Systemic Injustice
On September 30, 2024, Canada will continue to seek reconciliation for events they refuse to understand. Reconciliation Day is not a Canadian day of reflection but a day of self-congratulatory piety. Canada’s leaders are proud to admit the country’s mistakes if they never have to admit them or if there is no financial penalty for doing so.
It is not that most Canadians are unwilling to learn the truth about Canada’s genocidal treatment of Indigenous people. It is not that they can not handle the truth. Canadians are just not told. So Canadians attempt to reconcile without every considering the sins of their past.
We must begin teaching Canadians about the criminal aspects of Canada’s past. What Canada has done to Indigenous people is significantly worse than Canadians acknowledge. Systemic Injustice is a pattern of events and cultural beliefs that has ingrained a cultural insensitivity to the plight of Indigenous people in Canada.
To explore this pattern of neglect of Canada’s Indigenous it is useful to look at Indigenous Mascots. Mascots are not the ultimate expression of racism but merely indicative of the culture of abuse tolerated towards Indigenous people. My documentary Systemic Injustice explores the links between the permissiveness towards Indigenous abuse represented by mascots and the deep-seated culture racism ingrained in Canadian culture. The Systemic Injustice course will make you question whether Canada is the country you think or hope, it is.
The Systemic Injustice course is divided into 12 segments to break down the irregularities Indigenous mascots represent and to try to understand why mainstream Indigenous racism is tolerated. The inconsistencies between Canada’s aspirations for its culture and the reality of its embedded Indigenous racism, the systemic bias, are there for everyone to see but are not discussed like the emperor’s nudity. Canadians’ virtue signals at every opportunity, praising the country’s progress in Indigenous relations without lessening Systemic Injustice or loosening its grip over Indigenous peoples.
The relationship between Canada and the Indigenous people whose homelands exist within Canada is one-sided. Canada administers its Indigenous citizens according to an 1877 codification of racism called the Indian Act. This reality was made clear to me when our band’s membership was re-examined after 2014 after it became clear that the expected liability of granting status to our Qalipu band exceeded the liability the Canadian government had envisioned.
During the re-vetting of my heritage, I was struck by the questioning an Indigenous affairs officer pursued when asking if I hunted or drummed to vet my status. It was a remarkable departure from normative behaviour. To be Indigenous, I had to drum or hunt to be accepted as an Indigenous person in Canada. My identity was defined by my adherence to the limited definition of what it means to be Indigenous in Canada.
It was one of many unique behaviours Canadians engage in with Indigenous. Justice is denied to Indigenous like a ball by junior high bullies engaging in keep away. I detail some of my experiences in Systemic Injustice and I encourage any Canadian to take note of my experiences before putting their faith in the system. I actively discourage my children from trusting in the Canadian justice system. Or they will find they have placed their faith in deceitful organizations like the Ontario Human Rights Commission that opined that Canada’s individual rights-based system are not ideally suited to deal with Indigenous issues.
For those who think they understand the plight of Indigenous in Canada, I encourage you to take the Systemic Injustice course. Racism is not an American problem. It is a problem in Canada, the US and globally. In many ways, Indigenous racism in Canada exceeds Black racism in the US as measured by exclusion stats like school dropout, poverty, suicide, incarceration, and foster care percentages.
Since its formation, after the slow removal of British policies to eliminate Indigenous directly, Canada has engaged in policies to exterminate Indigenous culture and destroy the generational transference of cultural knowledge. For some, like the Qalipu, Indigenous ancestry was hidden or denied to ensure their survival. For others, Indigenous people were subjected to various efforts to kill the Indian, if not the man.
If Canada hopes to become the inclusive country it seeks to be, then Canadians must demand that mainstream racism is no longer tolerated. My work greatly contributed to eliminating the Blackhawks logo from the largest youth hockey league in the world, the Greater Toronto Hockey League, yet Blackhawks teams still play in Hockey Canada and the NHL team appears on CBC Hockey Night In Canada. A Hockey Night broadcaster called Craig Berube “Chief”, a known Indigenous slur, on a broadcast in November 2023. That has to change. One race can no longer be set aside for unlimited ridicule.
To make that change Canadians must examine their historical and current treatment of Indigenous.
Should a hospital official call social services when an Indigenous woman enters the maternity ward? Should an educational system gaslight the presence of Indigenous mascots in classrooms required to be safe and accepting? Should a Human Rights Commission air opinions that mascots are an issue of the sovereignty of Indigenous nations of Ontario, who would then have the right to speak for all Indigenous and justify the denial of my Charter Rights?
I find it hard to like, let alone love, Canada. I made a mistake putting my faith in Ontario’s Human Rights institutions. Aren’t you just a little bit curious why?
