B.C. law society settles libel suit over ‘residential school denialism’ claims

A British Columbia lawyer who challenged his own governing body over false claims tied to the Kamloops residential school narrative has reached a confidential settlement with the Law Society of British Columbia, and in today’s climate, that’s no small victory.

In 2025, Victoria criminal defence lawyer Jim Heller sued the law society for defamation after it published a link to statements from the First Nations Justice Council alleging that a resolution he and fellow lawyer Mark Berry introduced was “racist” and promoted “residential school genocide and denialism.”

The resolution itself simply asked the law society to correct its mandatory Indigenous intercultural course, which repeated widely circulated false claim that in 2021 the bodies of 215 children had been discovered at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

To date, however, no human remains have been excavated or confirmed at the site, and the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc has not announced any excavation confirming that what they now refer to as “200 anomalies” are graves.

Heller argued the course should instead refer to the findings factually as “potential graves.”

Rather than embracing that correction, the law society publicly condemned Heller’s resolution and amplified statements from the First Nations Justice Council characterizing it as racist and an act of residential school denialism.

The case has now ended in a confidential settlement, and the law society has removed its original statement concerning Heller, revised its course materials, and published what it describes as a “clarification” statement about not intending to defame Mr. Heller.

In my interview with Jim Heller, we discuss why he chose to challenge the law society, how he feels about the David and Goliath type battle being over and the continued political pressure to criminalize the speech of so-called “residential school denialism”.

Liquid syntax error: Error in tag ‘subpage’ – No such page slug x