Several speakers came forward with shocking accounts and reminders that Canada is one of those countries where shit happens and mistakes were made.
At least 600 people, wearing the emblematic orange shirt, gathered at Centennial Square in Victoria to empathise with the thousands of residential school survivors carrying the stigma of genocide and to mourn the countless more children who didn’t survive the ordeal.
The event started with airs of festival, with songs and dances interspersed among ritual acknowledgement speeches, and for a while it could have been construed as a family-friendly event. But the wind quickly turned when Eddie Charlie, one of the event’s organisers, came forward to share his own experience, and from there several speakers would relate their own harrowing accounts.
The descriptions were graphic. The witnesses would speak of children being abducted by the authorities, and of being depersonalised just like prisoners. They would speak of children being beaten, degraded, molested and raped, and of course even killed. They would speak of the worst punishments being inflicted in a vicious campaign to snuff out aboriginal culture, down to their names, languages, culture, and folklore.
They would call it genocide, perpetrated by a colonialist mindset dead set on either assimilating or destroying indigenous peoples.
Naturally, a strong parallel was stressed out with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its own blatant campaign of genocide, hell bent on destroying its history, language, culture, and if need be, its very people.
Let it not be said that Canada stands out as a country where shit doesn’t happen and mistakes are never made. Not if the thousands of survivors struggling with the reverberating stigma of being very nearly weeded out by an invasive species have anything to say about it.
Have a glance into the rift between hereditary indigenous leaders and Indian Act band councils, and the complex politics fuelling…
Today we didn't merely clamour for a ceasefire abroad; we also denounced violence happening right here in Victoria.
Scotiabank may have recently reduced its share of weapon manufacturer Elbit Systems from 5.1 to 4.3 percent, activists actually push…
We kept warning the City of Victoria that transgender people would get hurt if the We Unify conference were allowed…
Never take your rights for granted. Women in particular know even hard-earned ones are never far from being taken away.
Although the event was a relative success, its outcome leaves me most apprehensive. Regretfully, we had to end it early.