It’s definitely a legacy, Mike. And a very poor and destructive one. For which Indigenous folks are still suffering from today. And based on the latest news of Montreal police racial profiling/actions, our country still has a long way to go.
That assimilation was still the goal in the'60s is not a surprise. Hopefully things are different now. But I wouldn't be surprised if it still existed underneath all the reconciliation talk.
I’m a settler of Scottish, Irish and French descent born on this continent (which some call North America, others Turtle Island, etc) in the Great Lakes region (Dish With One Spoon territory).
All I see in the context of Canadian institutions is performative talk to make some people feel better about themselves, not actual action to end ongoing colonial and genocidal policies.
There is this mythology that time passing can fix things, while the underlying systems continue largely unchanged. This is all linked to Western European worldviews which include linear time and the myth of progress, etc.
A core part of what I see are language and identity issues.
So many settlers have been indoctrinated to think of "Canada" as a place (calling one place "Canada" is like calling some other place "Gulf of America") or a group of people (That would be relational sovereignty, and Canada's Western European based Westphalian sovereignty was imposed and continues to exist specifically as a rejection of relational sovereignty).
Settlers are indoctrinated to incorporate "Canada" into their personal identity.
If we can start to recognize that "Canada" is the name of a set of (foreign imposed) institutions, and stop identifying with those institutions, we can finally begin the necessary changes to those systems.
When Western European derived identity clouds truth
Ironically I make more money doing less now in “construction” than I probably could as a “professional”.
It’s definitely a legacy, Mike. And a very poor and destructive one. For which Indigenous folks are still suffering from today. And based on the latest news of Montreal police racial profiling/actions, our country still has a long way to go.
That assimilation was still the goal in the'60s is not a surprise. Hopefully things are different now. But I wouldn't be surprised if it still existed underneath all the reconciliation talk.
"reconciliation talk."
I’m a settler of Scottish, Irish and French descent born on this continent (which some call North America, others Turtle Island, etc) in the Great Lakes region (Dish With One Spoon territory).
All I see in the context of Canadian institutions is performative talk to make some people feel better about themselves, not actual action to end ongoing colonial and genocidal policies.
There is this mythology that time passing can fix things, while the underlying systems continue largely unchanged. This is all linked to Western European worldviews which include linear time and the myth of progress, etc.
A core part of what I see are language and identity issues.
So many settlers have been indoctrinated to think of "Canada" as a place (calling one place "Canada" is like calling some other place "Gulf of America") or a group of people (That would be relational sovereignty, and Canada's Western European based Westphalian sovereignty was imposed and continues to exist specifically as a rejection of relational sovereignty).
Settlers are indoctrinated to incorporate "Canada" into their personal identity.
If we can start to recognize that "Canada" is the name of a set of (foreign imposed) institutions, and stop identifying with those institutions, we can finally begin the necessary changes to those systems.
When Western European derived identity clouds truth
https://r.flora.ca/p/western-european-identity