Earlier this year, Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer rejected the use of the term ‘genocide’ to describe the violence directed at Indigenous women and girls in Canada.
Every life lost is a tragedy, but the ramifications of the word genocide were too profound to be used in this context, said Scheer.
The UN defines genocide as the “intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” How could someone argue that this is not what happened—and continues to happen—to Indigenous women and girls in Canada?
The UN states that genocide can contain any one, or more, of five acts. Each of these five acts have been imposed upon Indigenous people.
These acts are: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on members of the group conditions of life which bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, the countless medical experiments which have used Indigenous people as test subjects, the existence of reserves and residential schools forcing people into one place, and the Sixties Scoop are evidence of all five acts being used against Indigenous people.
It was easy for me to provide an example of the five genocidal acts. Only one of these acts must be present to use the term genocide, according to the UN’s definition. Yet, all five have been committed against Indigenous people in Canada and Scheer still fails to acknowledge that genocide occurred.
Scheer, I understand you want to believe Canada is a free and pure nation, but it is not. Denying history does not solve problems. Denying history makes it more likely to be repeated.
While Scheer did recognize the systematic killing of Indigenous women and girls as a tragedy, refusing to use the word genocide eliminates a concrete definition of what happened. When you remove this concreteness, people’s attention spans wither away.
If you take away the term genocide, you incarcerate a part of history. But, you can’t lock history behind bars. Regardless of the term, the atrocities committed against Indigenous people haven’t changed.
Any group that has been targeted as such deserves to have a word that they can use to express what they have been through. It is only with these powerful words that people will listen.
Rejecting the use of the word genocide is not reconciliation. In no way does it move us closer to mending Canada’s relationship with Indigenous people and their land. If we want peace, we need to accept our past and learn from it to better our future.
After World War II, we all said “never again” would genocide occur. Starting at the end of World War II, the phrase “never again” was associated with genocide. Unfortunately, this has not proved true..
“Never again” needs to be stronger enforced in Canada. We need to ensure that these atrocities will end and that Indigenous people will be targeted no more. This first requires admitting there is a problem. If there was no problem to begin with, you cannot propose a solution.
It starts with recognition. Recognize that Canada has committed genocide against its Indigenous peoples, and then let the phrase “never again” ring true.
