“For over a century , the central goals of Canada’s Aboriginal policy were to eliminate Aboriginal governments, ignore Aboriginal rights, terminate the treaties, and, through a process of assimilation, cause Aboriginal people to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious and racial entities in Canada. The establishment and operation of residential schools were a central element of this policy, which can best be described as ‘cultural genocide’.”
—Executive Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRCC)
“Since early colonization indigenous women have been positioned by Western ideology as inherently violable and less valuable than non-indigenous …As indigenous women have been stating for decades and which the ‘Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ has recently indicated, the cultural understanding of indigenous women as inherently sexual and therefore violable, has tangible real life implications for indigenous women’s lived experience of violence.”
—Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) Report on Truth of Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada (2018)
Several reports in recent years have brought out gradually the shocking truths regarding the treatment of indigenous people in Canada, and probably many tragic facts still remain to be covered.
The NWAC report has quoted a 2016 public safety report as stating that while indigenous women comprise about 4% of the total population of women, they may account for as high as 50% of the total number of trafficked women, and in the age group under 18, they are likely to account for as much as a quarter of the human trafficking. Can there be a more shocking indicator of the extent of exploitation they face?
The Interim Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Women titled ‘Our women and Girls are Sacred’ says, “There is no doubt that the loss of indigenous women and girls in all forms of violence is a national tragedy. It has traumatized generations of families, and it will continue to traumatize communities if we do not commit to action and change.”
While Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau made big promises to bring change, in effect what was promised was so vague that a senior NWAC representative commented, “It is a plan to have a plan in the future”.
In 1980, 9 per cent of female homicide victims were indigenous women, this rate being over two times of their percentage in population, but what is even more shocking is that this had increased to 24% in 2015. Research by Dr. Tracy Peter revealed that an indigenous woman is 12 times more likely to become a homicide victim compared to the average for Canada. They are likely to suffer much from other forms of violence too.
The report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal people stated, “the stereotyping and devaluation of Aboriginal women, a combination of racism and sexism, are among the most damaging of attitudes that find expression in Canadian society.”
As a result of various inquiries there is some acceptance of policy change, but acceptance in terms of undoing past injustice by giving indigenous people significantly more rights over land and resources is rare. First Nation activists Arthur Manuel and Grand Chief Ronald Derrickson have stated that the Canadian government does not allow indigenous people any significant rights “over any land or resources in … aboriginal and treaty territory except for the 0.2% that has been designated Indian reserve lands.” (please note that the word Indian here is used in the context of indigenous) (quoted in History Today, 9 September 2018, article by William Rees) .
Powerful forces in the country are not at all accepting the idea of the indigenous people getting their justice-based rights and a position of equality.
This goes back to the early days of the first settlers from Europe from year 1600 onwards. They could have lived in peace with the indigenous people, relative to the number of people there was enough land for both, but in most cases they resorted to cruel conflict and driving indigenous people away from their land and livelihoods. A large number of indigenous people soon perished from the new diseases brought by settlers, and there have been allegations that sometimes disease was even spread in deliberate ways. However despite their number being reduced the indigenous people continued to suffer from relentless aggression of settlers.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRCC) brought together several aspects of injustice to indigenous communities and made a strong plea for adequate remedial actions. However reviewing the situation since then, Pal Palmater writing in Maclean’s journal in 2021 stated, “Reconciliation has not just gone off the rails; many indigenous people think it is dead. With each broken promise, there is less collective faith that the Trudeau government, like many governments before it, has any intention of making good on its promise… At every turn, Canada chooses the path of injustice towards indigenous people.”
On the basis of its extensive study and the innumerable statements made before it and the extensive records examined by it, the TRCC stated, “Canada’s Residential School System for Aboriginal Children was an education system in name only. These residential schools were created for the purpose of separating aboriginal children from their families, in order to minimize and weaken family ties and cultural linkages…” Many children here were abused physically and sexually. “They died in the schools in numbers that would not have been tolerated in any school system anywhere in the country, or in the world”, the TRCC Report said. The Human Rights Watch Report of 2021 stated in a note on the situation in Canada, “From May to July hundreds of unmarked graves were found at government-funded and church-run residential schools in the provinces of British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Approximately 150,000 children were removed from their families and communities and placed in residential schools, where they were forbidden to speak their own languages or practice their culture. Many also suffered physical and sexual abuse at residential schools which operated until the 1990s.” In several cases these children were taken away forcibly from their families. The TRCC Report was emphatic in emphasizing the cultural genocide aspect of the injustice against indigenous people. This report first described what constitutes cultural genocide and then went on to say “In its dealing with aboriginal people Canada did all these things.”
Regarding the motives behind this the TRCC Report said without mincing any words that the Canadian government pursued this policy because “it wished to divest itself of its legal and financial obligations to Aboriginal people and gain control over their land and resources.”
According to a report of the Department of Justice, “Colonization has led to cultural alienation, territorial dispossession, intergenerational trauma, systemic discrimination and socio-economic marginalization which together continue to have profoundly negative impacts on the lives of many indigenous people.” At the same time when the indigenous people have suffered so much injustice, some government authorities have spent millions of dollars in legal cases that may impede the flow of benefits or compensation to indigenous people who have suffered so much. (see APTN News, December 18 2020—“ Despite promises of reconciliation, Trudeau spent nearly $100 million fighting First Nations in court during his first years”).
Clearly the situation of very serious injustice against the indigenous people has persisted for too long in Canada and much wider and stronger efforts for justice are needed. Trudeau’s words for reassurance have often proved to be just words. As Pamela Palmater told Reuters after a typical Trudeau speech in which he vowed to reform the past colonial record of ‘humilation, neglect and abuse’, “ he falls down every time when he comes to substantive action.”
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include a Day in 2071, Planet in Peril, Man over Machine and Protecting Earth for Children.
