05) PM REJECTS TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION

People’s Voice Editorial

Whenever one thinks the Harper Conservatives have set a new record for insensitivity to human needs, they manage to sink even lower. This is the government that tells seniors to enjoy their walk on treacherous icy sidewalks to the new Canada Post supermailboxes, and regards disabled military veterans as noisy troublemakers - and that’s how they treat their “political base”!

    The PM frequently points out that in 2008, his government delivered an apology to survivors of the Indian residential school system. But that statement in the House of Commons was not voluntary - it was ordered by the courts as part of the settlement of a lawsuit by residential school survivors. Mr. Harper did not consult with indigenous peoples about the content of his “apology”, nor about the policy measures necessary to make it genuine.

    Only a year later, Mr. Harper told a G20 summit that Canada has “no history of colonialism.” He and his cabinet ministers regularly shrug off the growing chorus of voices calling for a public inquiry into the deaths and disappearances of more than 1200 Aboriginal women and girls over the last three decades. Not least, the Canadian government stands virtually alone in refusing to fully accept the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

    Given this shameful, racist, misogynist record, few were surprised at Mr. Harper’s chilly contempt for the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Justice Murray Sinclair. Clearly, under Harper’s watch, the real truth about the genocidal record of the Canadian state will never be admitted, and any reconciliation process will meet with bitter resistance and stubborn denials. The majority of people in Canada do understand the need for truth and reconciliation, but the Prime Minister must first be driven out of office to make this possible.

(The above article is from the June 16-30, 2015, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)