Usually words like genocide, human rights violations and massacres are associated with the third world countries or countries with low socio-economic status. On the other hand, first world countries, or the developed countries are considered to be flag bearers of human rights and democracy. Democracy gives right and security of life, to everyone, irrespective of their ethnic, religious and cultural background. But is Canadian indigenous population living as per democratic standards?
Polish jurist Raphäel Lemkin coined the term genocide in 1944, and it means to wipe out a particular group of people from the society, based upon their nationality or ethnicity. Cultural genocide on the other hand means elimination of one’s cultural activities, traditions and language.
Similar to these concepts, is a real story told by Geraldine Bob, who happens to be a survivor of Kamloops Indian Residential School, situated in Canadian Province of British Columbia. This is the dreadful place where remains of around 215 indigenous children were found, known to the world as an unmarked grave.
What Bob stated, was acknowledged by Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). This commission had previously declared in 2015 that Canada has been involved in what you may call ‘cultural genocide’ at a massive scale. 150,000 indigenous children were made to attend residential schools all across the state, forcefully during the period of 1870s and 1990s. This has been proclaimed by TRC in 2015.
The reason behind this has been assertive assimilation of these children belonging to the indigenous population into Canadian society and culture, and get rid of what they called the Indian Problem.
These children not only faced forceful separation from their families, they also had to face physical and sexual abuse. The story does not end here, the children were beaten for committing the crime of speaking their Indigenous languages, they were not fed well and were left malnourished. Oh, and yes, these children provided for free and forced labour as well.
Pamela Palmater, who is a Professor and Chair of Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University of Toronto, told Al Jazeera ‘this one unmarked grave of the many that are out there, is exactly what genocide looks like in this country. And until we get to the truth, until we bring all of these children home, until we stop engaging in the actions that lead to the deaths of indigenous peoples, the genocide continues’
Justin Trudeau, who once made it a key issue of his campaign and promised to mend relations with the Indigenous population, got away with demanding the flags to be lowered on federal buildings, for the sake of these 215 children found. And all he could say was, ‘the mass grave found at Kamloops Residential School was a painful reminder of that dark and shameful chapter of our country’s history’.
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