When Crown Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller was in town to announce a $2.3 million boost for the Gwich’in Wellness Centre, Grand Chief Ken Kyikavichik commended the minister for his opposition to the parole of convicted Nunavut sex-offender Eric Dejaeger, saying “having that realism and having that response is helpful to a lot of those that have had to endure the genocide of the Indian residential school system.”
It was an open discussion between two leaders, but I find the comment particularly noteworthy because last year in this space, amid a very solemn and quiet Canada Day, I made the comment that Canada needed to decide whether it was the nation it believed it was or simply another empire.
A year ago, many Canadians were learning about Canada’s dark history for the first time. How they reacted would shape our destiny as a nation.
Well, if Kykavichik’s comments are any indicator, we are at least pointing in the right direction. Marc Miller openly admitted the federal government was one of the parties at fault for the Residential School System in an interview and said the government needed to support communities in their healing. He also said it was up to the communities how they wanted that support to look, whether they wanted financial help locating relatives lost to the hellish places, to exhume the bodies and give them a proper burial, or to not open old wounds. Ottawa is willing to cover the costs of it all.
This is one of those years where as Canadians, we can look at ourselves in context to other tribes around the world and feel pretty good about our decision-making. Aside from a three-week blowout of trucker protests driven by fears vaccine mandates were the harbinger of a totalitarian new world order — which obviously wasn’t the case — Canada has largely stood out as one of the grown-ups in global politics.
You don’t have to look far for evidence of this. Across the Arctic pond formerly independent Russians are scrambling to appease Vladimir Putin’s overbearing ego. Democracy and human rights are effectively dead in Hong Kong as China continues its steady climb to global dominance, while Uyghurs, Tibetans and countless other peoples continue to be repressed. And in Afghanistan and America alike, old men are putting millions of women in danger by forcing their religious dogma upon them, and yet no one seems to be able to stop them. We could be doing a lot worse.
But we can’t get smug. Canada has stood out largely because we haven’t done anything particularly bad lately, not because we’re automatically good by nature. Being a kind person takes effort and diligence, especially in the face of opposition. We are fortunate to have a government that is willing to listen and do the right things in regards to Truth and Reconciliation. We have not always had that and we may not have that in the future, depending on how the winds of electoral politics blow.
Our lesson this year is to not take our kindness and good nature for granted. Canada consistently ranks one of the best countries to live in because of the effort we’ve made learning to live with one another as a nation. We cannot ease up on these efforts.