NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus says comments by Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole on the original mission of residential schools amount to "revisionist race-baiting."
In a video posted to the Ryerson Conservatives Facebook group last month, O'Toole said the government-sponsored schools aimed initially to educate Indigenous children but later devolved into harmful practices.
"It was meant to try and provide education. It became a horrible program that really harmed people. And we have to learn from that," O'Toole said in the Nov. 5 video.
The boarding schools, which were launched by Christian churches and the federal government in the 1880s and run for more than a century, sought to convert and assimilate Indigenous children into Canadian culture and saw them suffer widespread physical and sexual abuse.
Angus told reporters Wednesday it is "false" and "very concerning" to suggest that education was the prime goal of the school system, of which Ryerson University namesake Egerton Ryerson was a key architect.
"We are talking about policies that set out to destroy families, to destroy identities, to literally ‘kill the Indian in the child,' " Angus said, citing a phrase associated with the system's expansion in the early 20th century.
"This is really cheap, cheap stuff from him."
It is a historic lie to claim that the architects of the residential schools meant well.
— Charlie Angus NDP (@CharlieAngusNDP) December 16, 2020
It is appalling that @erinotoole would misrepresent the proven history of a genocide to crank conservatives to fight so called "cancel culture."
Cancel you Erin. https://t.co/ReAOTVSuFZ
O'Toole spokeswoman Chelsea Tucker said the Tory leader supports reconciliation and "takes the horrific history of residential schools very seriously."
"He has also been clear in highlighting the damage cancel culture can have. Defending free speech, especially on campus, is important, just as remembering our past is an important part of aspiring for better in the future," she said in an email.
The hashtag #ResignOToole was trending on Twitter on Tuesday night, and NDP MP Leah Gazan called on him to step down.
