Whose Shared History

On 11 June 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an historic apology to former students of Indian residential schools. While the Prime Minister should certainly be commended for his role in addressing this dark “chapter” in Canadian history, we must not forget that the apology was part of a larger settlement addressing Indian residential schools. In his remarks offered on behalf of “all Canadians,” Prime Minister Harper apologized for the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse suffered by former students and for the intergenerational effects caused by a policy of assimilation. The words spoken by the Prime Minister that day continue to resonate with profound and emotional cadences. Invoking the language of “healing” and “reconciliation,” the Prime Minister called for a “new beginning” based upon knowledge of “our shared history.” For many Indigenous people, however, the words spoken in the apology do not accurately represent their experience with colonialism and Canada’s history as a settler society. The narrative of the Canadian nation offered by the Prime Minister is one that selectively omits a history of genocide, territorial dispossession, cultural destruction, and regime replacement in favour of a rendering of history which represents Canada as a primarily British settler society – one whose past includes a discreet chapter containing the consequences of policies with “lasting and damaging impacts.” In his admiration for Canada as a British settler society, the Prime Minister continually forgets that Canada is itself a settler society, allowing him to view residential schools as an isolated event. In his remarks at a press conference during a meeting of the G20 in Pittsburgh in 2009, the Prime Minister said the following about the history of Canada: