On many Canadian university campuses, students are told that they need to be “allies” to marginalized groups. Today, we often focus on Indigenous populations, the LGBTQ+ community, and people of colour. Indigenous people are given, by far, a bigger spotlight …
Happy Canada Day!
Canada Day is recognized in our calendars, but some organizers have been spooked by last summer’s hysteria about 215 Indigenous children murdered and secretly buried at Kamloops. Following that news, churches were set on fire, statues were toppled, and a …
Yes, it is Indeed Time to Move on
The overwhelming majority of Canadians regret the history of European contact with Indigenous peoples, and the injustices and hardships that followed over the hundreds of years since. At the same time, they celebrate Canada’s accomplishments, which have created a Canada …
It Is Time to Move On
I wrote an opinion column immediately following the May 27, 2021 announcement of the “shocking discovery of 215 bodies found in a mass grave at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.” In that column, I correctly stressed …
We Have Found Death Certificates for the Missing Children
1.0 Introduction For years there have been constant references to the death of Aboriginal children. It has been said that the death rate in residential schools was much higher than the death rate on the reserves, and that the schools …
B.C. Indigenous Leader urges moving beyond black and white thinking on schools
A B.C. Indigenous leader who advised Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the contents of the landmark 2008 government residential schools apology has said that Canadians must not succumb to black and white thinking about the schools’ legacy. Despite his opposition …
Note to Americans: Education is Not Genocide
Things have taken a strange turn in Canada on the genocide front. Genocide? Canada? Those are words that you would not normally see together. Words like “polite” or “peaceful” might come to mind. But “genocide”, not so much. In fact, …