We can’t afford to whitewash Canada’s history of genocide

By Lethbridge Herald on February 8, 2023.

Editor:

For the benefit of Frances Widdowson, the definition of “genocide” is “the intentional destruction of a particular group through killing, serious physical or mental harm, preventing births, and/or forcibly transferring children to another group.”

 All of these actions were taken against Canada’s Indigenous population, particularly the Plains First Nations, and they constitute genocide, both cultural and physical. 

Perhaps Widdowson might read history professor James Daschuk’s book “Clearing the Plains” in which he describes the genocidal actions taken by the Canadian government to make land available to settlers. 

In Canada, Indigenous people were killed by soldiers, by the intentional introduction of smallpox and other diseases and by starvation when they were sent to reserves they couldn’t leave without permission, even to hunt to provide for their families. 

Residential schools were created in order to “kill the Indian in the child.”

 Children were removed from their families, sent to residential schools and prevented from learning their native language and culture. Many never saw their families again. How is this not genocide? How is the outlawing of traditional practices not genocide? Mass graves of Indigenous children have been discovered at sites of former residential schools. 

Consider the discovery of the remains of 215 children found on the grounds of a former residential school in Kamloops. How is this not genocide? 

Do not forget the 60’s Scoop where more than 20,000 Indigenous children were removed from their families and “given” to white middle-class families to adopt. How is this not genocide? 

Germany now prosecutes Holocaust deniers, partly because there is some truth to the old adage that those who do not know their history are destined to repeat it. 

It’s critical that we learn our history – the good, the bad, and the truly evil. It’s equally critical that we not whitewash it, as Widdowson does. 

Leslie Lavers

Lethbridge