A Canadian civil liberties organization announced it would be representing a beleaguered municipal councillor at the Supreme Court of Prince Edward Island in an attempt to reverse sanctions over a controversial sign he posted outside of his home.
The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) will be at the provincial Supreme Court on Thursday to argue for a judicial review of a decision which sanctioned the councillor for the “Mass graves: Hoax” sign.
John Robertson, a councillor in Murray Harbour P.E.I., has been sanctioned by the province and municipality after some in his community were offended by his use of a signboard on his property.
Robertson placed a sign on his lawn displaying a message that was critical of the false narrative that hundreds of bodies were discovered in supposed unmarked graves at a residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
During Canada’s “Truth and Reconciliation Day” weekend in September 2023, Robertson wrote out a controversial message on the sign in hopes of sparking a conversation around what he viewed to be a hoax perpetrated by legacy media.
“Truth: Mass Grave Hoax. Reconciliation: Redeem Sir John A’s Integrity,” the sign said.
After community members from the small town with 282 residents complained, he was faced with calls to resign. When he refused to do so, his fellow councillors launched a Code of Conduct investigation into his political messaging. They issued a $500 fine against him and a six-month suspension from the council.
The township’s mayor, some community members and local First Nation Chief Junior Gould, who was set to reeducate Robertson, were all behind his resignation. P.E.I Senator Brian Francis similarly accused the councillor of displaying “hateful and harmful content” and “perpetuating violence.”
He was also compelled to apologize using specified “phrases” by the township.
“He couldn’t understand how the council could legally enforce these sanctions against him for expressing his private opinion on a private sign in the face of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” Josh Dehaas, a civil liberties lawyer and author with the CCF, told True North.
He said the CCF originally stepped in to help Robertson hire a local lawyer to file an application to repeal the decision in Feb. 2024 when he couldn’t get a hold of one on his own.
Normally, there is a 30-day deadline to seek judicial review in P.E.I., but a judge can waive that restriction should they find “grounds for relief” or reasonable justifications for hearing his case.
“Justice Coady has the discretion to excuse the delay ‘where he is satisfied that there are grounds and that no substantial prejudice or hardship will result to any person by reason of the delay’,” Dehaas told True North.
He said Robertson has a good case to be made for relief based on the decision to sanction him.
“Judges have exercised that discretion many times in the past. We’ll just need to show there are “grounds for relief,” Dehaas said. “Frankly, this case cries out for relief because it engages the fundamental freedom for municipal politicians to express their opinions without risking sanction or even removal from office by people who disagree.”
Since the original announcement of a “confirmation” of 215 bodies being found at the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, no bodies have been discovered.
In June 2021, the Chief of the Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc First Nations government announced that the preliminary findings were wrong and that there was no “mass grave” and only “soil disturbances” were detected. Despite this, the Canadian legacy media continued to peddle the narrative that soil irregularities discovered by ground-penetrating radar were “unmarked graves.”
“Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (And the Truth About Residential Schools) written by Tom Flanagan and C.P Champion and published by True North, further challenges the legacy media narrative about the supposed grave findings using historical evidence.
