Go read this. Please. Now is good.

[commodorified]

If you were taken aback on Tuesday, or even offended, when the long-awaited Final Report on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada accused your country of “cultural genocide,” step back for a moment and try this exercise:

Close your eyes and imagine you are at home with your two children, a boy aged six and a girl aged eight. There’s a knock at the door. It’s a moment you’ve dreaded for weeks. You answer it and there is a man from the government and an RCMP officer who order you to turn your children over to them immediately
[...]
An argument over what to call a wrong that was committed, and how to classify it, is a distraction and a dead end. Focus instead on the stories of the victims. Focus on the facts. Because the facts of what happened to native Canadians in the residential school system, and as a result of the attitudes that led to its creation, are documented in excruciating detail in the report. They speak for themselves.

This country needs to be shaken out of its indifference. It needs to acknowledge a dark history that Canada authored. Canadians must consider how to remedy the harm that we – Canadians – caused.

Comments

[sara]

I saw some very beautiful footage this week of the round dancing done in the lobby while the...pardon me if I get the title wrong, but the minister for aboriginal affairs, while he was speaking. And I thought, if people can survive a great challenge like residential schools and then sing their protest that is tremendous and they are very strong people and they ought to be heard when they talk about how difficult things have been for themselves and their families.