IT’S NOT OVER YET

In his July 12 opinion piece, retired Maj. Ken Hynes implores us to leave the past in the past and to move on to a bright future together. He characterizes calls for justice and redress as nothing more than self-interest and “tilting at windmills.”

His perspective ignores a few key facts.

First, the residential schools were not some strange, racist aberration in our history. They were a calculated and intentional strategy by which Canada obtained access to the land that we settler Canadians currently “own” and continue to benefit from today.

Second, contrary to his claim that the residential schools could never exist today, there are currently more Indigenous children in state care through the child welfare system than there were at the height of the residential schools. Children continue to be taken out of their communities, with similar rationale about Indigenous parents being unfit, and racist policies such as birth alerts and forced sterilizations continue to be reported across the country.

Finally, it is hard to imagine all of us moving forward together to a bright and noble future when fewer than 15 of the 94 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report have actually been implemented, and our government continues to fight against residential school survivors in court to deny them reparations. Those are current injustices which are still being perpetuated today.

Until the harms of the past are accounted for and corrected, they will continue to be present with us. It’s not reasonable to ask people to move on and forget about it when it’s clearly not over. I’d respectfully suggest that Maj. Hynes take the time to read the TRC summary report in full before making any further public comment on these issues.

Joanna Bull, Dartmouth