunn responded to claims that residential schools were “genocide.”

“There was no genocide,” he said at the time. “Stop lying to people and read a book. The Holocaust was a genocide. Get off Twitter and learn more about the world.” 

In 2008, the federal government under then prime minister Harper issued an apology and launched the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It reported that approximately 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools in Canada.

The Commission deemed the system "cultural genocide" in 2015, later upgraded to "genocide" by some.

Gunn, a documentary filmmaker, took to social media to defend himself. “I have always been firm in recognizing the truly horrific events that transpired in residential schools, and any attempt to suggest otherwise is simply false,” he said on April 3.

On Saturday, Poilievre focused on Gunn's commitment to developing natural resources with First Nations.

“The choice in this election is clear: after a lost Liberal decade marked by rising costs, increased crime, and a weakening economy, do we want to keep a government that holds our First Nations people back?” he asked.

In 2021, former prime minister Justin Trudeau claimed that Canada had committed a “genocide” against Indigenous peoples. The same year led to the alleged discovery of 215 “unmarked graves” in Kamloops, British Columbia.

The supposed discovery sparked considerable uproar in 2021, leading to a wave of destruction against Catholic churches nationwide.

Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation updated their reference to the suspected graves as “anomalies” last year. A call to action employed similar language as the 2021 declaration, replacing “children” with “anomalies.”

Chris Sankey, a former B.C. Conservative candidate and Indigenous entrepreneur, refuted claims disparaging Gunn’s character. “These tied and recycled attacks against him from 2021 are baseless,” he said.

Gunn has also produced documentaries on Indigenous and Canadian issues and interviewed First Nations leaders. 

“Aaron traveled to my community of Lax Kw Alaams and Prince Rupert,” writes Sankey. “He met with several Fishmen, community members, and elders,” he clarified, noting the Conservative candidate “was greeted with open arms.” 

B.C. Conservative Party leader John Rustad also defended Gunn, stating that media and NDP attempts to misrepresent Gunn’s views on residential schools are wrong. 

Rustad booted MLA Dallas Brodie last month from his caucus for opposing unverified claims of “unmarked graves” at former residential schools.

An NDP MP had previously proposed legislation aimed at criminalizing "residential school denialism" by making it illegal to deny or minimize the harms inflicted by Canada's residential schools.

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Alex Dhaliwal

Journalist and Writer

Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.

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  • Bruce Atchison
    commented 2025-04-07 20:13:25 -0400
    Poilievre is proving himself to be a real leader. He’s too cautious for my liking but he’s riding the wave of popularity. His events are overflowing whereas Carney’s are trickling. Poilievre needs to defend native people from the hard-left nannies who want them impoverished and dependent on government hand-outs.
  • Shaun Morrison
    commented 2025-04-07 18:54:41 -0400
    And that’s what a real leader looks and behaves like, not the revolving door of criminals like the Liberals, swap one crook out for another until they find the right one that doesn’t get caught right away, Carney is the preverbal “Train Wreck” and will continue on his path of bowing to his WEF and Chinese masters.

    Canada is just an obstacle to these people, morals to them is a filthy word never to be mentioned.