Canada’s international reputation has remained largely intact over the years. Many other countries see Canada as a multicultural, peace-keeping nation. Furthermore, Canada is often painted as the last country standing in the human rights arena.
source. Political cartoon by Greg Perry depicting Canada as a human rights “musketeer” while our allies turn tail.
But can Canada really be considered a human rights musketeer when Canada has long denied human rights within our own borders?
In 2008, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was created in an effort to acknowledge and correct wrong-doings Canada has committed against Indigenous peoples. The TRC’s final report was in 2015, in which 94 Calls to Action were proposed. The final report also included 150 000 horrifying accounts from those who were forced into Canada’s residential schools (The Canadian Encyclopedia).
Despite this final report, as of 2017, the Canadian government had “yet to pay adequate attention to systematic poverty, housing, water, sanitation, healthcare, and education problems in Indigenous communities” (Human Rights Watch).
One of the promises the Liberal government made on its electoral platform in 2015 as a part of Truth and Reconciliation was to solve the lack of access to safe drinking water in Indigenous communities. Yet two years later the number of drinking water advisories was 172 in Canada. In 2015, there was 159 (Vice News).
As a result, it is not surprising that many feel that reconciliation has so far been an empty promise.
I think that a big reason why Canada has been unable to truly implement change and reconciliation is that many settler Canadians still have not accepted the truth of Truth and Reconciliation. There have been articles like this one which has questioned the validity of horror stories from survivors and the entire narrative on residential schools in general. The most shocking example of this occurred last year when Senator Lynn Beyak made a speech in which she commented that some good things came out of residential schools. She continued, stating the following:
“…there are shining examples from sea to sea of people who owe their lives to the [residential] schools.”
*you can read Lynn’s full speech here.
To make these ignorant comments even worse (didn’t think it was possible?), Sen. Lynn Beyak wasn’t just any Senator at the time she made these comments. She was a member of the Aboriginal Peoples committee. She refused to resign her position on the committee after her comments went viral and even refused any re-education on the issue of residential schools from Indigenous leaders who reached out to her (CBC News). Thankfully, she has since been forcibly removed from the committee.
Propaganda on residential schools has existed since the 1950s. It evidently still holds some power over the opinions of a few Canadians. With false narratives like these floating around in people’s heads truth cannot be fully realized, and actions towards reconciliation never fully achieved.
Sources:
Perpetual Student 