Cancel Canada? Never.

With the discovery of perhaps two hundred and fifty unmarked graves on the property of The Kamloops Indian Residential School Canadians have been forced to confront a dark chapter in Canada’s history, one that has been mostly ignored by non native Canadians to date. The reactions have been almost universal in their condemnation of the Indian Residential School system with its intent to eradicate native cultures in Canada. As I said in an earlier blog, it is a jarring and difficult wake up call, one that should see Canadians of all races, religions and creeds turn a laser focused look at that part of our history, and then recommit to reconciliation between native Canadians and non native Canadians.

Perhaps it was inevitable that this reaction has deteriorated into an angry mob denouncing this country, its history and those leaders who contributed to its founding and success. The language being used to describe Sir John A. MacDonald, Canada’s first Prime Minister and Egerton Ryerson, a Methodist Minister and early education reformer who, amongst other things, pioneered free public education in Canada, is usually reserved for some of the great monsters of history like Adolph Hitler or Paul Pot. Both MacDonald and Ryerson played a part in the design and creation of the Indian Residential School System that is now the subject of so much condemnation.

The Victoria City Council has cancelled Canada Day in British Columbia’s capital city, citing concerns over the effect of that celebration on native Canadians after the Kamloops discovery. And right on cue, there is a growing chorus calling for Canada Day to be cancelled.

Two days ago a retiring NDP MP, Mumilaaq Quaqqaq, a native Canadian, described Canada as “A racist failure”. Aside from being untrue on so many levels, this claim, while maybe feeling good in the present, won’t speed reconciliation but will make it less likely for non native Canadians to view the plight of native Canadians with the kind of empathy needed to complete the work of reconciliation. To illustrate why that is so important, consider the population statistics. Canada is a nation of about 38 million, of which only 1.67 million self identify as “native”, thirty six percent of whom are Metis (mixed race).

Similarly, the move to cancel Canada Day or to remove memorials to the leaders who founded this country will drive us apart, not bring us together. It feels as if the response to extinguishing native cultures should be to extinguish non native culture. And the non native population of Canada will not tolerate that.

I am shocked and saddened by what I have learned about the Indian Residential School system and I will support any and all appropriate measures to undo the wrongs visited upon native Canadians by that system. But, and I want to be very clear about this, I am not sorry my grandparents immigrated to Canada in the late nineteenth century, nor that waves of European immigrants came here in the preceding two hundred years and laid the foundation for this great country we call home.

Displacing populations is a constant of human history going back through millennia. In fact, I am mostly descended from Celts who were pushed to the harshest edges of the British Isles by successive invasions by Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Normans. While those events are far off historically compared to the treatment of the native populations of Canada, they still affect the descendants of the dispossessed. I’m not trying to justify the Canadian treatment of it’s aboriginal population by saying it has always happened, just to put it into an historical context that shows the Canadian experience is far from unique and certainly not the worst of its kind.

Whatever its flaws, Canada has much to be proud of over its relatively short life. It is a prosperous, free democracy. In fact it is one of the oldest functioning democracies in the world. It has risen heroically to the defence of freedom many times, most notably in the fight against fascism in the Second World War. It practically invented peacekeeping from Suez to Cypress to Bosnia. It has never engaged in a war of aggression against another country. It welcomes refugees and immigrants from all over the world even in this day and age when the doors of so many other nations are being slammed in their faces. It provides a level of social support to its citizens through programs like Medicare, the Old Age Pension, Workers’ Compensation and so many others that outshine most other countries. And, most importantly, it knows its work is not complete as it continues to work to eliminate inequality and discrimination of all kinds, from racism to homophobia. So, yes, there is much to celebrate on Canada Day.

None of this means Canada is perfect nor that things didn’t happen in its past that were wrong, certainly by today’s standards. But what country on earth is? And Canada keeps working at it even when the task seems impossible. And that includes Canada’s attempts to reconcile with its native population. In fact, I believe there is no other country on earth that tries so hard, or that commits so many resources, to reconciling with its native population as Canada. And yet it is dismissed as a racist failure.

Without the arrival of Europeans in North America, Canada would not be. Of course the displaced native populations mourn their loss and wish for a pre-European time. But that isn’t going to happen. Not now. Not ever. Which, by the way, is why I question the point of the endless acknowledgements of being on “unceded lands” of whichever native tribe when no reasonable person could ever expect much of that land will ever be returned to its previous native occupants.

We should and must learn from our mistakes. And, no question, when it comes to our treatment of the native populations there have been many mistakes, although it strikes me as wrong to assume only malice in our ancestors’ behaviour. We must address those mistakes with apologies and compensation where that is possible and reasonable, and we must redouble our efforts, guided by the native peoples themselves, to create room in this great country for them to thrive and prosper.

Something that worries me in the current round of hand wringing and mea culpas is that, with the predictable push to the extreme edges, the majority of non native Canadians, who make up something like ninety eight percent of the population, will either turn against the need for reconciliation or will simply ignore it. When language is used that describes Canada as a “failed racist state”, when the founders of this country are mocked and diminished without any regard to the great good they accomplished in their lives, when the demands for justice are embedded in a rigid belief that the only path to it is the effective dismantling of this great country, then the battle is lost because non native Canadians like me will never, ever, allow that to happen.

just sayin

G

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