Reconciliation is a popular word in Canada these days, especially in relation to Indigenous people. By reconciling with First Nations, Métis and Inuit people, the hope is that we can put the past behind us and move forward to a better future.
Sure, it sounds good on paper. But as many Indigenous people, such as scholar Chelsea Vowel and my own dear friend Sharon Morin, have pointed out, before we can ever have reconciliation, we’ll need truth.
And right now, the truth is pretty ugly.
Recently, two women in Manitoba were arrested for uttering threats on Facebook, saying that a “24 hour purge” was needed for “shoot an Indian day,” adding that the “rez mutts need to stay on the rez.“ When Colten Boushie was killed by Gerald Stanley in 2016, people said Stanley’s only mistake was that he “left witnesses” and that he should have “shot all five and gotten a medal.” It got so bad that then-Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall called for people to stop it – and Wall wasn’t exactly a social justice warrior. If there was no racism in the Boushie case, then why would Wall have said what he did?
Similarly, most people seem to think that justice was served when Stanley was acquitted of Boushie’s killing, as well as when Raymond Cormier and Peter Khill were acquitted of the killings of Tina Fontaine and Jon Styres, respectively. But would Stanley, Cormier and Khill have been acquitted if the circumstances of their cases were the same, but the races were reversed and they were Indigenous defendants?
If the case of Donald Marshall – who was convicted of murder after a trial lasting three days with little to no proof, and left to rot in jail for 11 years before his innocence was proven, with a later inquiry viciously condemning the bigotry and incompetence directed at him – is any indication, most people would have considered them guilty no matter what a jury decided.
That’s part of the truth.
Another part of the truth is to dispel the urban legends many people believe about Indigenous people getting huge sums of money to spend however they want, or that they don’t pay taxes. In fact, Indigenous tax exemptions are far narrower than most people realize. Federal bureaucrats themselves also admit that First Nations are severely underfunded. First Nations must also write dozens of reports for Ottawa explaining how they’ve spent their money – and many of those reports aren’t even read by Ottawa bureaucrats. And if that’s not enough, a reserve can always have third-party management imposed.
With everything Indigenous people have to face in Canada, is it any wonder that there’s so much skepticism about reconciliation? All the things I’ve described make a mockery of everything we as Canadians claim our country stands for. The onus for change shouldn’t just be on Indigenous people.
- reprinted from St. Albert Gazette. Written by Jared Milne.
