“A lawyer suing the Law Society of British Columbia (LSBC) is crazy enough, but it is made more bizarre because essentially the case is about the Society’s unwillingness to acknowledge a simple truth.
“B.C. lawyer James Heller is suing his own law society for libel, accusing it of “bad faith, high-handedness, arrogance, malice” and betraying its ethical duties.
“Have the bodies of 215 children been found in an unmarked burial site at the Kamloops Indian Residential School? The factual answer to that question is “No”…
“But according to the lawsuit, Heller’s attempts to get the LSBC to acknowledge that truth have seen his reputation dragged through the mud.
“For trying to get the LSBC to insert a phrase such as “potential” burials, Heller has been subjected to a barrage of vitriol, including accusations of unethical practice, ‘denialism’, racism and insensitivity to ‘Indigenous’ {sic} people, the lawsuit alleges.
“The LSBC has not yet published a defence and it declined to comment as the case is currently before the court.
“What is so troubling about Heller’s battle is that the LSBC seems most concerned with protecting a sacred {political and racist} narrative that has wormed its way into the conscience of a large part of society. As Heller found out, to question even a small part of that narrative and insist on proven facts is to risk the wrath of those who believe it is more important to preserve the story than to acknowledge the truth.
“What began as an email from Heller asking for LSBC educational material to be changed in order to ensure its accuracy, morphed into a showdown at an annual general meeting and has now landed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
“The root of the lawsuit goes to a statement contained in the Law Society’s ‘Indigenous’ training course for B.C. lawyers:
“On May 27, 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc ‘Nation’ {a ‘nation’ of 1,540 people} reported the discovery of an unmarked burial site containing the bodies of 215 children on the former Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds”.
“In July, Heller wrote to the course providers, pointing out after three years, no bodies had been found or confirmed, and asking them to amend the statement.
“According to the lawsuit, the LSBC also knew that the appropriate terminology had been addressed in a case before Leonard Marchand, the chief justice of British Columbia and the first ‘Indigenous’ {Aboriginal} person to hold that title, who ruled that the use of the phrase “potential unmarked burials” was not biased.
“The lawsuit points out that terms such as “potential”, “possible” and “suspected” unmarked burial sites were used repeatedly in the June 2023 interim report of the ‘Independent’ Special Interlocutor For Missing Children And Unmarked Graves And Burial Sites.
{The Canadian government official with the longest title?}
“And in May 2024, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc ‘Nation’ revised its website, changing the word “remains” to “anomalies”, to reflect uncertainty about what had been found in Kamloops, B.C.
“The LSBC knew “that terminology such as ‘potential burials’ regarding the findings made on the former Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds was responsible, factually accurate and not indicative of intolerance, denial or bias”, claims the lawsuit.
“Heller followed up his initial correspondence with two more notes, but never heard back. Then, Heller and a fellow lawyer, Mark Berry, submitted a resolution to the LSBC’s annual general meeting, asking for the word “potentially” to be inserted before “unmarked burial site” in the course literature and to delete a passage that read:
“the discovery confirms what ‘survivors’ have been saying all along”.
{“Survivors” is the Aboriginal Industry’s pejorative term for ‘former students of Residential Schools’.}
“One critic of the resolution was the B.C. ‘First Nations’ Justice Council (BC’FN’JC), {A lobbying organization – See below} which, in a press release, called the resolution a “so-called correction” seeking
“to supplant countless testimonies, reports and investigations with a factually incorrect narrative that is rooted in the silencing and dismissal of residential school ‘survivors’.”
“The press release went on to reference a “growing disillusioned sect” {?} denying the ‘horrors’ of residential schools and the harm caused by “denialism”.
“Yet the lawsuit counters that,
“Contrary to the BCFNJC statement and as known by the (LSBC), the resolution was not motivated by racism, ‘residential school denialism,’ ‘genocide denialism’ or other such vile and ‘disreputable’ factors”.
“The LSBC posted a link to the press release in an online statement while knowing it was defamatory, the lawsuit alleges, and attempts to get the LSBC to take down the press release and issue an apology and a retraction failed.
