Lessons to be learned from history of human rights

In 1948 the United Nations issued its groundbreaking Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Two of the rights listed were the right of all to be free and the right of movement for the protection of life and freedom. Because these are rights, they are independent of both government and time.

For example, when a government prevents its citizens from exercising certain rights, these rights still exist even though the government has denied them.

They also existed long before the United Nations formalized them in 1948. For this reason, we condemn and tear down the statues of those who owned slaves even though many people at the time were slave owners — not only in North America but also in Africa and Asia and the Middle East. That it was so widespread did not negate the fact it violated the right of all to be free.

The same is true for the right of movement for the protection of life and freedom. Long before 1948 this right had been exercised when people fled religious persecution; when they fled war; when they fled famine.

In the first half of the 20th century, thousands of Jews fled the religious persecution they faced in Europe. Some came to Canada for safety and a better life.

More recently, Yazidis have fled religious persecution at the hands of ISIS and come to Canada.

Religious persecution was also prevalent in much of Europe during the years following the discovery of North America. Once again people fled to this land to be free from persecution — people such as the Mennonites and Quakers who began arriving in Canada in the 1770s and 1820s, respectively.

Recently, we watched as thousands of Syrians fled to Canada to escape the brutality of the civil war in Syria. The same was true for the Vietnamese boat people who arrived in the late 1970s.

In a much earlier time, a group of people who fled war to come to Canada were the United Empire Loyalists who began arriving in large numbers in the early 1780s. They were mainly white, but there were also 3,000 Black Loyalists as well as several hundred Mohawk Loyalists under the leadership of Joseph Brant (Chief Thayendanegea).

Many will remember Live Aid organized by Bob Geldof in aid of the victims of the Ethiopian famine. As happens in time of famine, a large number fled the devastation (an estimated 400,000). Several thousand made the trek to Canada where they were welcomed.

An even more devastating famine was the Irish famine in the late 1840s. Like the Ethiopians, thousands fled Ireland for a place where food was plentiful — for many, that place was Newfoundland and Labrador.

In each example, those who came in recent years in search of a better life have been welcomed — their right to flee to improve their lives acknowledged; the responsibility of a country such as Canada to receive as many as possible — accepted.

On the other hand, those who came during the early years (even if for the same reasons) are called colonialists (a label which is now derogatory).

Let’s assume we were to acknowledge their right to come — to acknowledge their courage and determination as we once did.

Does this mean we have to disavow the harm that was done to the Indigenous population? Certainly not. Instead, let that harm be taught with great clarity in our schools.

But in the same classroom and to the same students, let us teach about human rights — that the colonialists/settlers/immigrants who came were perhaps no different in exercising their right to search for a better life than those who are doing so today.

Depending on the skill of the teacher, the students will leave school having learned a valuable lesson — that human beings and the lives they lead are extremely nuanced.

A generation of young people leaving school with this knowledge could go a long way towards establishing a balance in the understanding of Canada’s past which currently does not exist.