Hot off the presses. Judge Jacques Viens has released his official report on Indigenous People and Public Services in Québec (download and read the documents through the links at the end of this article).
No nation is untouched by issues of social inequality based on race, gender, ethnicity, language, religion, sexual identity, or other distinguishing characteristics or individual choices. Canada actively cultivates a culture of diversity and tolerance, and performs relatively well with respect to social equality in many dimensions. But what looks like tolerance and equity today often looks less impressive in hindsight. The task of nurturing equity (read fairness) in our society is never-ending.
The inequities related to native American populations in Canada are complex, deep seated, widely acknowledged, and important. The Public Inquiry Commission on relations between Indigenous Peoples and certain public services in Québec: listening, reconciliation and progress, now officially completed, is the product of a team of 89 people, 38 weeks of hearings , 765 witnesses, and 1047 testimonies.
It is a thoughtful and empathic work, that will educate and inform all that read it. Its very existence is a deeply meaningful gesture, and hopefully will lead all of us in Québec (and Canada) to take individual and collective steps towards healing.
Problems of inequity and historical suppression of less powerful groups are abundant in the world and to me, one of the great values of this document is that it illustrates vividly how discrimination can become so deeply embedded in our institutions, policies, and our very culture that we become blind to it. Like fish who fail to recognize the water they were born into, its omnipresence blinds all but the victims – whom it often suffocates.
Reparations is a popular word these days, and at its heart this is a good thing – who could deny the aspiration of “REPAIRING” or “making things right”. But knowing how to act on that noble wish implies that we actually understand the problem and know how to repair the damage. Understanding is a key piece, and the only way to understand just how messed up and unfair our society was (not too long ago – and likely still is hopefully to a lesser degree), is to expose in broad daylight some of the darkest chapters in Canadian history. These stories are tragic, horrific, and painful to listen to – but they must be spoken and they must be heard! Anything short of this only burries the wrongs of past deeper in our collective psyche where they will fester for generations. Money is sometimes brandished as a potential solution which is perhaps one of the most insulting and potentially damaging responses to this problem. Although money can be a means to many good ends, it cannot in itself erase historical, cultural and moral injury – it neither absolves or heals.
There are multiple steps that can promote healing. An incomplete list would have to include advice to stop, think, gather information, reflect, create dialogue, acknowledge past and present errors and injustices, repent, institute mechanisms to remove structural inequality, repeat as needed (and it likely will be needed) and hope that seeds of forgiveness are sown. Forgiveness, of course lies in the hands and hearts of the victims and this takes time.
Hopefully the Viens Commission will shorten the time for many of the victims of this tragic chapter in Canadian history. Thank you Judge Viens and your team of 89. Thank you to the 765 witnesses and the participants in the 1047 testimonials. A million apologies to the thousands and thousands and thousands of victims who suffered unthinkable injustices from people and institutions in our times, in our lands, and often in plain site.
Miigwech
Commission Viens Press Release 2019
Commission Viens Summary report
Commission Viens – Final report
Commission Viens Appendices