Author: Heather Li and Manvi Bhalla

Editor: Christina Di Carlo

Fact checker: Jordan Kilgour

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We want to be the generation that practices activism and advocacy in an intentional manner, as best we can. But, how does knowing history better inform our actions in the present? 

In 2018, the independent research non-profit Angus Reid conducted a survey which found that fifty-three percent of Canadians believed that the federal government apologizes too much for residential schools and that Indigenous peoples should not hold “special status” in society and believed Indigenous peoples should integrate into broader Canadian society, even if it means losing their traditions and culture (1). In 2021, Environics conducted their annual Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Confederation of Tomorrow 2021 survey and found that now, 

• Canadians are more likely to believe that governments in Canada have not gone far enough in trying to advance reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples

• The proportion of Canadians who believe that the government has not gone far enough to advance reconciliation has increased

• 70% believe that individual Canadians have a role to play in efforts to bring about reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people

• Three in five Canadians say they are familiar with the history of Indian residential schools in Canada, and this familiarity is highest among Canadians aged 18 to 24, and importantly

• They found that, “among non-Indigenous people, those who are very familiar with this history are more likely than those who are less familiar to say that individual Canadians have a role to play in advancing reconciliation.” (2)

For too long, the narratives surrounding historical events (i.e., how we got to where we are today, what took place and what its impact was) have been pervaded to suit hegemonic narratives. That is to say, the dominant groups in our society (namely white, Anglo-European and usually cis men) have chosen what we commonly accept as our country’s history as we know it today. This indoctrination of “fact” is only reinforced by western-centric curricula that predominates in both formal and informal educational settings. As a result, the stories of the land and its peoples within what is currently Canada, from time immemorial to the present day, have been erased and/or replaced with tales that suit the desired narrative of those in power and those afforded the privileges of proximity to power. These narratives often err on the side of framing events in a manner that often minimizes the true impact of instances and often policies, upon communities; predominantly racialized and Indigenous communities who continue to experience pervasive systemic oppression and inequities in all dimensions of life. 

More specifically, the ability for those in power to control the narratives of what is taught and told grants them an enormous degree of power to control whose stories get told. For example, in the Citizenship Guide which is given to new hopeful immigrants, The Government of Canada erases the trauma of colonization, stating, “... Aboriginals and Europeans formed strong economic, religious and military bonds in the first 200 years of coexistence which laid the foundations of Canada”, which is in contradiction with the narratives offered by most Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, community members and historians (3). In doing so, they neglect the immeasurable genocide of Indigenous peoples throughout colonization, attributable to violent policies and programs that systematically have harmed, and continue to presently harm, Indigenous peoples and communities. Acts of historical revision are faced by various equity-deserving communities within what is currently Canada. 

In three documents that the Righting History team explored, the Canadian Citizenship Guide, a Grade 10 Civics Textbook, and a Grade 10 History Textbook, not a single mention of the civil rights struggles Black Canadians faced in this country was mentioned. In fact, the only mention we found of Black Canadians in all of these texts is Canada as a safe haven for Black slaves escaping the United States. To quote the citizenship guide directly, “Thousands of slaves escaped from the United States, followed “the North Star” and settled in Canada via the Underground Railroad, a Christian anti-slavery network.” (3) Beyond this, there is no mention of Black Canadians anywhere. In fact, according to the 2021 Interim Black Canadian National Survey by York University’s Institute for Social Research, this ignorance of the problems that Black and racialized Canadians face has led 56% of white Canadians to say that racism is not (or a small) problem within the workplace (4). This is despite statistics from the Boston Consulting Group and CivicAction that show us Black students are 4 times more likely to be expelled from high school than their white peers and Black residents are 20 times more likely to be shot dead by a police officer in Toronto than white residents (5). 

We could continue to list the racism and trauma that racialized peoples face on a daily basis while living within the (made up) borders of this country. It is beyond evident that there is a clear and urgent need for a project that will attempt to dispel the myths around the multiplicities of the lived realities of racialized and Indigenous peoples in so-called Canada. It is vital that conciliation efforts include re-education efforts for the public, as increased knowledge on this topic is tied to increased action. This is the bare minimum in reparations (a starting point, really) for equity-deserving communities and individuals.

Overall, we take on the viewpoint that knowledge is power. But it is one thing to hold that knowledge, and it is another to use it. Knowledge is power, but powerless if not shared, applied, or paired with unlearning and relearning of the deep seated biases ingrained in all of us by a colonial institution that, to this day, benefits from the oppression of two-spirit, queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and people of colour as a whole. To further examine the goals of Righting History, we will look at Righting History through 3 lenses: the past, the present, and the future.