Stop apologizing and start making hard decisions

Proposed statutory holiday a smokescreen for cowardice

Do not, for a solitary, single second, believe the decision to adopt a statutory holiday dedicated to truth and reconciliation in Canada’s dealings with its Indigenous peoples is anything other than a smokescreen for cowardice.

This will seem harsh to honest and sincere Canadians who feel a measure of guilt and shame over the horror-show the residential school system became down the decades.

Declare as many holidays as you want, knock down every statue across this land of those within a country-mile of some harsh policy toward First Nations people while handing out apologies and cheques by the bucketful, yet you’ll come not one iota closer to dealing with what remains this country’s biggest challenge.

So today’s policy — endless apologies, commissions of truth and reconciliation and announcing, at every venue, this is traditional Blackfoot land or similar sentiments — remains merely a sop.

Politicians cling to it, none more fiercely than our current prime minister, because it provides cover to look caring and forward thinking, when in fact it masks a complete lack of backbone in dealing with today’s problems.

It is easier to lambaste Cornwallis, Langevin and John A. Macdonald about their collective failures in dealing with what was then the “Indian problem” than devising a program to end this impasse on how Indigenous people and other Canadians can thrive together in future.

All we hear are endless rounds of apologies and while these are likely welcomed by many Indigenous people, time’s up on looking backwards. Instead, let’s look at today’s issues. Oh, they are myriad, involving very difficult questions asked by people on all sides of this divide. Suggested routes forward risk a mountain of criticism.

So, instead, politicians take the easy points — blame their forebears, now suitably dead, for mistakes. Hey, you lose neither votes nor sleep that way.

But we all know what those problems are. So, as no elected person would dare speak them aloud because it’s a surefire vote loser, let’s summarize them. Yes, it is fiendishly complicated, but, as a starting point, there are a few obvious routes ahead.

The basic question is assimilation, separation or some hybrid solution. This differs not a lot from a century ago, and while the decisions reached with the residential school system and other government follies were fearfully brutish there was at least some desire for action.

The reserve system remains the fulcrum point. If assimilation is to be complete, then that has to end. If separation is to be the way forward, then a formula to make that sustainable must be dragged into shape. You cannot have separation and expect some other country i.e. Canada, to fund it forever. That’s the sweet, blinded position of teenagers: wanting freedom to stay out late but expecting mom and dad to buy and cook their supper.

Oh, and if that isn’t troublesome enough, then what about those many Indigenous people who’ve left the reserve. The educational achievements of this group are the fastest growing subset in Canada. They are thriving, though back on the reserves they’re often dismissed and criticized.

This is harsh gruel, I know. It seems an intractable problem, which is why politicians along with those band chiefs who’ve grown wealthy on federal cash and hope for more, would rather talk about the past than the present.

But while this soul-searching goes on, the dreadful toll of incarceration, suicide, drug abuse and sexual assault continues almost unabated on some reserves. Sure, keep blaming what happened 100 years ago for this situation and in another 100 years we will be lodged firmly in this same, sad place.

It is far from easy but, please, enough with apologies. By now they serve little but the reelection hopes of politicians and various band chiefs.

Bite the bullet and start sorting this out. Yes, we can. Despite everything else, there are good graces on every side. Do it and then declare a national holiday. After all, should not a holiday be a celebration?