Henry Ergas: ‘Truth-telling’ crusade abandons history for morality

Two weeks ago, the small town of Quesnel in British Columbia was rocked by a scandal. The mayor’s wife had, it seems, distributed copies of Grave Error, a recently published book that contests the claim that hundreds, if not thousands, of Indigenous children died, and were buried in unmarked mass graves, in Canada’s Indian Residential Schools.

After a stormy town council meeting, the mayor managed to hold on to his job, albeit at the cost of publicly condemning his wife’s conduct and endorsing a resolution that denounces the book and laments the hurt it causes Indigenous Canadians.