B.C. mayor faces calls to resign over wife's support of residential school 'denialism' book

Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth About Residential Schools) questions the findings of 215 potential unmarked graves at the site of the former Kamloops Residential School. Quesnel Mayor Ron Paull's wife handed out several copies in the community, prompting calls for the mayor's resignation.

Calls are growing for the mayor of Quesnel, B.C., to resign over his wife’s public support of a residential school denialism book.

The Lhtako Dene First Nation first raised the issue last month in a letter to Mayor Ron Paull and Quesnel’s city council after learning his wife, Pat Morton, had circulated several copies of the book Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth About Residential Schools)—including one to the school board.

The letter called for a public apology and reconciliation actions by the mayor and his wife, and prompted an unanimous vote from city council to denounce the book. However, criticism continues to mount over the mayor’s refusal to publicly condemn the contents of Grave Error.

The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs issued its own letter Tuesday, ahead of a public meeting of Quesnel council, in solidarity with the Lhtako Dene Nation.

It describes the book as one that “essentially questions the very existence of residential schools and their well-documented harms against Indigenous peoples,” and calls for the mayor to meet with residential school survivors from local First Nations.

Survivors and elders were among hundreds of people who attended Tuesday’s council meeting, the agenda of which was solely focused on the book’s circulation and the concern of community members. Paull yielded his mayoral chair for the meeting.

Regular council business was deferred to a later date to allow for more time for testimonials from the gallery—including from First Nation chiefs and residential school survivors—which ended up stretching two-and-a-half hours long.

Clifford Lebrun of Lhtako told council that his First Nation will no longer work with the city until the issue is resolved and trust is restored.

“We need to know that we’re working with respectful people,” said Lebrun. “And that is impossible to do when there is denialism and racism at the table.”

Chief Leah Stump of Nazko echoed Lebrun’s statement, growing emotional as she told council “our community deserves better. We shouldn’t have to prove that our people went to residential schools to prove that we were hurt and we were broken.”

Council also heard from Morton herself, who did not apologize for circulating the book, but expressed disappointment that Coun. Laurey-Anne Roodenburg, the Indigenous Relations Liaison, didn’t personally approach her when the issue first surfaced.

Grave Error contributor Frances Widdowson also attended the meeting, and reserved her time in front of council to describe the findings of 215 possible unmarked graves at the former site of the Kamloops Residential School as “misinformation.”

Her remarks were in response to the UBCIC letter issued earlier that day, which included criticism over Quesnel council’s decision to hear from Widdowson.

“Widdowson was fired from Mount Royal University based on her atrocious comments on Canada’s residential school system and the Black Lives Matter movement and continues to question the findings bravely shared by Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc and other First Nations about unmarked graves as being profit motivated,” the letter reads.

UBCIC said the time and space provided to Widdowson on a taxpayer agenda would be better focused on proven facts and working with First Nation towards reconciliation.

The meeting ended without an apology from Paull.

Responding to calls from the gallery for his resignation, the mayor described the book controversy as an opportunity to “learn, heal and work together towards reconciliation.”

CTV News reached out to Paull’s office for comment and was told that the mayor is declining all media interviews at this time.