Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stood firmly by the Conservative North Island–Powell River candidate, Aaron Gunn, pushing back hard against what he called a false and misleading smear campaign against the B.C. documentary filmmaker.
During a press conference on Saturday, Poilievre was pressed on a letter put out by former members of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs and local politicians, alleging that Gunn had denied the generational trauma caused by residential schools. Poilievre rejected the accusation outright when asked if he stood by his candidate.
“Yes, I do,” Poilievre said when asked if he still supports Gunn. “The letter is false. He has not denied the impacts of residential schools—that’s simply misinformation.”
Poilievre pointed to Gunn’s public record, where the popular filmmaker and commentator explicitly condemned the “truly horrific events” that occurred in residential schools.
Gunn himself has stated that “any attempt to suggest otherwise is simply false,” adding that he supports reconciliation rooted in opportunity and prosperity for Indigenous Canadians.
Beyond addressing the controversy, Poilievre doubled down on the party’s broader message—highlighting Gunn’s commitment to unlocking natural resource development in partnership with First Nations communities.
Poilievre said Gunn supports a First Nations resource charge that would allow companies to pay taxes directly to Indigenous governments, putting prosperity directly into the hands of local communities.
“The choice in this election is clear: after a lost Liberal decade marked by rising costs, increased crime, and a weakening economy, do we want to keep a government that holds our First Nations people back?” asked Poilievre.
In particular, activists and former Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs accused Gunn of denying residential school impacts – a charge Gunn has since called “simply false.”
“I have always been firm in recognizing the truly horrific events that transpired in residential schools, and any attempt to suggest otherwise is simply false,” said Gunn in a statement on the matter.
Gunn has also made several documentaries highlighting issues faced by Indigenous and Canadian communities alike, including several interviews with First Nations leaders.
Legacy media reports have honed in on a post responding to the claims of residential schools being analogous to “genocide.”
“There was no genocide. Stop lying to people and read a book. The Holocaust was a genocide. Get off Twitter and learn more about the world.”
In 2021, former prime minister Justin Trudeau publicly acknowledged an inquiry’s findings that Canada had committed a “genocide” against Indigenous peoples. The declaration has been disputed by historians including Trent University professor of Canadian history Christopher Dummitt and others.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded in 2015 that the system constituted “cultural genocide”—a phrase later upgraded to simply “genocide” by some human rights experts and Indigenous leaders.
Bob (Galagame) Chamberlin, who served as vice-president of the UBCIC for a decade and was chief of the Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation for 14 years, alleged Gunn’s comments were “blatantly racist” –a charge Gunn denies.
The legacy of residential schools remains a highly polarizing issue in Canadian public life—particularly in British Columbia, where some of the largest and longest-operating institutions were located.
“I have never wavered in condemning these institutions of abuse, where countless First Nations suffered at the hands of a patronizing federal government,” wrote Gunn in response to the accusations.
Conservative Party of British Columbia Leader John Rustad also came to Gunn’s defence on X, saying that “attempts by media and (the) NDP to misrepresent his views on residential schools are wrong.”