“It has kept the press release online despite knowing of its false and damaging nature, and which conduct reflects bad faith, high-handedness, arrogance, malice and a marked departure from ordinary standards of decent behaviour”,
reads the lawsuit.
“The suit also alleges that the LSBC’s conduct was “a betrayal of the ethical duties it is entrusted to enforce”, alleges the lawsuit.
“Heller “has suffered damages to his reputation and distress, anxiety, stigmatization, embarrassment and fear for his well-being as a result of the (LSBC’s) conduct”, it claims.
“Heller is seeking an apology, a retraction and damages.
“The LSBC’s defence will be interesting to see, as it is unlikely to have gone so far down this road without a plan to counter the very type of lawsuit it is now facing. Who knows what judicial avenues this case will go down and what legal arguments might be brought up by the defence.
“But any trial will likely have to decide what is more important:
proven facts or the stories we keep telling ourselves.”
–‘Lawyer suing his own law society for libel over Kamloops ‘graves’’,
Michael Higgins, National Post, Feb.21, 2025
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/news/content/ar-AA1zvvFl
Background:
“The LSBC’s annual general meeting voted on a Berry-Heller resolution to insert the word “potentially” into the training document. The resolution was defeated with 1,683 voting against and 1,499 in favour.”
“In his 22 years as a defence lawyer, Mark Berry has represented a significant number of ‘Indigenous’ men and women.
{DNA shows that Canadian Aboriginals are ‘Indigenous’ to Siberia and Mongolia.}
“So it came as a bit of a shock to him to be accused of racism by colleagues, especially when all he is attempting to do is present the truth — a reasonable objective not unheard of for a lawyer.
“The ever-increasingly vogue accusation of “denialism” has also reared its head because Berry and another lawyer, James Heller, had the temerity to try to get the Law Society of British Columbia (LSBC) to insert the word “potentially” — just one word — into a mandatory training document.
“But when the issue is unmarked graves in Kamloops — or potentially unmarked graves, as Berry and Heller would have it — then things start to get very ugly, very quickly.
“I’m surprised that my own professional regulator, having said, ‘We welcome any and all input with no qualification,’ has responded to us pointing out the tiniest and the most unassailable of corrections by calling us racist”,
said Berry in an interview Wednesday.
“Such was the level of vitriol that a comment portal used by lawyers to discuss the topic had to be shut down.
“We have now reached the stage where a large body of lawyers are more interested in burnishing their ‘Indigenous’ bona fides than they are in the truth. And if, in that process of solidarity, they have to tear down and defame Berry and Heller, then it appears they are willing to do so.
“On Tuesday, the LSBC’s annual general meeting voted on a Berry-Heller resolution to insert the word “potentially” into the training document. The resolution was defeated with 1,683 voting against and 1,499 in favour.
“Berry said he was “surprised at the level of misrepresentation, flat-out lying, about the content, the intent and the scope” of the resolution at the meeting and before it.
{Why? After all, it’s a gathering of lawyers…}
“Lawyers in B.C. have to take the LSBC’s ‘Indigenous’ Intercultural Course’
which references the
“discovery of an unmarked burial site containing the bodies of 215 children on the former Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds”.
“No bodies have been discovered at the site since that assertion was made by the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc ‘Nation’ in 2021. This year, instead of referring to “the remains of 215 children”, the B.C. ‘First Nation’ {Band/Tribe} merely mentioned the “215 anomalies” discovered by ground penetrating radar.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/tkemlups-te-secwepemc-first-nation-graves-kamloops
“Since the LSBC course is mandatory, Berry and Heller believed that it should also be accurate {!} and urged the Law Society to insert the word “potentially” before “unmarked burial site”.
…
“The B.C. ‘First Nations’ ‘Justice Council’ responded with outrage.
“The resolution is distressing, painful, and disrespectful to ‘survivors’,”
said a statement from the Justice Council headed,
“Racist Resolution Proposed by Law Society of British Columbia Members Supports Residential School and Genocide Denialism — Trust and Reconciliation Will Be Broken.”.
