This is a tough post.
I love Canada. I’m the first Canadian in my family. I have cousins who are Canadian too, now, but many didn’t spend their childhood here.
But, Canada has a troubling history and a troubling present. I see too many of us patting ourselves on the back for our society. Smug, as though we have something over our neighbours to the south. Like the role played in the underground railway somehow gives us a pass as to how Canadian society treated black people once they arrived here? Smug smile, pat, pat. We just hide it better. Which may be worse.
Consider Jagmeet Singh and Alain Therrien. 10 second sound bite: our first and only racialized leader of a major federal party was asked to leave after refusing to apologize for calling Alain Therrian, another MP, a racist. Mr. Singh wanted a unanimous consent of the House to move for a motion recognizing that systemic racism in the RCMP is a thing (hint: it is). Therrian refused to consent, meaning that the motion couldn’t even be heard. Singh called Therrian a racist, yada, yada, yada, he was asked to apologize, he refused. It’s, technically, the refusal to withdraw the remark or apologize for it that got him removed from the Chamber for the day. I gather this is not a wholly uncommon occurrence. There are many takes out there on the interwebs, many defending the actions against Singh based on the rules, that we was well aware of. What is a big question mark for me are these rules. Who made them? (hint: old white dudes) Are they applied properly? (hint: HA!) Should we be reviewing them in light of systemic racism. My spidey sense says, yes, yes we should.
Here’s an example that illustrates the point, though not the complexity of the history: New Brunswick police. In 2014 there was an active shooter that shot 5 police officers, killing three. The white perpetrator was arrested, alive, after a 2 day man hunt. In the last 2 weeks, in New Brunswick, 2 Indigenous people were shot and killed by the police in suspicious circumstances. Chantel Moore was killed during a wellness check. Rodney Levi was just killed just four days ago, so the circumstances aren’t as known, but it appears the police were called to a neighbourhood BBQ that Mr. Levi was invited to. The owner of the home, a pastor, has said he was a ‘welcomed guest’. The specific circumstances of each case are not yet clear. Hopefully the families, the communities and the public will get answers. This is part of a broader conversation, for me at least, as to racialized Canadians, policing, mental health, training, its all part of the conversation around defund the police. This is not an outlier, it’s just an example.
Here’s another current example: Sasha Exeter and Jessica Mulroney. White privilege on display in dictionary definition. Mulhoney is a NAME in Canada. Listen to Sasha’s post and consider the weaponization of white privilege by people, like Amy Cooper, also Canadian. I’m not going to analyze this one, instead I’ll link to Lainey’s breakdown and continuation of the discussion. It’s brave and perfect. Lainey has since been attacked for her own troubling language as it relates to race, misogyny, and a number of inter-sectional topics. It has inspired a lot of thought around cancel culture, that I think will get it’s own post in the near future.
What is clear is that we have a system that is broken. That racialized people are treated differently. That Indigenous people, particularly, need our focus. We (this may be the royal ‘we’, I definitely mean me) are so focused on the US, we don’t realize the equivalent work we need to do here. We need to confront our own problems. Now seems to be the time, folks.
I do want to spend just a quick second on Indigenous history in Canada. I’m not Indigenous. I want to explore my own bias, my own blind spots, my clear and certain privilege. I know I’ve been racist towards Indigenous peoples. I’ve used phrases – like ‘pow-wow’ or ‘circle the wagons’, that are clearly offside. I need to own that and change my own behaviour. If I run from it or hide it, I can’t grow. However well meaning I may be, I need to ensure I’m actively anti-racist, which means owning up to it.
I’m intrigued by what I learned in school. What the curriculum was. There are two areas I will focus on: residential schools and the sixties scoop. Now, I know about residential schools. It leads me to believe I learned of at least their existence in school – I’d be intrigued to hear from teachers as to whether I’m right on that or not as I can’t pin point where that knowledge came from except that I perceive that I’ve known forever. But my interpretation of the ‘evil’ of residential schools was still very white washed. I learned of it as a place where Indigenous children were willingly sent, that it was a place of education, but that it was instigated by well meaning individuals who thought assimilation was the answer. That teaching white history and the English language would HELP the Indigenous children attending become active and thriving members of the community. I recall the language point being sensitive. That when I learned about it, that was considered abusive, but not much else. That’s another reason that I think I learned about this in school, I mean: who else could come up with this shit and have so warped my foundational understanding of these institutions? Even with the added: we were wrong about this one part. Smug smile, pat, pat. Residential schools started in 1880 and we closed the last one in 1996! WTF!
What was eye-opening for me and something I learned about embarrassingly late in life was the ‘Sixties Scoop’. Essentially, it’s a term that describes the common practice to ‘scoop’ all newborn children from mothers on reserves. Although I would say my view of the party line on residential schools had changed significantly by that point, learning about the sixties scoop was a dramatic shift in my understanding of the reality of residential schools. It really made me understand that children were ripped from their homes, kidnapped, robbed of their culture, their siblings, their parents, their elders, taught their fundamental beliefs were wrong, abhorrent, evil. And that’s the published party line part! Let’s not forget the additional hidden abuse these children faced, mental, sexual, physical. You name it. I can’t give the experience the words, I’m not equipped and I can’t truly understand. I can only identify the evil when I see it.
I’ve not done all the reading I want to on this topic. I still have a long way to go in terms of education on these topics. I only want to remind all Canadians, we’re just as bad. This is what should have us rioting. Indigenous people are still feeling all of the effects of the history and the present. Right now, their current situation. How do we not rage? Is it because there aren’t enough Indigenous people left to rally us? Right, that’s part of Canada’s history too. Don’t smug smile, pat, pat. We have to deal with our own legacies. This history is one we should expose, rip open, this history is one we should face, stare at. Where is our rage? Because smug smile, pat, pat? We are worse.
For those wanting an intro course, Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleo, a CBC podcast with the amazing Connie Walker was heart wrenching and taught me more about the direct experience then anything I’ve ever read. Empathy is so important. I also will do some legal analysis into jurisprudence on Indigenous issues, as it exposes a lot of our smug smile, pat, pat behaviour.