The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30 is a time to reflect on the history of violence and genocide that has been perpetrated against the Indigenous peoples living in what we now call Canada.
Just days prior to September 30, NDP MP Leah Gazan introduced a bill into the House of Commons that would make it a Criminal Code offence to deny, downplay or condone the harm that the residential school system had on Indigenous peoples.
Up until 1996, many Indigenous children were required to attend residential schools. These children were removed from their communities and placed in often abusive environments where they were not allowed to speak their language or engage with their culture.
These schools were predominantly run by the Catholic church.
It is estimated that over 6,000 children died while attending residential schools, with many others living with the impacts of the verbal, physical and sexual abuse they endured at those schools.
“If the government is serious about reconciliation, then they need to protect survivors and their families from hate,” said Gazan. “The residential school system was a genocide — designed to wipe out Indigenous cultures, languages, families and heritage. To downplay, deny or justify it is cruel, harmful and hateful. This should have no place in Canada.”
Gazan has spoken to rabble before about the dangers of residential school denialism along with rising white nationalism in Canada. And has called out some Conservative MPs for amplifying this hateful rhetoric.
Calls to action, and calls for justice
Ten years ago, the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued 94 calls to action aimed at addressing the history of violence against Indigenous peoples, including the legacy of residential schools. As of the start of 2024, 26 of those recommendations were either stalled, or not even started.
A separate inquiry was held on the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit peoples (MMIWG2S). That inquiry issued 231 Calls for Justice. Calls of Justice included things like respecting Indigenous rights to self-governance, closing institutional gaps in services for Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people, along with many other important actionable items.
Since the release of that report in 2019, it has been found that the vast majority of those Calls to Justice have not even begun to be implemented.
READ MORE: Five years later, few of the 231 Calls for Justice for MMIWG2S have been completed
“There’s never gonna be reconciliation in this country in the absence of justice,” said Gazan in an interview with rabble.ca. “Under the current Liberal government they’ve barely moved on the calls for justice that have come out of the National inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.”
Red Dress Alert program
Gazan has also been at the forefront of the issue of MMIWG2S. Last year Gazan put forward a motion into the House of Commons for a national Red Dress Alert system.
Every year in May, MMIWG2S are remembered on National Red Dress Day, where red dresses are hung outside in remembrance of the murdered and the missing.
Gazan’s bill helped to create a pilot program, where MMIWG2S could be reported to a national alert system, like the Amber Alert system for missing children.
The pilot program was announced to take place in Manitoba in May of this year, and Gazan said that they are close to rolling out this first test of the system.
“Jagmeet Singh and other NDP MPs have supported me in working with Indigenous women and advocates from across the country and family members to push for the implementation of the Red Dress Alert system,” Gazan told rabble.“We are the only party if you look at the record of questions in the House, that’s actually raising issues about Indigenous people.”
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Nick Seebruch, editor
