Public should be asking questions of candidates who are residential school denialists, says MMF vice president

A vice-president at the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) says that if any candidates in the upcoming municipal elections in the province are spreading disinformation about residential schools, the public should be asking about it. “When there’s trauma, people are afraid to stand up and talk about these things,” said Will Goodon, the minister of housing and property with the MMF. “And now, to have deniers basically say that, you’re just in it to get something, is horrible.” This comes as a response to a forum which took place in Brandon on Oct. 6, when a candidate running for school trustee was the subject of debate for questionable denialist comments which date back years. Many in the community have close ties to the Brandon Indian Residential School, closed in 1972 and demolished in 2000, including Goodon himself. He said that what are masked as “concerns” are built on a “foundation of hate and racism,” and having it appear in political debate is harmful. “That’s one of the most horrible things. You’re re-traumatizing these survivors over and over and over again, every time they see something like this come up,” he said. Goodon said that his grandfather was taken and held at the school, but escaped alongside his great aunt. Although Goodon’s grandfather died before he was born, he still felt the effects of what happened. He said this rings true for many families in the area. “As far as Brandon is concerned, there is that legacy, that history,” he said. “The school was just up on the hill there. And people just didn’t talk much about it … And [now] there’s monuments there, there’s symbolism there.” He said that while he has experienced racism throughout his own life, he believes the city, located west of Winnipeg, “has done a lot of healing,” which he attributes to education. “Education on truth and reconciliation, which I have to say, that the city and a lot of the social agencies, they do an incredible job … And I feel there’s still a lot of verbal things, but Brandon is getting better all the time.” And while denialism is a topic in the election, the trustee in question is still receiving what the school board’s chair told APTN News is “a lot of flak.” An inconsistent background Jim McCrae joined the list of 10 candidates running for Brandon School Division — Ward 1 in July 2026. The retiree is a former Manitoba MLA who held his seat from 1988 to 1999. Prior to that, he was a Brandon city councillor from 1983 to 1986. He was re-elected to council in 2006, and officially resigned in 2013. His next appearance in city hall wasn’t until 2023, when he registered in opposition to a motion that acknowledged “residential schools as genocide, as well as a review of how the City of Brandon has been acting on the Truth and Reconciliation calls to action.” According to the minutes from that meeting, McRae “questioned the prevailing discourse around Residential Schools and whether the conditions could be described as genocide. He concluded by requesting that Council consider their decision on the proposed motion and all implications of the matter carefully.” McCrae has written several guest columns for the Dorchester Review and the Western Standard on that line of question. In 2022, in a column called Speaking the Truth About Residential Schools, he asserted that he is not a denialist, but rather a “truth seeker. “Truth seekers ask questions about Indian Residential Schools so as to better understand Indigenous history so all Canadians can participate in the healing that is required before we can move forward together,” he explained. “But those who have questioned any part of the official narrative established by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission [TRC], the federal government, and legacy media have been met with either silence or the outrageous accusation that they are engaging in denialism.” In 2024, in a column published in the Western Standard, McCrae condemned the “Aboriginal Industry”, a term coined in 2008 by former University of Lethbridge professor Frances Widdowson’s book, Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry, which claims Indigenous self-governance is a method to pay out leadership “while entrenching the misery of most aboriginal people.” He writes that the “industry lives on the avails of peddling the narrative of murdered Indigenous children,” and is “fundamentally dishonest at root.” In October 2025, he claimed the TRC was lying to the public about the number of deaths that occurred in the schools, adding that deaths caused by illness or fatal accidents “had nothing to do with the school,” and “should not be represented to the Canadian public as ‘residential school deaths’ or ‘missing children.’” McCrae declined an interview, but commented on his columns in an email sent to APTN. “My writings have consistently acknowledged, and regretted, the awful harms the residential schools have caused Indigenous children, their families, and communities,” he wrote, and that his intention “has been to promote a better deal for everyone, and to improve the lives of all Indigenous Canadians, especially Indigenous youth.” He added that, as a school trustee, he would support “fact-based education about the history of Indigenous Canadians and would, of course, include education about the role played by Indian Residential Schools in that history.” However, McCrae’s recommendations for what he said was “fact-based education” have not been supported by the Brandon School Division board in the past. During a board meeting in May 2024, he had advocated for including a book called Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us, in high school libraries. According to a Brandon Sun article from the time, he had argued it “corrects misinformation about residential schools.” The book in question calls the recountings of survivors “totally false or grossly exaggerated,” and states that “the flight from truth makes reconciliation impossible,” in its synopsis. The board declined to hear his presentation, which he brought up once again in the June 2024 meeting. During the second presentation, several members of the board walked out, including board chair Linda Ross, who is also the acting dean of health studies at Brandon University. In an interview with APTN on Wednesday, Ross said that his voice is “an isolated one,” and would continue to be if elected. “In some of the things he’s been saying recently, he’s expressing things quite differently, but I’m concerned about those views and if those views come to the board table,” she said. “But [he], if elected, would be one of nine voices … So I think alone, you wouldn’t be able to do very much.” Ross said the pushback he has received during the 2026 election has been “encouraging.” In a public forum on Oct. 6, Ross said he had been “hammered” with questions by the public. “So I am encouraged by the fact that people are aware of those views and are speaking up against them,” she said. McCrae did speak to reporters after the forum, saying, “If I’m a controversial figure, it’s because my reading of the history of Canada may not fit with everybody else’s.” “There are many people who see things in different ways, and in my case, I’m just one of those Canadians who says, I’m one of the people who like evidence before I believe things,” he told a journalism student at Assiniboine College, in footage shared with APTN. “Especially when it’s about the deaths of children.” Holding power to account Goodon said that McCrae’s comment was fundamentally no different from the banners which read “got bones?” held by an Alberta-based group of white supremacists near the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc reserve on Sept. 28. “I think it’s disgusting,” he said. “And it’s something that we need to make sure that people see when they’re voting.” He said the public should be asking candidates, no matter the election, about their viewpoints when it comes to the subject of residential schools. In Winnipeg, mayoral candidate Kevin Klein received pushback after the Winnipeg Sun-Tribune, a newspaper owned by his publishing company, Klein Media, ran a guest column in response to Manitoba’s Sept. 29 purchase of an unmarked burial site in Brandon. The Province of Manitoba purchased the site of a confirmed unmarked burial ground associated with the Brandon Indian Residential School on Sept. 29. Photo: APTN File. The grounds are a confirmed burial site, according to the province, associated with the former residential school, and has been investigated through a partnership between the neighbouring Sioux Valley Dakota Nation and researchers at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, beginning in 2021. On Sept. 30, at the burial ground, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew acknowledged the presence of denialism in Manitoba, telling reporters “we shouldn’t have to prove the truth over and over again.” The author of the Winnipeg Sun-Tribune column argued his claim, stating that “asking for basic evidence to justify a claim isn’t hatred.” The column was condemned by the Southern Chiefs’ Organization (SCO) and Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), organizations which represent 33 and 26 First Nations in Manitoba, respectively. “Thousands of children died while attending residential schools,” SCO Grand Chief Jerry Daniels had stated. “These are not allegations or political talking points. They are part of Canada’s documented historical record.” Following the pushback, Klein said he had nothing to do with operations at the paper during the mayoral campaign. His wife, Heather Klein, has since published her own column, called Disagreement is not denial, defending the guest author’s claims. Klein eventually doubled back and apologized to the SCO. Goodon said conversations such as what has happened with McCrae and Klein need to be approached in politics, “and we should take people for what they’ve shown us that they are.” “It just comes down to, is this what we want to represent us in these positions? Any position.” While curriculum is determined by the province, Goodon said there’s “a lot of potential harm that can be done if we had a denier on a school board who’s influencing how kids are taught. “There’s safeguards in place, but my gosh, there’s still a lot of harm that could be done, and it would be a podium for someone to talk about this over and over and over again.” The Brandon civic election is slated for Oct. 28. Continue Reading