B.C. Conservative MLA backs lawyer in residential school row with Law Society

The former Kamloops Indian Residential School is seen at sunset after a rainstorm, in Kamloops, B.C., Monday, May 23, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

VANCOUVER — British Columbia’s Opposition attorney general critic is questioning the “apparent mistreatment” of a lawyer after he asked for the rewording of Law Society training material about residential schools.

Dallas Brodie of the B.C. Conservatives says on social media that she’ll reach out to B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma and the Law Society of British Columbia in the coming days about the situation facing lawyer James Heller.

Brodie’s posts on Saturday shared a link to an article about Heller, who unsuccessfully pushed last year for the society’s training material to say there were “potentially” burial sites at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., instead of using more definitive language.

Heller is now suing the society over what he calls “false and defamatory” imputations of racism that he says the society republished, while Brodie says in her posts that there are “zero” confirmed child burial sites at the school.

The Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc First Nation said in 2021 that ground penetrating radar provided “confirmation of the remains of 215 children” at the school site but last year said the radar found “confirmation of 215 anomalies.”

Brodie, the Law Society and the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation have not responded to requests for comment while Heller declined to speak on the record.

In her post, Brodie says she was “compelled to act” as the attorney general critic to ensure lawyers are “free to insist upon facts” in the legal system.

“The number of confirmed child burials at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site is zero,” her post says. “Can we trust our legal system if lawyers are no longer free to insist upon the facts?”

In a response also posted to social media, B.C. Indigenous Relations Minister Christine Boyle calls Brodie’s comments “abhorrent behaviour” and says there is “no place in B.C. for residential school denialism.”

Brodie had previously drawn criticism for comments made when she was running as a candidate in Vancouver-Quilchena in last fall’s B.C. election.

She said that when “people say they want to be First Nations,” that comes with the responsibility to take care of people in the Downtown Eastside.

Canada’s special interlocutor on unmarked graves and missing children said in a report last year that despite the “well-documented reality” of residential school deaths, some Canadians have made a concerted effort to attack the truths of survivors, Indigenous families and communities.

The report by Kimberly Murray says the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc made an announcement “confirming that up to 215 potential unmarked burials” took place at the Kamloops school site, resulting in global attention for the issue.

More than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools, the last of which closed in 1996.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2025.

The Canadian Press