‘I’m absolutely opposed to this comedian’s rhetoric and more importantly his attendance within the Robinson Huron Treaty territory area,’ said Chief Karen Bell of Garden River

The chief of Garden River First Nation is calling on the Sault Community Theatre Centre to cancel the performance of a controversial comedian coming to town in March.

Chief Karen Bell said she’s against Ben Bankas performing in the Sault because his jokes about Indigenous people and residential schools are “inaccurate” and “crude.”

According to the Sault Community Theatre Centre’s website, the I Said What I Said Tour will include an “unfiltered night of comedy that says what everyone’s thinking.”

Bell takes issue with the comedian’s depiction of residential schools, which Bankas said had “nice architecture.”

“If you wanted to go to a residential school now, in 2025 it’d be like $40,000 a year. Those motherf—ers got it for free,” Bankas said during his act.

He also made a joke about his visit to Winnipeg, which he described as an “Indigenous zombie apocalypse.”

The outspoken comedian, who did not respond to a request for comment, has had shows cancelled in Kelowna, Calgary, Thunder Bay and North Bay.

Indian residential schools separated children from their families without the consent of parents, who didn’t even know where they were living, Bell said.

“These schools separated and stigmatized First Nation children from their homelands, their culture, and their language.”

Bell said residential schools were definitely not something to joke about.

“Many children were the recipients of repetitive beatings, insufficient and unhealthy foods, chronic illness, constant ridicule about their race, sexual assaults, and displacement.

“Many did not return home because they died at those schools and were left in unmarked graves. Those that did return were often irreparably fractured from their communities,” Bell said.

The constant and recurring abuse and mistreatment “led to emotional scars, psychological scars, parenting instabilities, addictions, and low self esteem.

“Evidence has shown that these spaces were not schools. They were traumatic places where the Canadian attempted to ‘take the Indian out of the Indian’ and make them citizens of Canada – thereby erasing their language and culture forever,” Bell said.

Garden River First Nation and the city of Sault Ste. Marie signed a Friendship Accord in February 2025 agreeing to work toward “reconciliation and prosperity as equal partners,” she said.

“I’m absolutely opposed to this comedian’s rhetoric and more importantly his attendance within the Robinson Huron Treaty territory area, principally the city of Sault Ste. Marie,” Bell said.

“This type of inaccuracy is demonstrative of rudeness, crudeness, brassiness, and a cause of incivility at the hands of the first people of this country.

“I could go on but suffice to say that I am not in agreement that Ben Bankas attend and make jokes about First Nation people – especially when two of the larger populated nations within the treaty territory are located in a place once known as Bawating and where the Robinson Huron Treaty was signed in 1850.”

Sault Mayor Matthew Shoemaker wouldn’t say if the show should be cancelled.

“That’s a decision SCTC should make in consultation with local First Nations,” Shoemaker said, adding that the city is not involved in the Sault Community Theatre Centre’s bookings.

“We have worked hard and will continue to work hard to advance reconciliation, regardless of whether or not this individual does a show here,” he said.

SooToday has not heard back from the Sault Community Theatre Centre, which is located at White Pines Collegiate.  

Fran Walsh, communications officer with the Algoma District School Board, said the board alerted the Sault Community Theatre Centre to the issue and the centre will explore the comedian’s material to see if it’s “in line with their mission statement.”