Canada's Origin Story
Recognizing Indigenous peoples, together with French and English peoples, as Canada's founders |
CHALLENGE: On May 10 Kathleen Mahoney gave a public lecture on Parliament Hill as part of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences Big Thinking initiative. During her lecture, she advocated for a revision of Canada’s origin story. Canada’s current origin story is the Canadian confederation story. However, the confederation story fails to acknowledge First Nations foundational role in Canada’s nationhood; it fails to recognize the role First Nations played in Canada’s economic nation building endeavors, and continues to fail to protect the language rights of indigenous populations unlike the protection afforded to the English and French settler populations explicitly protected in the BNA Act.
The confederation story celebrates a nation created for settlers; a nation that did not recognize or include indigenous peoples as founding Canadians. There were no indigenous leaders invited to the talks or to the table at the Charlottetown or Quebec conferences and no indigenous signatures grace the BNA Act. Yet with the BNA Act Canada was born as a nation state on July 1, 1867. From my perspective as a settler Canadian, July 1 represents too many factual and symbolic failures and injustices to warrant honest celebrations in 2017. If, as proud Canadians, we are to celebrate Canada’s 150th year as a nation, and want do it in good faith and in a spirit of reconciliation, we need to change the primacy of the Confederation story and privilege instead Canada’s real origin story of which confederation is only a part. This is what I think Kathleen Mahoney was calling for. See http://www.ideas-idees.ca/events/big-thinking#Mahoney. SOLUTION: What does proclaiming Canada’s origin story entail, and what can get done towards that end in less than a year? The government is currently considering a proposal sent by Professor Mahoney advocating for this change. She has also provided them with draft legislation to help facilitate the bill passage process. Everyone can help by writing our PM and Ministers of Heritage, Justice & Aboriginal Affairs, as well as their Chiefs of Staff and Deputy Ministers urging them to act on the proposal in time to celebrate Canada's 150th anniversary as a nation!
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