Dead Wild Roses

Jim McMurtry, a seasoned Canadian high school history teacher with nearly 40 years of experience, found himself at the center of a storm in May 2021 when he dared to question the explosive narrative surrounding the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Following the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation’s announcement of 215 “unmarked graves” detected by ground-penetrating radar, the nation erupted in grief and outrage, fueled by claims of mass murder and secret burials. While substituting for a Calculus 12 class at a school in Abbotsford, British Columbia, McMurtry responded to a student’s assertion that priests had tortured and murdered Indigenous children by stating that most deaths at residential schools were due to diseases like tuberculosis—not deliberate killings. Within an hour, he was escorted out of the building by administrators, accused of “extremely serious professional misconduct” for contradicting the district’s message of reconciliation.

McMurtry’s statement wasn’t a wild guess; it aligned with findings from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which spent years documenting that tuberculosis and other illnesses were the leading causes of death among residential school students. Yet, the Abbotsford School District didn’t care about historical accuracy—they wanted a compliant narrative. Suspended indefinitely, McMurtry faced a barrage of allegations, including claims he’d made insensitive remarks, though the only evidence was a vague, handwritten note from a principal relaying a student’s complaint via a counselor. No bodies had been exhumed at Kamloops, no forensic proof of murder emerged, but the district clung to the emotional weight of the story, prioritizing optics over facts. McMurtry, with a master’s in educational history and a Ph.D. in philosophy of education specializing in Indigenous history, was suddenly the villain for refusing to parrot unverified claims.

The injustice deepened as the school board’s disciplinary process unfolded. After a year of suspension, McMurtry spoke out publicly, refusing to be “muzzled” and criticizing the district’s handling of his case. This defiance sealed his fate. On February 21, 2023, the Abbotsford School District fired him, citing his unwillingness to follow orders and his insistence on free speech as reasons he could no longer be employed. The board’s report framed his historical corrections as undermining their “truth and reconciliation work,” as if truth itself was negotiable. Meanwhile, the lack of transparency—denying him a proper hearing for over three years and relying on hearsay—exposed a system more interested in protecting its image than fostering honest discourse.

The fallout didn’t stop with his termination. McMurtry’s teaching regulator, the British Columbia Teacher Regulation Branch (TRB), piled on, pressuring him to retire and threatening to cancel his teaching certificate unless he admitted to misconduct for not labeling residential school deaths as part of a “government strategy of cultural genocide.” His refusal to bend to ideological demands turned him into a pariah, despite his impeccable record, two teaching awards, and stints as a college lecturer and junior college principal. The TRC’s own data supported his classroom comments, yet the establishment doubled down, with figures like NDP MP Leah Gazan pushing for laws to criminalize “denialism” of such narratives—laws that could’ve targeted McMurtry directly. His career was sacrificed not for falsehoods, but for challenging a politically charged myth with inconvenient facts.

This saga reveals a chilling injustice: a teacher punished not for lying, but for teaching. McMurtry’s case underscores a broader cultural shift in Canada, where questioning sacred narratives—however dubious—can end a livelihood. The Kamloops story, still unproven years later with no excavated remains, became a cudgel to silence dissent, leaving McMurtry jobless and vilified. Supported by writers like Conrad Black and Barbara Kay, he’s since found solidarity among those who see his firing as an attack on free thought. Yet, the damage is done—a decorated educator, armed with expertise and evidence, was cast aside by a system that valued conformity over truth, proving that in today’s Canada, history isn’t a subject to explore, but a script to obey.