The Cost of Confronting Colonialism

These past few months, the Circle for Democratic Solidarity has taken up the challenge of countering residential-school denialism.  We’ve run a series of in-person conversations between pairs of random citizens who disagree, to see how the experience impacts participants.

The results have been generally positive. For a detailed analysis of the results, we invite you to read our next blog.  Just as in the many other countries where this method has been deployed, mass one-on-one conversations are a tried and true method for helping citizens come to terms with the most divisive issues in society. I’m proud of the results we achieved in our two exercises in Toronto and Ottawa.

But behind the scenes, the preparations have been filled with unexpected tensions. Surprisingly, the tensions are not between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. They invariably arise between us non-Indigenous Canadians.

I won’t recount the tensions here; all those involved are deeply committed to confronting the legacy of residential schools.  All are heavily involved in the effort to heal our country after generations of injustice, and we all have our part to play.

In fact, I’ve observed that the more one is committed, the higher the likelihood of tension.

If I’m honest, I’m as guilty as any. The deeper I have delved into the history of residential schools, the more I have learned that colonialism remains present today – in our legal, political and economic systems, and in the attitudes of many Canadians. There is a deep structural inequality between the nations that have been here forever and the nation that my ancestors built when they arrived from Europe.  One nation imposed itself over the others, and the habits of coexistence in nation-to-nation relations were forsaken in favour of forcible assimilation.

I have not always known this. But now that I have learned about residential schools, and seen the harm we caused, I can no longer ignore it. And I refuse to accept this reality and I commit to changing it.

I suspect my fellow activists also feel an urge to refuse.  And perhaps in our shared experience of refusal and of fighting for change, we end up in conflict with one another.

Because ultimately we are in conflict with ourselves as a country, with what Canada is with all of our failings as well as our accomplishments – with our faults as well as our aspirations.

Today I don’t have any solutions to propose.  We have relationships to restore, and commitments to renew.