Serious moral, ethical failure

DEAR EDITOR:

It was with extreme sorrow and disgust that I heard about first the 215 unmarked graves in Kamloops and then the discovery of up to 751 more unmarked graves at a residential school site in Saskatchewan.

I am aware that there are probably many more sites that will be found. This is not only a tragedy for the children, their families, the communities they came from and First Nations as a whole; it is also a serious moral and ethical failing of this country that we call Canada.

I immigrated to Canada as a young child in 1960. This country has been very generous and good to me, my parents, my siblings and my extended family. I still remember fondly the day in 1972 when we became Canadian citizens. I love Canada!

So how do I reconcile this with the horrors of the residential schools and the attempted cultural genocide of the First Nations People?

This is very difficult.

I do understand that most, if not all countries have skeletons in their closets, but this certainly does not excuse or diminish how my country discriminates and treats its First Nations to this day.

I pray and hope that reconciliation will happen. It has to start with all Canadians acknowledging what really happened at residential schools and how shabbily our government treated First Nations people.

Reading Indigenous authors is a good place to start gaining some insight on this.

The book, “21 Things You May Not Know About The Indian Act,” by Bob Joseph is very informative. Only then can we talk of true reconciliation and developing mutual respect amongst the many cultures, First Nations, European, Asian and African that make up Canada today.

On Canada Day, I will celebrate this country, warts and all, but I will be wearing my orange “Every Child Matters” shirt and not my red Canada shirt. I will also take time to seriously reflect on how my country treated and still is treating its First Nations people.

Tom Hoenisch

Naramata