“The LSBC said the resolution highlighted that much still needed to be done to
“eliminate racism in our profession”.
{Yes – your virtue-seeking, ‘do-gooder’ racism!}
“The level of vitriol directed at Berry and Heller in their quest to insert a perfectly reasonable word into a mandatory training course to ensure accuracy is, frankly, quite staggering. And as the two lawyers pointed out, a recent B.C. Court of Appeal case — headed by Leonard Marchand, the Chief Justice of British Columbia and the first ‘Indigenous’ person to hold that role — found a judge had not been biased when referring to “potential” unmarked burial sites at Kamloops.
“The appellant had alleged the use of the word reflected “a dismissive attitude, intolerance and, worse, outright ‘denialism’” by the judge, said the court. But the appeal court pointed out
“that word is the very same word ‘Indigenous’ communities and others have used to describe the results of tests using ground penetrating radar in and around former residential school sites”.
“So, why don’t facts matter? Because this isn’t about truth or accuracy. The hatred toward Berry and Heller isn’t that they are right — which they are — but that they are challenging a narrative that, in three short years, has become ‘sacred’.
“In May 2021, everything changed. The conscience of a nation wasn’t just pricked – it was bludgeoned. As a country, we mourned with flags at half staff for those “215 children” lying dead and forgotten in unmarked graves. We hung our heads in shame as the world detailed our wicked and evil history.
“But if the narrative isn’t true, if people should even raise the suspicion of it not being true, then the national angst might turn to anger.
“And so, better to protect the story at all costs, and truth be damned.”
–‘B.C. law society can’t handle the truth, pretends facts are ‘racist’’,
Michael Higgins, National Post, Sept. 26, 2024 • Updated Sept. 27, 2024
“B.C. lawyers shouldn’t face residential school ‘denialism’ accusations for telling the truth. No ‘buried children’ have been found at the Kamloops residential school, and it’s not racist for B.C.’s mandatory training course to say so.”
“Be politically correct or we’ll call you racist” doesn’t cut as deep as it used to, but it’s an approach line that the B.C. ‘First Nations’ Justice Council is willing to bludgeon over the heads of lawyers who favour truth.
“Two B.C. lawyers are receiving this treatment from the ‘Indigenous’ advocacy group because they are trying to correct, factually, their regulators’ training materials. Since 2021, all lawyers regulated by the Law Society of British Columbia are required to take a course on ‘Indigenous’ culture, the materials for which contain the following inaccurate statement:
“On May 27, 2021, the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc ‘Nation’ reported the discovery of an unmarked burial site containing the bodies of 215 children on the former Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds. Although the discovery was shocking to many Canadians, many ‘Indigenous’ residential school ‘survivors’ had previously reported the existence of unmarked burial sites, and the unexplained disappearances of children; the discovery confirms what ‘survivors’ have been saying all along.”
“There were, in fact, no bodies discovered. In 2021, 215 “anomalies” — soil disturbances — were detected by ground-penetrating radar near the former residential school. They could be graves, and they were initially reported as graves, but they could also be wood, stones or clumps of clay.
“It also is true that the ‘First Nation’ initially referred to the anomalies as the “remains of 215 children” but three years later, it ceased in the interest of accuracy, referring to them as “215 anomalies” instead.
{After the damage was done. They were irresponsible in the first place…}
“Some B.C. lawyers noticed the error in the training documents, and one even reached out to the law society’s course providers to flag that a correction was in order. Receiving no response, he, in conjunction with a colleague, is now motioning at the law society’s upcoming annual general meeting to use the term “potentially unmarked burial site” instead {It was defeated}. It’s a sensible ask: law is a profession that depends on its practitioners being able to separate fact from everything else, and training materials should reflect that principle.
“This notion didn’t resonate with the BC First ‘Nations’ Justice Council, a non-profit whose aim is to bring “transformative change to the legal system”, which on Monday called the motion “racist” {Of course they did}. In a statement, it denounced the correction for containing “alarming Residential School ‘denialism’.”
