Poilievre delivers speech to group criticized for residential school ‘denial’

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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was criticized Friday by his political opponents for delivering a speech to the Frontier Center for Public Policy (FCPP), a controversial Winnipeg-based group that has been associated with efforts to minimize the effects of residential schools on children. indigenous children and to oppose vaccination mandates.

Before introducing Poilievre on Friday, the group’s chairman, Peter Holle, said the FCPP is one of the “most prolific think tanks” and that it publishes articles that “could rub you the wrong way.”

Holle said the group was determined to “challenge false narratives” and claimed there was “bogus climate talk” among “talkative classes and commentators”.

In 2018, the CPPF aired radio ads claiming to debunk “myths” about residential schools in Canada. The ads called claims that residential schools were responsible for “robbing Indigenous children of their childhoods” or the dramatic decline in Indigenous language skills as a “myth”.

He also published an article, written by a former residential school student and FCPP research associate, which sought to minimize the intergenerational effects of these institutions on First Nations communities.

The article, written by Mark DeWolf, criticized the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for “spreading misinformation”.

“Recognizing the system as wrong should not lead us to wildly exaggerate its failures, demonize it, and allow it to distract us from far greater threats to First Nations individuals and communities,” DeWolf wrote in his dissertation article. August 2018 for the FCPP.

The TRC conducted an exhaustive six-year study of the system. It concluded that physical, mental and sexual abuse were rampant in schools and that some 6,000 children died while in their care due to malnutrition or disease.

He also concluded that the residential school system was a form of cultural genocide.

Shoes, toys and more have been set up around the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 2, 2021, in recognition of the reported discovery of children’s remains at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops , British Columbia (Brian Morris/CBC)

The FCPP also posted commentary articles on its website that defended research on the link between race and IQ. He recently published an article that denounced “anti-white male policies”, saying such discrimination is the “only systemic discrimination that exists”.

A spokesperson for Poilievre said his appearance on the FCPP does not mean he endorses “the views of everyone who has ever worked for the band.”

“Mr. Poilievre clearly disagrees with the views you have highlighted. We condemn all forms of racism and bigotry,” his spokesperson said, adding that CBC had faced its own accusations of systemic racism from one of its unions in 2020.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said it was “appalling” that Poilievre would “associate with an organization like this, especially after a day like this”, he said . He was referring to the discovery of a jaw fragment belonging to a child on the site of a former boarding school.

Another Liberal cabinet minister, Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, said it was “disheartening” to hear that Poilievre had given a speech to the group and his supporters.

Poilievre uses speech to castigate Trudeau

Poilievre did not respond to criticism during his Friday speech to a crowd of 500 gathered at a Winnipeg conference center for his appearance.

Instead, he launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, blaming Liberal policies for inflation, sky-high house prices, shortages of children’s medicine, delays in processing passports and ongoing problems. air transport, among other problems.

“He’ll never fix them and that’s why we need to replace him with a new government that will work for the people,” Poilievre said of Trudeau in his speech. “He won’t fix these problems because he is the problem.”

Poilievre promised to rein in the federal budget with a “pay-as-you go” law, which would require every dollar of new spending to be matched by a cut in something else.

He also pledged to work with provinces to expedite the certification of internationally trained health professionals to address labor shortages in the health care system.

Poilievre said he would not back down from his pointed attacks on the Liberal government even though, he said, the conventional wisdom of “the Laurentian elite” and “established liberal orthodoxy” is that he should moderate its positions after claiming the leadership of the party.

“That’s not how our system was designed. Our system was deliberately designed to scare the most powerful people in the House of Commons,” he said.

Criticism of vaccine mandates

Like Poilievre, the FCPP has criticized the COVID-19 vaccination mandates.

He posted a web article denouncing the old vaccine proof policies implemented by all levels of government as “a state-mandated invasion of our bodily autonomy.” Another article, which took a similar stance, called the vaccination mandates “a politically expedient use of state authority to attack Canadian citizens.”

Thomas Linner is the provincial director of the Manitoba Health Coalition, a group linked to the provincial NDP and unions. He said it was inappropriate for Poilievre to stand “with an organization that has taken deeply divisive and extreme positions on the COVID-19 vaccine and public health measures, supporting illegal and dangerous occupations of cities. Canadian”.

Other Canadian politicians have participated in FCPP events, including former finance minister Paul Martin, who addressed the group in 2002.

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