WATCH: Eby says government must be 'extremely careful' when criminalizing speech

VANCOUVER — The government of British Columbia has expressed support for exploring the criminalization of "residential school denialism."

When asked by Sitka Media about his stance on the matter during a press conference on Friday, Premier David Eby argued that while such conduct is "reprehensible," elected officials must exercise caution when making certain speech illegal.

"I think that in any conversation about criminalizing certain kinds of conduct or criminalizing certain kinds of speech," he said, "we need to be extremely careful about making sure that we're not inadvertently creating an opportunity for those that want to promote these viewpoints to say that they must be right because the government is trying to stop them from talking."

Eby argued that those who engage in such behaviour often "do so for political advantage on social media," and expressed a desire to "make sure we're not doing things that give them some sort of credit."

Among those the premier has accused of "denialism" is OneBC MLA Dallas Brodie, who has been at the forefront of pushing back against claims made related to mass graves at residential schools.

"Why is it that when David Eby tries to smear me as a 'denier' he doesn’t challenge me for saying no bodies were found at the Kamloops Indian Residential School?" Brodie wrote in a post on X after being called out by name. "He knows I am right and that’s why he refuses to repeat what my claim is about Kamloops."

Whenever the issue is brought up, Eby has pointed to the treatment of Indigenous children in Canada's residential school system, much of which is well-documented.

"People across the political spectrum have pointed that out, denounced it, pointed to the clear evidence of the sexual assaults, the punishment of children for speaking their language, the horrific conditions where children were experimented on," he said on Friday. "Everybody who is fair-minded and looks at our history comes to the same conclusion — that this was a reprehensible chapter in our history."