“These so-called corrections seek to supplant countless testimonies, reports and investigations with a factually incorrect narrative that is rooted in the silencing and dismissal of Residential School ‘survivors’,”
they wrote.
“Not only did the core of the council’s statement ignore the facts, its writers proceeded to scold anyone who dared to ask that lawyer training materials stick to facts by invoking “truth”.
“The course is integral to ensuring lawyers understand the truth of Residential School history, as well as the history and legacy of ‘colonization’ {modernization}. It is unconscionable that efforts be made to revise this history and sanitize the ‘genocidal’ {?} ‘atrocities’ committed against ‘Indigenous’ people in B.C. and Canada, including the Residential School System.”
“The statement concluded by asking the province’s lawyers to “stand up against the grievous racism” being advanced by the resolution.
“It’s the kind of unfounded and hyperbolic accusation that should have no place in shaping the way the law works.
“Unfortunately, the government of B.C. is actually in the process of giving the B.C. ‘First Nations’ Justice Council even more powers to do just that. In April, B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma tabled a Bill in the provincial legislature that would introduce an array of mandatory ‘Indigenous’ roles into professional governance {UNDRIP}, and task the legal regulator with carrying out ‘reconciliation’.
“Under Sharma’s scheme, a new ‘Indigenous’ council would provide ‘advice’ to the law society’s board regarding “‘Indigenous’ legal traditions and Indigenous practices” {Why? We use Canadian law!}; it would also be granted a mandatory {Race-based} seat on the selection committee for the law society’s chief executive officer. A maximum of nine people would comprise the council, and a maximum of four of these would be appointed by the BC First ‘Nations’ Justice Council {!?!} — not a majority, but nearly.
{This is nothing but a Race-based power play…}
“Race-based seats shouldn’t be a component of legislation like this. And, though it might make sense for the law society to consult with the BC ‘First Nations’ Justice Council on specific ‘Indigenous’-related issues from time to time, it should be out of the question to give it a formal role in regulating the legal profession — especially now that it has used baseless accusations to attack certain law society members while rallying others to its cause.
“All of this is a foreseeable consequence of saturating government and government-adjacent bodies with ‘reconciliation mandates’. Mandate training, expect debates over the content of said training.
“None of this is to say that residential schools didn’t cause {some} human beings immense pain, because they did. Children did die at residential schools, most commonly of tuberculosis, and were buried nearby. The BC ‘First Nations’ Justice Council understandably feels grief for any life that was lost back then.
{It would be more to the point if they did something for the abuse, neglect and general suffering of Aboriginal reserve children today!}
“But, it’s simply incorrect to state that bodies have been discovered near the former Kamloops residential school, and people — lawyers especially — shouldn’t be berated with accusations of racism for pointing this out.”
–‘B.C. lawyers shouldn’t face residential school ‘denialism’ accusations for telling the truth’,
Jamie Sarkonak, National Post, Sept. 16, 2024
“The BC ‘First Nations’ Justice Council was created in 2015 by the BC Assembly of ‘First Nations’, the ‘First Nations’ Summit and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs. The Council has a clear mandate to transform the justice system and create better outcomes for ‘Indigenous’ people (Challenge approaches that contribute to the growing over-representation of ‘First Nations’ children and youth in the care of government and ‘First Nations’ men and women in incarceration).”
{And as we’ve pointed out numerous times, the “over-representation” is a consequence of an “over-representation” in criminal activity – something that Aboriginal leadership should really be focusing on, especially if they truly care about the women and children.}
–‘BC First Nations Justice Council – Who We Are’,
https://bcfnjc.com/who-we-are/
See also:
‘How the Aboriginal Industry Wins in Court‘:
“In Indian treaty rights cases, the standards of evidence and logic are not what they are elsewhere… In these trials by history (i.e, law office history), watching the highly-skilled, forceful attorneys at work serving the Indian cause was a thoroughly eye-opening experience. From them, I learned much about the selective use — and suppression of — historical and anthropological evidence…”
‘Aboriginal Industry Rewards An Ally’ {Dec.8, 2024}:
“Former Justice Minister David Lametti’s departure from government and immediate acceptance into an expensive law firm that makes millions from ‘indigenous’ issues is a recent example of what has long been called “The Indian Industry” at work. The fact that a member of the firm, Perry Bellegarde, former Grand Chief of the Assembly of ‘First Nations’ (A‘FN’) greased the wheels to bring Lametti into the expensive firm makes it the perfect example.”
