Christine Van Geyn is litigation director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation.

Kimberly Murray’s work as the independent special interlocutor investigating unmarked burial sites and collecting the stories from residential schools is important. Unfortunately, it has been undermined by some controversial statements, including in her final report released last month.

Ms. Murray’s most polarizing recommendation is to “implement criminal and civil sanctions” around residential school denialism. She has also mischaracterized the scope of a private members’ bill proposed by NDP MP Leah Gazan that would “create an offence of wilfully promoting hatred against Indigenous peoples by condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying the Indian residential school system in Canada through statements communicated other than in private conversation.”

On November 7, Ms. Murray spoke at a luncheon at the Canadian Club Toronto where she applauded Ms. Gazan’s bill, comparing this effort to a 2022 criminal code amendment that criminalizes the willful promotion of antisemitism “by condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust.” To be clear, there are civil libertarians who also object to that law, which has not been tested in court. And there are many........

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