Margot King, age four, touches an orange flag, representing children who died at Indian Residential Schools in Canada, placed in the grass at Major’s Hill Park in Ottawa, on July 1, 2021.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Anne Levesque, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
Canadians who wish to pay tribute to the children who died at Indian Residential Schools should demand the government stop fighting First Nations children in court.
Instead of returning to the northern research status quo, researchers should make community health and well-being the top priority. Above: Nain, Nunatsiavut.
Christina Goldhar
Summer 2021 is too soon for southern-based researchers and travellers to return to northern, Indigenous communities in the wake of COVID-19, for research fieldwork or leisure.
Protesters wave a flag at Parliament Hill in Ottawa at a “Cancel Canada Day” protest in response to the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at Indian Residential Schools. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle
THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle
People often decry words and call for action after tragic events. But words are action and they’re fundamental to Canadian democracy.
Two girls lay in bed in the dormitory at All Saints Indian Residential School in Lac La Ronge, Sask., in 1945.
(Boorne & May. Library and Archives Canada, e010962312)
We must recognize and understand the harms that malnutrition and nutrition experiments on Indigenous people caused and the legacy they have left.
A person lays several shoes on the steps of City Hall in Kingston, Ont., to honour the 215 children’s graves discovered on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg
Non-Indigenous Canadians are right to feel shame about Indian Residential Schools. But what comes next?
Members of the Tsuut'ina Nation take part in a silent march in memory of the 215 children whose remains were found in Kamloops.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Acts of genocide were strategically implemented by church and the Canadian government to remove Indigenous people from their land and, in turn, their culture.
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau speaks during a dramatic meeting with the entire federal cabinet and a delegation of about 200 First Nations leaders on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in 1970.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/R. Mac
How did a national leader whose animating political spirit was protecting human rights come to adopt a passive acceptance of Canada’s worst face of colonialism?
Two young children sit next to shoes left in front of a statue of Egerton Ryerson, who was instrumental in the design and implementation of the Indian Residential School System.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
An Indigenous lawyer makes the case that what happened to Indigenous children who went to residential schools is genocide and the case should be tried by the International Criminal Court.
People embrace in front of the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill at a memorial for the 215 children whose remains were found at the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
A commitment to eliminating racism must be reflected in accountability mechanisms that focus on the impacts of coordinated and consistent anti-racist action.
A person lays shoes on the steps of city hall in Kingston, Ont., at a memorial for the 215 children whose remains were recently discovered on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg
Canadians need to understand the basic harms and violences that continue to be experienced by Indigenous people across the land we call Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits a memorial on Parliament Hill in recognition of the discovery of children’s remains at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Canada has officially recognized eight genocides that have happened around the world. It has not done the same for its own treatment of Indigenous children who they sent to Indian Residential Schools.
People across Canada, including this scene in Edmonton, have left shoes and candles at public displays in recognition of the discovery of children’s remains at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
Ground-penetrating radar located the remains of 215 First Nations children in a mass unmarked grave, revealing a macabre part of Canada’s hidden history.
Students of the Metlakatla Indian Residential School, B.C.
(William James Topley. Library and Archives Canada, C-015037)
The destruction of IAP residential school records and media reports that continually emphasize compensation will ensure that if remembered, the process will be remembered through a colonial gaze.
The Cree concept ‘wâhkôhtowin’ emphasizes more-than-human kinship relations.
(Shutterstock)
Leaked curriculum drafts in Alberta show a desire to revive old colonial myths. To face today’s challenges, we need stories that teach how humans are related to each other and to all life forms.
Margaret Swan, left, embraces Mariette Buckshot after she spoke during an Indian Day school litigation announcement in Ottawa, Tuesday, March 12, 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Canada is accepting claims emerging from a settlement with survivors of Indian day schools, but there has yet to be a public inquiry. There is an urgent need to hold Canada accountable.
A detail of the book cover for ‘Seven Fallen Feathers’ by Tanya Talaga.
(House of Anansi Press/'Seven Fallen Feathers,' book cover art by Christian Morrisseau)
To understand the colonial past is to open the door to understanding the colonial present and future. This understanding is a crucial part of the pathway to real change.
The system of ‘birth alerts’ across Canada perpetuates the removal of children from Indigenous families begun by residential schools. Pictured here: a historical report on residential schools released by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)
To make meaningful progress on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action, all provinces and territories should promptly follow B.C. and ban discriminatory ‘birth alerts.’
Lorelei Williams, whose cousin was murdered by serial killer Robert Pickton and whose aunt went missing in 1978, sheds tears while responding to the report on the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Understanding genocide as a process can help people grapple with the ongoing threat faced by Indigenous people in Canada, as named in the report into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
At least 54 countries prohibit the corporal punishment of children. Canada has neither prohibited corporal punishment, nor said it will.
Shutterstock
Until Canadians challenge the normalization of violence against children, we will continue to support, or at least tacitly condone, something that by all accounts is harmful.
People inside the McAllen processing center for people crossing the US border.
US Customs and border patrol/EPA