Dear Editor
I have to make two confessions.
First, I wear my heart or maple leaf on my sleeve when it comes to all things Canadian. I recall waking up in my University of Chicago dorm in 1976 to learn that Kathy Kreiner had won the giant slalom at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Canada’s only gold medal. It was a wonderful way to start the day even though my American friends were indifferent. I have been filled with pride when Canadians have won Nobel prizes, had great success as singers and artists on the world stages or just done the decent Canadian thing such as Ken Taylor’s rescue of the Americans during the Iranian revolution.
Recently, my Canadian pride has taken a big hit. We are not as great as I thought we were. Having had the advantage of reading the Summary of the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report, I have learned that the treatment of Canada’s indigenous peoples has been and continues to be appalling.
Thus, my second confession: I was simply unaware of this fact. I am 60 years old and have lived almost all my life in Canada. I grew up in a small city in the West Kootenays. I am well read and like to think I am aware of the things that are really important to living a responsible, caring life. My reading of the TRC report has upset my equilibrium. How could I have been so ignorant, so blind to the realities of Canada? Where I grew up, there were a great many immigrants from Russia, Ukraine, England. They prospered in an area where we were told there were no aboriginal settlements because the valley went from east to west. We were not taught in school anything of the treaties between our federal government and the First Nations, the Indian residential schools or pretty much anything of Canadian history before the European colonization.
My aim is not to blame anybody or any institution for this hole in my knowledge. Rather, I am writing to acknowledge its existence and to start a process of enlightenment of the true history of our land.
We are a treaty people. Our European ancestors made treaties with the First Nations peoples. In some places, such as British Columbia, treaties were not made with the assumption that this late in the process of colonization, they were not needed. The First Nations had been so weakened by racist government policies and laws that they would never assert their basic rights.
Fortunately, for First Nations and for Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada has determined that native Canadians still own their ancestral lands, unless they have signed away their ownership in treaties with government.
For Canada Day 2016, I will re-calibrate my identity as a Canadian.
Instead of looking at Canadian success on the world stage, I will attempt to learn more about the peoples who lived here long before my ancestors arrived. I will learn about the truth of their history, their lifestyles, their spirituality.
I am confident that as I do so, I will restore my pride as a Canadian because it will be based on what I truly treasure as the soul of being Canadian – knowing each other, helping each other, honouring each other.
Dale Darychuk, New Westminster
