While reconciliation is a process that cannot happen in a week, one gets the feeling that Canada is moving in the right direction.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on April 4, 2022.

OTTAWA—Watching Justin Trudeau in Williams Lake and Indigenous leaders in Rome last week was compelling.

For the first time in the history of Canada, it feels as though we have a real chance at reconciliation.

That is not to say that all will be satisfied with papal promises. The Catholic Church has been notoriously slow on all fronts. First, the promise of a $25-million compensation package has been languishing for 16 years. Second, sexual predators parading as priests have been protected by the hierarchy for years.

Even with all the roadblocks, all the leaders at the Vatican gatherings expressed real hope that the differences with the Catholic Church could be bridged.

The same message of reconciliation came during the prime minister’s visit to Williams Lake.

Chief Willie Sellars lauded the prime minister’s presence with eloquence, suggesting he finally felt like a leader in his community and in Canada.

Many chiefs, especially in British Columbia, believe that the colonial reach of the Crown in taking over their lands and subsuming their cultures precludes any attachment to Canada.

The pain of Indigenous Elders was reflected last week in the telling of their stories.

It is understandable that bitterness influences the perspective of young leaders who had seen their cultures and languages annihilated by government policies taking their parents and grandparents from their homes and buried dead children in unmarked graves.

Instead, we witnessed hope for the future.

Hope from Chief Sellars of Williams Lake that he and his tribal partners would work with governments to identify the anonymous burial grounds and heal the families. They plan to commemorate these atrocities by forgiving but not forgetting.

With a focus on education, language, and reconciliation, the Indigenous leadership is ready to move forward, working with governments for solutions.

Governments have to be ready to do their part, and that includes the government of Vatican City.

Indigenous leaders visited the Vatican museums and witnessed some of their own artifacts that were stolen or traded out of their possession, only to end up in a foreign museum in a foreign land.

But those same leaders expressed an interest in working with the Vatican museum on a co-management agreement that could see some artifacts repatriated to their territories while others remained in Rome for all to see.

In Rome and Williams Lake, there was a sense of conciliation in the words of leaders on both sides.

But words alone are not enough. The Vatican has a responsibility to follow through with specific actions. That will not nullify the Catholic Church’s participation in the government-licensed residential schools. But it will underscore that truth and acknowledgement are the first steps toward healing.

The painful stories of those elders that were heard in Rome and Williams Lake will not be forgotten. But there is a way to move beyond that, with educated young people free to speak their languages and embrace their cultures.

From 30-year-old Métis National Council president Cassidy Caron, to 46-yer-old Natan Obed of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, to Williams Lake Chief Willie Sellars, all are leaders.

While all Canadians can view this leadership with optimism, when it comes to the colonial powers or the Catholic Church, one can also expect some skepticism.

When Trudeau spoke of his early experiences with his father, getting a first-hand look into the world of pain caused by residential schools at a young age, he was animated and genuine.

And when Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller spoke about the journey for healing, he too appeared committed to the process and not simply mouthing the words that people expected to hear.

While reconciliation is a process that cannot happen in a week, one gets the feeling that Canada is moving in the right direction.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

For the first time in my lifetime, all Canadians have become engaged. We have not found all the answers, but we are asking the right questions.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on October 4, 2021.

Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation posed more questions than answers.

A court-upheld Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision to compensate Indigenous children taken into care was the subject of much reflection.

The decision puts the government on the hook to compensate Indigenous children living on “reserves” who were taken into care for the last 15 years.

During the election, the Liberals appealed the decision and at press time, it was unclear whether that might happen again.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said the government was reviewing the judgment before deciding on whether another appeal would be launched.

But to those Canadians who embrace the need for reconciliation, including leaders in the Indigenous community, a possible appeal soured the significance of the day of Truth and Reconciliation.

As children’s shoes were strewn across the lawn of Parliament, the reflection of little feet stood in stark contrast to jackboots of oppression that those children have felt over the centuries.

The more we learn about the horrendous deculturalization of residential schools, the more that Canadians would like to be able to make amends for a horrible historical legacy.

But the racism and discrimination identified by the Canadian Human Rights Commission did not end last week.

The first-year anniversary of Joyce Echaquan’s death coincided with a call to recognize racism in public sector services in Quebec. The mother of seven, while on her deathbed in a Joliette hospital, was called stupid, and the author of her own problems, by staff caught on a recording.

One employee was ultimately fired but Quebec’s premier Francois Legault continues to deny the existence of systemic racism in his province even though a provincial commission report has already found it “impossible to deny …systemic discrimination” when it comes to Indigenous people.

One day of the year will not change the systemic discrimination that has existed since the beginning of Canada.

But it is fair to say that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the first leader who has actually engaged in a real reconciliation conversation.

For the first time in my lifetime, all Canadians have become engaged. We have not found all the answers, but we are asking the right questions.

The first time I visited an Indigenous community was the Six Nations of the Grand River, Canada’s most populous First Nation, just 30 kilometres south of the place where I was born.

My parents took me for a visit when I was about eight or nine years old. We attended a community celebration.

To this day, I vividly remembering watching the drummers and the dancers in a cultural celebration that was unlike anything I had ever experienced.

Over the years, we visited again, and I was always struck with how different this world was, and how little we even knew about it.

I wondered why the history books in my school in Hamilton made no mention of the people who had populated our lands long before the arrival of the first Europeans.

We knew a little bit about Pauline Johnson, because of her poetry and Tom Longboat because of his athletic achievements, but for the most part, our understanding of Indigenous peoples was net zero.

How many Canadians know that the people of Six Nations helped us when the Americans were trying to take the country over. Every child was educated about the battle of Stoney Creek, a turning point in the battle for Upper Canada.

But not a single history book explored the Haldimand Proclamation, a 1784 decree that promised a tract of 950,000 acres in recognition of Six Nations loyalty and assistance to the British during the American Revolution. Only half that land was ever awarded.

In modern times, disputes arising from this agreement are covered as Indigenous protests. In reality they are only seeking what was promised in multiple settler agreements.

So many promises have been broken, it is understandable that Indigenous leaders view the current government plans with skepticism.

It is also true that while reconciliation preoccupies many Canadians, it was certainly not the top-of-mind subject in the last federal election.

Last week’s national day gives all of us a chance to engage in a deeper reflection.

From the sixties scoops to the shame of residential schools, to the appropriation of Indigenous lands by developers and governments, Canada has a sorry history to atone for.

When pundits reflect on Justin Trudeau’s potential legacy, they don’t need to look far.

Without Trudeau, this journey toward Truth and Reconciliation would never have begun.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.