Jean and I went to Somba K鈥檈 Park on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It was cold and blustery, but Dene Nation staff were valiantly handing out burgers and hotdogs. Right on, Dene Nation!
We saw an announcement that it was going till 3 p.m. so we took our time and just made it in time as they ran out of food soon after we got ours. Whew, almost went hungry鈥� in the cold. Eschia! (Take it easy, eh!)
It was great to see Dene National Chief George Mackenzie braving the cold till the end. As it was drizzling for most of the afternoon, he said they would consider having it indoors next year, yet he acknowledged how native people like to be outdoors.
Of course, the day for Truth and Reconciliation was established to honour the children who never returned home from residential schools, as well as the survivors and their families and communities.
It is on the same day as Orange Shirt Day, where people wear an orange shirt to symbolize Indigenous children being stripped of their freedom, culture and self-esteem over generations.
As the federal government鈥檚 website says: 鈥淧ublic commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.鈥�
It wasn鈥檛 the only reconciliation type thing happening though. There was a 鈥淭ake Back the Night鈥� march a week earlier. It鈥檚 held annually to raise awareness of and to protest gender-based violence, and particularly sexual violence.
While this is a global movement, it is especially meaningful in the NWT, where in 2020 the rate of sexual assault was over seven times the Canadian rate. And don鈥檛 forget only an estimated six per cent of sexual assaults are reported to the police.
In the NWT, women are three times more likely to be sexually assaulted over their lifetime than men. And get this, the rate of sexual assaults on Indigenous women is more than triple that of non-Aboriginal women. So yes, the march is an act of reconciliation.
Around that same time, I participated in another public component of the reconciliation process. This one was the afternoon conference around 鈥淣urturing Mental Health and Well Being鈥� that was sponsored by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
Considering that the former minister of Health and Social Services said the NWT is in the middle of a metal health crisis, this conference was also an important public act of reconciliation. The Ahmadiyya community puts this type of conference on every summer/fall. Right on!
Repealing reconciliation
Unfortunately, some people are doing the opposite of public acts of reconciliation.
The leader of the B.C. Conservative party, John Rustad is saying that the United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was 鈥渆stablished for conditions in other countries 鈥� not Canada.鈥�
He says if the Conservatives win the provincial election on Oct. 19 his party wants to repeal the B.C. law that implements UNDRIP in B.C. Totally uncool.
In response, Terry Teegee, regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations said, 鈥淎s we come to Sept. 30, (National Reconciliation Day) he鈥檚 repealing, in a way, reconciliation. He鈥檚 undoing a lot of the good work that many people in this province have worked toward.鈥�
Meanwhile, in 2019, the British Columbia legislature unanimously passed a law adopting UNDRIP. One of the main things the law sets out is that Indigenous people must have free, prior and informed consent for actions affecting them.
The irony is that at the time, John Rustad was part of the Official Opposition B.C. Liberal Party and he had been minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation when the B.C. Liberal party formed the government.
When voting in favour of UNDRIP, Rustad said at the time, 鈥淚t鈥檚 just the right thing to do鈥e talk about UNDRIP as a document advancing reconciliation and human rights, and I think those are important values.鈥�
Rustad added, 鈥淲e are a decade or two ahead of where other governments are in their thinking and in their work with First Nations.鈥�
A few years later, Rustad was evicted from the Liberal party after he shared a post that argued that the world was being 鈥渉oodwinked鈥� by climate change scientists. Two short years after that, he's the leader of the B.C. Conservative Party and he wants to repeal UNDRIP.
These types of actions and comments really make one fearful of what the Conservatives will do with reconciliation if they form the next federal government.
What do you think?