https://endracebasedlaw.ca/2024/12/08/aboriginal-industry-rewards-an-ally/
‘Milking It For All It’s Worth’ (Cooper/Masuch LLP) {Sept.23, 2019}:
“Lawyers are the nexus and driving force of the Aboriginal Industry…and they’re at it again. Here are 2 ongoing examples, both driven by the same lawyer and law firm:
“There is steady interest in joining a $600-million class action lawsuit claiming RCMP discrimination against ‘indigenous’ {they mean ‘aboriginal’} people in the North, according to one of the lawyers who initiated the lawsuit.”
https://endracebasedlaw.ca/2019/09/23/milking-it-for-all-its-worth/
‘Jody Wilson-Raybould and the Betrayal of Canada’ {May 8, 2019}:
“Her last act was to issue a directive instructing government lawyers to no longer oppose aboriginal court cases {and defend the interests of the rest of Canadians}, but to cooperate with aboriginal activists in undermining Canada’s sovereignty.”
https://endracebasedlaw.com/2019/05/08/jody-wilson-raybould-and-the-betrayal-of-canada/
‘Training Legal Warriors To Undermine Canada’ {April 13, 2018}:
“Courts and academics are transforming the Charter of Rights and Freedoms from a roster of fundamental liberties, into a ‘social-justice’ {‘communist’} charter that justifies curbing individual freedoms instead of protecting them… Individual liberties are no longer fundamental. Everyone is not subject to the same rules. The legal ground is shifting.”
‘Creating A Segregated, Parallel Legal System In Canada’ {April 7, 2018}::
“In an age when we are actively trying to move beyond the differential and discriminatory treatment of people based on race/ethnicity, here we have the Canadian legal profession actively and eagerly setting up a parallel, segregated legal system!
ALL Canadians should be subject to the same legal provisions.
We DEMAND this as Canadian citizens!
We say ‘NO’ to segregated legal systems…
“A new law program at the University of Victoria is the world’s first to combine the intensive study of both ‘indigenous’ {‘primitive’} and ‘non-‘indigenous’ {‘modern’} law, enabling people to work fluently across the two realms {WHY?}.”
‘Universities Undermining Canada’ (U. Of Ottawa) {Jan.26, 2021}:
“We don’t have to follow a Western point of view or a Western way of law or a colonized way of law…We already have our own law and orders that were passed to us for generations and generations.”
{And this is from an Aboriginal LAW student at a Canadian university!!!}
https://canadiansforlegalequalityblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/26/universities-undermining-canada/
‘The Indoctrination of Alberta Lawyers’ (The ‘Path’) {Feb.6, 2023}:
“Alberta lawyers voted to retain a mandatory, and blatantly one-sided, Aboriginal Industry indoctrination course imposed on them by the Law Society. None of this is surprising, since one of the main financial beneficiaries of the billion-dollar, court-created Aboriginal Industry is the legal profession…”
https://endracebasedlaw.ca/2023/02/06/the-indoctrination-of-alberta-lawyers/
‘Residential School Lawyer Appointed To Supreme Court’ {January 25, 2018}:
“The newest Prime Ministerial appointment to the unaccountable Supreme Court of Canada was an architect of the ‘no-fault’, billion-dollar Residential Schools rewards program {“Under our system, attendance based on government records triggered automatic compensation, without making ‘survivors’ explain or prove their personal victimization”}…”
‘Grave Error’ {Dec.4, 2024}:
“All members of the Indian Residential School Research Group (IRSRG) agree on the main point of ‘Grave Error’,
“that no persuasive evidence has yet been offered by anyone for the existence of unmarked graves, missing children, murder, or genocide in residential schools”.
https://endracebasedlaw.com/2024/12/04/grave-error/
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