Some people were shocked to see the Shawinigan Cataractes mascot #ThomasHawk central to the Kraft Hockeyville celebration on CBC Hockey Night in Canada last night. It is hardly the worst occurrence of Indigenous racism in Canada but is indicative of a greater problem. Indigenous racism demonstrates the lower limits of Canada’s cruelty.
We are not that different from the United States as our hockey heroes regularly cavort with the abusers of the MAGA world. Stop feigning shock. Stop virtue signalling on reconciliation. Understand the criminal aspects of Canada’s past and try to make Canada the country you hope it is.
The Cataractes have shown up too many times recently. The examples are tragic examples of how Canadians accept Indigenous racism. Canadians lack the courage to consider the systemic barriers that keep Indigenous people down, refuse to examine the causes of that oppression, or even admit that the oppression exists.
Last night you saw the Quebec that remains indifferent to the structural racism in Canada. This is how Mark Carney opened his Quebec leadership campaign with a visit to a Cataractes game, even seeking out a black player on the team to shake his hand as a photo opportunity prop.
No one noticed when Quebec MP and Indigenous minister Pascale St. Onge suspended funding to Hockey Canada surrounding the coverup of the 2018 WJC team’s abuse of a young woman, that it was Indigenous Peoples Day 2022. That night the Cataractes played in the Memorial Cup on TSN.
Canadians stop in horror when watching nurses abuse Joyce Echaquan on her deathbed but accept it as a normal part of life when it happens at the hockey rink.
Indigenous racism demonstrates Canada’s lack of empathy. We are not that different from the States as our hockey heroes regularly cavort with the abusers of the MAGA world. When the NHL did its Black Lives Matter moment during the COVID lockdown playoffs they did so with the Blackhawks.
Canadians were so shocked at the murder of George Floyd that they did nothing as Canadian police killed 6 Indigenous people that spring and no officer has been held accountable. The coach of the Maple Leafs is known as an Indigenous slur in the hateful culture of the NHL.
It is a pattern I noticed over a decade ago and I put it together in the documentary Systemic Injustice which is the basis of the Systemic Injustice Course. I encourage people to sign up for the course and understand the case that I make to show mascots like #ThomasHawk are reflective of a profound culture of Indigenous Racism.
Or the Blackhawks logo being banned in the GTHL but featured on a BMO Mastercard and regularly on CBC. A culture that overlooks the genocide of North American Indigenous people to burnish the myth of Canadian decency.
I found this insulting when I focused on it in 2024. As a tragic lowlight in the culture of Indigenous Racism, the Ontario Human Rights Commission, who claimed to have intervened on my behalf of my human rights in 2016, published this opinion renouncing the universality of the Charter of Rights in 2018.
Take the Systemic Injustice Course. You claim to want reconciliation to work. You must end the practice of treating Indigenous people as lesser Human Beings.
