UBC rejects event featuring far-right speaker touting ‘mass grave hoax’

UBC has rejected a controversial event that was set to feature an alt-right filmmaker who makes claims about a “hoax” related to unmarked graves discovered at the sites of former residential schools.

Promoted as “An honest conversation about Canadian residential schools and mass graves,” the event hosted by UBC Students for Freedom of Expression on Nov. 17 was set to be a roundtable discussion between Lauren Southern, George Brown, and Kevin Annett.

Southern, a far-right commentator, and former Rebel Media worker, most recently created a controversial film titled “The Canadian Mass Graves Hoax,” which organizers of the roundtable have said “takes a skeptical view of recent revelations of genocide at residential schools.”

Many people call Annett a conspiracy theorist, despite organizers claiming him to be a “pivotal figure in the investigation of Canada’s residential schools.”

In a statement on its website, UBC stated, “To be clear, this was not an event sponsored by anyone at the University of British Columbia. The host of the event is an external group that is not endorsed by UBC.”

Please read a statement regarding the cancellation of a Nov. 17 talk that was booked by the UBC Students for Freedom of Expression. https://t.co/csZ2dwzeKl pic.twitter.com/4KHkie08zD

— University of British Columbia (@UBC) November 12, 2021

The university explains the event was initially booked for a “classroom space” at the school. While it has denied the request, UBC spokesperson Matthew Ramsey admits the university “is not able to prevent the booking from being made elsewhere off-campus, or being hosted online.”

Many had been pushing for UBC to cancel the event.

“I know plenty of you paid thousands of dollars to get an education at UBC. How do you feel about your money paying for this?” one person wrote on Facebook Wednesday, urging others to reach out to UBC to pressure the school to cancel the event request.

“Don’t just like this and keep scrolling. You have an email app on the phone in your hand right now. Take 5 minutes to do a small thing that matters.”

In the statement posted Friday, UBC says it reviewed the request and “conducted an assessment of the event in accordance with our event booking process.”

“Although the university does and will continue to support academic freedom, we have determined that this event should not proceed. We believe proceeding with this event would adversely affect campus and community safety,” the statement adds.

UBC says it’s committed to “truth and meaningful reconciliation” as well as supporting Indigenous people and communities “to know and share the truth of mass human rights violations associated with residential schools.”

Southern took to Twitter Friday morning after getting word that UBC had rejected requests to hold the event on campus.

“I can’t say I’m surprised, but I do appreciate the University acknowledging the violent nature of those attempting to shut down free speech,” she wrote. “Sorry to all those who planned to attend.”

‘UBC did the right thing’

Prof. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond is a law professor and the director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at UBC, and she says she is relieved that the booking was denied.

“The horrors of residential school are well known. The missing children and unmarked graves are part of the unfinished work in Canada of addressing the legacy of residential schools. To have a speaker come forward who is denying this isn’t freedom of speech, but really, it’s promoting hatred and misinformation. It’s extremely damaging,” she says.

“Students, community members, leaders, survivors, all of them have been reaching out to me saying that they’re very traumatized about the fact that this could go ahead and be associated with UBC. It does affect the sense of cultural safety for Indigenous students, most of whom are intergenerational survivors, and faculty and staff.”

Turpel-Lafond says the confirmation of hundreds of unmarked graves by the Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc and Cowesses First Nations earlier this year has been painful for Indigenous people in those communities and across the country, making the timing of this event all the more painful.

“We need to protect the human rights of Indigenous people for a reason, their human rights have not been protected, and not sanctioning of this event is quite important at UBC. I think it does send an important message.”

The Centre issued a statement about the event planned for November 17:https://t.co/ODdM6mTnxl

— UBC IRSHDC (@ubcirshdc) November 12, 2021

Still, the possibility that the event could be moved online, and the harmful messages further spread does trouble Turpel-Lafond.

“It’s hard to insulate ourselves from this, this is part of our reality of having things attacked aggressively, and Indigenous people, in particular, are often subjected to racialized attacks and not believed, and it’s very important that we respond,” she says.

“Social media platforms and other places that host this information need to also take appropriate stands.”

The centre says in a statement that they have reported their concerns about this event being promoted to Facebook.

With files from Crystal Laderas

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correctly refer to discoveries at the sites of former residential schools as “unmarked graves.” However, direct quotes that reference “mass graves” have been left unaltered.