The Truth and Reconciliation events that took place in Vancouver and all across Canada this past week were truly an eye-opening experience. While a difficult subject to approach, the implementation of the residential schools by the Canadian government is simply a part of our history as a people, a history that we must acknowledge and make amends for, and the human rights violations committed by the churches in accordance with government regulation were atrocious. We like to see ourselves, as Canadians, as these sort of “do-gooders”, as a people that are simply nice and accepting of others. While we have definitely moved towards that goal, we must remember that residential schools
are not just a horrific memory of a past long ago; they were in place up until much more recently than I think most Canadians realize- and because of this, I believe that we still have a long way to go in finding total acceptance and equality among our people. The idea that we could simply erase a culture is disgusting. As a country, we promote multiculturalism, and the idea of freedom is enshrined in our constitution, yet we believed, and not for a short period of time, that we could eradicate a certain culture’s very way of life. We are of course a bilingual country, and all around us in this city especially we hear languages such as: Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi, German, Italian, and a myriad of other languages; yet despite this general acceptance, we thought it acceptable to prevent indigenous children from speaking the language that their ancestors have spoken for centuries. This is not simply confusing, this lack of acceptance; it is downright disturbing and disappointing that we allowed this to go on for as long as it did. Not only did Canada attempt to destroy a culture through language limitations, but also separated children from their families in order to do so. And after all of that, the children were still subject to mental, physical and sexual abuse; some acts carried out by none other than people of the Anglican Church and Canadian Government. This information all seems surreal upon first glance. To think of the Canada that we live in was capable of implementing such things is not an easy concept to grasp. Through the events circulated by Truth and Reconciliation I learned how easy it is to let ignorance blind Canadians from the truth; and I am so grateful to be able to be apart of the Canada that is in the beginning of the rectification of that tragedy; and for providing the necessary information to allow all Canadians to become more aware of our nations history. I sincerely hope that through the testimonies put forth through truth and reconciliation it will help ensure that events like the ones that took place at the residential school, and any other injustices that may be brought on to any other group, will never be allowed to terrorize our people ever again.