Handprints are seen on the side of a truck riding in a convoy of truckers and other vehicles in support of the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc people after the remains of 215 children were discovered buried near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, in Kamloops, B.C..
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Ending the Canadian genocide of Indigenous peoples is a legal obligation, requiring honest, active decolonization. The lawyer who wrote the MMIWG’s inquiry’s legal analysis of genocide explains.
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.
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.
Former Gov. Gen. Julie Payette invests Jeanette Corbiere Lavell, from Wikwemikong First Nation, Ont., as a Member of the Order of Canada outside Rideau Hall in Ottawa in September 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Canada’s new governor general will have to fuse the British, French, American and Indigenous elements of Canada that together are the core of the country.
Black Lives Matter protesters threw pink paint on a statue of Egerton Ryerson at Ryerson University in Toronto on July 18, 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Carlos Osorio
Let’s not ignore how the racist philosophy behind residential schools shaped mainstream education. Ryerson foresaw Canada’s continuing evolution into a “civilized,” white, culturally British nation.
Rocks painted with the message “every child matters,” commemorate Orange Shirt Day, Sept. 30, about creating meaningful discussion about the effects of Residential Schools and their legacy.
(Province of British Columbia/Flickr)
A study in one Alberta school board found racism contributes to poor attendance of on-reserve Indigenous students in public schools, despite educators not recognizing this as a barrier.
This dispute over land in Caledonia is complex and builds on 500 years of colonization.
(1492 Land Back Lane Legal Fund)
Land Defenders from Six Nations occupied a disputed land to highlight the fact that Canadians have a long way to go when it comes to learning what land acknowledgements are supposed to teach us.
Policymakers could seize this time to support schools in choosing to take students outside.
(Shutterstock)
Moving classes outside deserves serious consideration not only for better ventilation, but also to introduce more education devoted to learning on, from and with the land.
The Thunder Bay jail is seen in this 2017 photo.
Flickr
Instead of building new jails, we must focus our efforts on reshaping a post-pandemic society free of the challenges that led to an Indigenous man’s recent death.
A white sucker underwater in the St. Lawrence River.
(Shutterstock)
Children in an Oji-Cree northern First Nation are learning traditional teachings about ‘Namebin’ (suckers) and working on literacy skills at the same time through a community literacy project.
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.
Love makes us healthier. And yet policy-makers around the world separate children from loving parents, demonize same-sex love and promote labour migration that splits up families. Why?
(Sharon McCutcheon/Unsplash)
This Valentine’s Day, governments around the world need to reflect on how laws and public policies may undermine people’s capacity to love and be loved — and the long-term costs of lost love.
Health justice funds could be used to support Black and Indigenous health initiatives and provide mental and physical health services to deal with the impact of transgenerational trauma.
(Shutterstock)
In the United States, presidential candidates are discussing reparations for the descendants of enslaved men and women.
Morningstar Mercredi, pictured on November 16, 2018, woke up from a surgery at 14 and discovered her developing baby was gone. What remained was an incision from her panty line to her belly button, cut without her permission.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
Recent revelations of the coerced sterilization of Indigenous women in Canada are part of a long, complex and disturbing history – in which feminism became a fight to keep one’s own children.
In 2016, the Ontario government promised the province’s schools would teach all students about residential schools and add more Indigenous perspectives into the provincial curriculum. The newly elected Conservative government has scrapped those plans.
Library and Archives Canada
Ontario’s move to ignore the calls of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to add Indigenous content to its history and social studies curriculum is foolish and dangerous.
Colten Boushie’s uncle Alvin Baptiste raises an eagle’s wing as demonstrators gather outside of the courthouse in North Battleford, Sask., on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Matt Smith
In the acquittal of Gerald Stanley we must remember how one-sided systematic remembering in Canada has been. We must remember how Canadian-state law created the myth of the homesteader as Wheat King.
People gather in Edmonton during a rally in response to Gerald Stanley’s acquittal in the shooting death of Colten Boushie.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
Colten Boushie’s death and the subsequent acquittal of his killer has fuelled loud calls for reforms to Canada’s criminal justice system and its treatment of the Indigenous. Why has it taken so long?