FLAWED WAY OF THINKING PERSISTS

Saskatchewan Education Minister Bronwyn Eyre has been under steady heat for many days due to comments she made in the legislature about the way information about treaties is taught in Saskatchewan schools.

At the writing of this editorial, a petition calling for Eyre to step down had more than 2,700 signatures. The people behind the campaign say Eyre demonstrated a lack of understanding of Indigenous issues while using misrepresentation of her son’s Grade 8 homework assignment as the basis for broad changes to the curriculum.

This was a jaw-dropping gaffe, and despite Eyre’s later assurances that treaty education will not undergo substantial changes, and her apology for any “confusion” her statement caused, she remains at the centre of a storm.

As Postmedia columnist Murray Mandryk so accurately put it in a recent column, “At best, Eyre was being careless and intellectually lazy. At worst, it’s a cheap political appeal to a way of thinking we best leave behind.” Sadly, that “way of thinking we best leave behind,” is not restricted to comments from the education minister.

This week, the StarPhoenix received a letter condoning the recent posting of signs in Saskatoon reading, “It’s OK to be white.”

“The poster in question is a suppressed belief held by many Canadians of European descent,” the citizen wrote. “I am a proud Canadian who happens to be white and I will never feel guilt or shame because of that fact.”

This thinking is flawed. The issue is not that people should feel guilt or shame for belonging to a certain race. The call is to understand that not all people have access to the same resources to find success. We need to be working toward equality for First Nations and Metis citizens because the playing field is far from level.

There is pushback against Aboriginal issues in schools, in media and in the work of community activists. Change is at best uncomfortable and at worst painful; however, we must move through these feelings to improve society.

Education on both the history and current issues of the province’s first peoples will help enlighten everyone about why change is necessary. This is illustrated by the phrase coined by David Arnot, chief commissioner of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission: “We are all Treaty people.”

The education students are getting about treaties and the history of Indigenous people will help ensure they fully understand the issues, and will not follow in Eyre’s footsteps in making callous and insensitive remarks.