A Promising First Step - Canada's Case For Reparations
A Large Wound Needs Healing. Appointing Mary Simon Today As Governor General Was A Good First Step.
Jamie Mah @grahammah
In 2014, promising young journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates penned one of the most important and landmark columns for The Atlantic. He titled it, The Case For Reparations. It was his attempt at bringing to the foreground the racial atrocities his country, the United States, had committed against it’s own black citizenry. His subtitle reads as follows:
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
Seven years later, Coates’s article still perfectly articulates the pain and suffering his countries black Americans have suffered all these years. Now if reading his subtitle gives you pause, as it does me, hopefully it’s because the mind wanders and returns back to the same place each time - here at home in Canada - with how we have treated our First Nations people. Clearly we’ve been just as bad, if not worse than our neighbours to the south.
Given the subject matter, The Case For Reparations can be extremely difficult to get through. Many times while reading it I inevitably pause, sigh, and try my best to continue. There is a quote Coates shares early on when he begins to describe the life of blacks in Mississippi in the 1920s during the Jim Crow era. How they were treated, especially with regards to voting. It hits home in so many ways.
“You and I know what’s the best way to keep the nigger from voting,” blustered Theodore Bilbo, a Mississippi senator and a proud Klansman. “You do it the night before the election.”
Now just replace a few words in that sentence and you’ll get to a similar conclusion to what we did to our First Nations people for over 150 years. It might read something like this.
You and I know what’s the best way to keep the Indian from thriving, “blustered John A. Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada and a proud racist. “You do it by taking their children away from their parents and assimilating them.”
This imagined quote might not be that far off from reality. Prime Minister Macdonald probably said something along these lines at one point or another, and given the North West Mounted Police’s Indigenous policy in our Countries founding years, this type of messaging was probably expressed throughout the echo chambers of our government.
From Hanson, Eric, et al.“The Residential School System.” Indigenous Foundations. First Nations and Indigenous Studies UBC, 2020: (emphasis mine)
Canadian Prime Minister John A. Macdonald commissioned journalist and politician Nicholas Flood Davin to study industrial schools for Indigenous children in the United States. Davin’s recommendation to follow the U.S. example of “aggressive civilization” led to public funding for the residential school system. “If anything is to be done with the Indian, we must catch him very young. The children must be kept constantly within the circle of civilized conditions,” Davin wrote in his 1879 Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds (Davin’s report can be read here.)
I’ve long held the belief that change, in all forms, manifests through knowledge and understanding. For so long here in Canada we hadn’t bridged that gap of what was and had transpired to what we thought took place. I’m sure many of us knew of the residential school programs, but did we truly understand it’s wickedness or even ask the question of what really happened to those children and the lives of their families?
One unmarked grave should be enough to get peoples attention but over 750 has created a country-wide crisis. It’s sad it needed to take that many, but be that as it may, our focus has sharpened nonetheless. We are beginning to recognize. Canada Day fell by the wayside because we are in shock and we are appalled. Good!
The Case For Reparations isn’t just an American issue any longer. Canada has some big sins to atone for. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, Canada will never be whole.
From the CBC:
Inuk leader and former ambassador Mary Simon has been chosen as the next governor general — the first Indigenous person ever to be appointed to the role.
During a news conference across the river from Parliament Hill this morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the Queen has accepted his recommendation to appoint Simon — a past president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national Inuit organization — as the 30th governor general.
“I can confidently say that my appointment is a historic and inspirational moment for Canada and an important step forward on the long path towards reconciliation,” said Simon from the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.
“Indeed, my appointment comes at an especially reflective and dynamic time in our shared history.”
We took a small step forward as a country today. Justin Trudeau appointing Mary Simon as our next Governor General is a groundbreaking moment for Canada and whether this was a political move or a moral one, Trudeau made a good call here. She’s plenty qualified and deserves this title.
It won’t erase our past and we still have so much to do with our shared role with First Nations peoples, but this marks a hopeful transition. An attempt to heal and build a more connected country. For everyone!
Let’s keep moving forward shall we?
We have a moral obligation to do so.