PV Editorial Board
Truth and Reconciliation Day, September 30, is a moment when we need to ponder the violence of colonialism and the ways it continues to reverberate through our society and institutions.
For over a century, the Canada pursued Indigenous policies whose goal was to eliminate Indigenous governments, undermine treaty rights and cause Indigenous peoples to cease to exist as distinct nations and peoples. Central to this genocide was the residential school system, funded by the Canadian state and operated by churches.
From 1825 until 1996, some 150,000 children were forced into these institutions, where they suffered from disease, malnutrition, isolation, racism and violence. Many died as a result. Nearly 3,000 unmarked graves have been discovered, and the number continues to grow.
This genocide was not incidental. Capitalism in Canada was built on the seizure of Indigenous lands and the attempted destruction of Indigenous people as distinct nations and peoples. The economic plunder of Indigenous land and resources filled the coffers of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the North West Company, and many land and railway companies.
Today, in the face of a major capitalist offensive to secure new resources and sources of profits, federal and provincial governments are launching new attacks on Indigenous sovereignty, as well as on environmental regulation and labour rights.
Governments and the corporate monopolies they represent are using “sovereignty” and “national interest” as pretexts for fast-tracking profiteering megaprojects like new oil and gas pipelines, fossil fuel transportation infrastructure and mining projects, that all deeply impact Indigenous peoples and their territories.
Legislation like federal Bills C-5 and C-39, as well as a range of similar bills at the provincial level, violate Indigenous rights in the drive for corporate profit. They deliberately sweep aside Indigenous peoples’ right to free, prior and informed consent as prescribed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a declaration that Canada forcefully opposed.
In the face of this corporate assault, which is coupled with the Carney government’s war economy that serves NATO’s arbitrary 5-percent GDP military spending target, there is a surge in residential school denialism. This racist and reactionary ideological weapon is used to justify fresh attacks on Indigenous sovereignty.
This publication continues to stand with Indigenous peoples and progressive organizations and movements across the country, in demanding the full implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry’s Calls for Justice. Federal and provincial governments must allocate adequate resources to Indigenous-led investigations to uncover the full historical truth about residential schools.
We reiterate our call that residential school denialism be included under anti-hate speech laws and prosecuted as such.
We stand with the labour and social movements and millions of people across Canada, in extending our deepest sympathies to all Indigenous survivors of the residential school system, to their families, and to the communities that continue to suffer the ongoing trauma of Canada’s genocidal policies. We honour the memory of the thousands of children who never returned home.
People’s Voice fights for the liberation of oppressed nations in Canada, including Indigenous nations – First Nations, Métis, Inuit – as well as Acadians and Quebec. We fight for a socialist Canada that is based on national equality, an equal and voluntary partnership in which all nations have the right to self‑determination, up to and including secession.
We pledge to redouble our struggle for truth and justice, which remain the prerequisites for reconciliation.
Support working-class media!
If you found this article useful, please consider donating to People’s Voice or purchasing a subscription so that you get every issue of Canada’s leading socialist publication delivered to your door or inbox!
For over 100 years, we have been 100% reader-supported, with no corporate or government funding.
