Ten Demands: An Open Letter

 

Greetings, 

I am writing this open letter to express my embarrassment of the atrocities committed by the Canadian government and all stakeholders of the residential school system. Further, I am astonished that all governments, including the current one, have been slow at best responding to the testimony of survivors, both before and since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. None of this information is new. We have known about the abuses for decades. Still, most Canadians are still shocked in the wake of the discovery of remains near the Kamloops facility. This is unacceptable.

I am a high school teacher in Stanley, New Brunswick. I teach Social Studies to several age groups. When I learned how little I was aware of the scope of the genocide, I was ashamed as an educator. We owe it to our youth to teach them the uncomfortable truths of our country’s history. For my part, I have pledged to educate myself so I can do better, and I hear the same from many of my colleagues and friends. All Canadians have a responsibility to pay closer attention and demand results from our elected officials. I am beginning my own role in the process by writing this letter. 

The response from the government of Canada to the discovery of the human remains has been slow and soft. Families have been missing loved ones for generations. The covering up or ignoring of missing persons is indefensible. There is irrefutable evidence from both survivors’ testimony and primary sources from the architects of the system. I, along with many Canadians, am tired of platitudes, doe-eyed apologies, and empty promises. I am calling for the following to happen immediately:

 

1)     All people must stop calling these institutions “residential schools.” As an educator, I am offended that the word ‘school’ is associated in any way with them. They were concentration camps.

2)     All religious organizations that refuse to acknowledge their culpability and apologize formally for their role must be held to account. Perhaps they should begin to pay taxes, like the businesses they truly are.

3)     All individuals who are namesakes of universities, schools, parks, or any other public institution, who have proven complicity in the implementation of the residential concentration camps are to be removed immediately. Statues of these people are to be removed without delay. Honourary naming and erecting statues are acts of veneration. We can study about their historicity without praising them publicly.

4)     All recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission must be implemented immediately.

5)     All First Nations communities in Canada, regardless of remoteness and cost, must receive clean drinking water, and the means to perpetually source it. Any government that claims they wish to foster reconciliation yet does nothing to provide basic clean water is duplicitous.

6)     Orange Shirt Day must be declared as a statutory holiday. Businesses and schools must be closed to observe it. Otherwise, it can be postponed out of inconvenience—and indeed, this has happened in some schools.

7)     Remove from circulation immediately the $10 bills that have John A. Macdonald’s face. Continue by committing to remove the faces of all prime ministers from their respective bills who looked the other way while residential concentration camps were allowed to operate. Having their likenesses on our currency is akin to blood money.

8)     The government must release all budgeted money for reconciliation so communities can conduct forensic investigations of the rest of the concentration camp grounds, identify remains, and return with dignity the remains to their loved ones. If money was budgeted two years ago, there is no excuse for why it hasn’t been released prior to now.

9)     All future budgeting for truth and reconciliation must include a comprehensive plan to provide as much as possible toward mental health, addiction, and trauma recovery services. No one wants hush money thrown at them. We have proven during COVID-19 that if the will is there, money can be found. There are no excuses now.

10)  All parties in government must collaborate to create a bill which makes residential concentration camp denial or defense of them declared hate speech. Any public official who speaks this way must be removed without hesitation, as they are unfit for office.

 

These are ten reasonable goals, presented as demands because to do any less is to insult the memory of those who died, who were abused, and their loved ones. No one alive today created the residential concentration camp system. But all of us alive today must ensure that reparations be made, dignity is restored, and healing can truly begin. I implore you to speak up, act now, and affect change in whichever way is appropriate to your position or station. Please accept my invitation to respond with your thoughts and your plans to take part in this difficult process.

 

Respectfully,

 

Brandon LeBlanc