The truth will set you free.
Unfortunately, as poetic as that expression is, it is useless without understanding and action.
When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada started its journey six years ago, many thought it was just another example of government pretense. Send out three commissioners to hear from thousands of survivors of residential schools, send out press releases and, well, you get the picture. It sounds good, but would it be more than lip service ?
We might lean towards the cynical view on this commission if it hadn’t been for a brave and correct statement in its recent report. The commission said the residential school system in Canada amounted to a “cultural genocide”.
Canada had previously managed to keep the term cultural genocide out of two major United Nations documents. But here it is, in a definitive report from the commission.
The commission defined it as “the destruction of those structures and practices that allow the group to continue as a group.” It includes disrupting families “to prevent the transmission of cultural values and identity from one generation to the next.” Frankly, there are few better examples than how the government systematically tried to destroy aboriginal culture and society than in Canada. Although, we are certainly not alone in such feats.
The harm done to generations of First Nations people in Canada can never be adequately catalogued, but the commission has, we believe, done a good job.
But it will mean little if the commission’s recommendations are not taken seriously and addressed by all levels of government.
Many of the recommendations seem impossible given the current federal government’s lack of interest in even correcting current injustices many First Nations people are living with today. Inadequate health care, sanitation and even a lack of fresh water is still the ‘truth’ for aboriginal people in Canada. Not to mention the lack of co-ordinated concern when First Nations’ women are being targetted and murdered.
The commission’s straight talk will mean little if its most basic recommendations are not acted upon. And such inaction will not lead to reconciliation, but will lead to another generation’s loss for the potential to correct past injustices and build allies for the future.
