Opinion: Truth and Reconciliation Requires More Than Compensation

This article expresses the adversities faced and caused by residential schools in Canada and the relationships it created between the survivors and the colonial state of Canada.

The last residential school in Canada closed less than a hundred years ago. What has been done as reconciliation since?

Residential schools were branded as a way to educate and teach “modern” ways of life and to erase the “Indian” from the child, and to this day, many survivors have not felt peace. While Canada and its provinces continue to diminish this part of the country’s history, survivors are left with nothing. A number of people will argue that the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA), was an adequate effort at Reconciliation from the government, which thankfully means that this was helpful enough for some. On the other hand, some stand by the fact it was not enough. Many describe the relegation as a pay-off, and this shows that the government and the offenders still do not understand what reconciliation truly is.

This pay-off led to many more problems within Indigenous communities, causing pain from the years of trauma many endured to resurface. True reconciliation comes through genuine support, healing, equality, education, and language and cultural teachings. No genuine apology has been given, and perpetrators were able to live their lives with no consequences for their actions, while generations of Indigenous communities live in pain. For Truth and Reconciliation to begin, action needs to happen, and proper measures need to be put in place for communities to thrive, grow, and heal.

There cannot be a price tag on Truth and Reconciliation.

Money is not the solution to everything—this is a societal belief that reinforces colonialism. While it does help people become more advanced in their lives, it also ruins traditional culture, language, and Indigenous ways of life.

Paying off survivors, some who are still not healed and lacking support, has led to further addictions, harm, and deaths. This pay-off from the government was another way Indigenous people were harmed; they were given money and a reminder of their traumatic past, and were expected to be able to heal and move on.

Although the money did help some, the pay-off was a band-aid solution meant to avoid the real issue: Indigenous communities and people need resources, and they need to be given the opportunity to heal, which is impossible when their traditional lifestyle is taken away. People thrived living a traditional lifestyle, and when that is made difficult, healing is impossible. There needs to be further support when it comes to things like education, healing programs, language and cultural teachings. While it is important to ask oneself “What more can I learn?”, it lacks validity when no one asks “What can I do to help?”

Across the country, there should be proper history education in our schools.

After decades, it is incomprehensible as to why Canadian history is not taught truthfully and honestly. From high schools and post-secondary studies to primary and middle schools, students need to be educated on the topic at different levels. If new students to the country were caught up on history, they can truly help communities in the best way possible. With proper education, there will be more empathy and more change.

While land acknowledgements can be included in syllabi, they mean nothing if there is no previous understanding or explanations about the history, and land acknowledgements can sound irrelevant, if not useless. If anything, they can be insulting.