Quote, unquote: unmasking the truth behind reconciliation

If it’s “truth and reconciliation” we’re after with regard to the residential schools, then the first truth we need to establish is that the Indian Residential Schools were not the result of a “misguided policy undertaken with the best of humanitarian intentions,” as they’re often described, but rather a pillar in the attempted genocide of Canada’s indigenous peoples.

This truth is masked, hidden, denied. It’s the official posture of the government of Canada that the word genocide will not be used in connection with the residential school truthandreconciliation process. But genocide is exactly what it was, and until that truth is recognized, reconciliation remains impossible.

-- Ward Churchill: "Healing begins when the wounding stops: Indian Residential Schools and the prospects for “truth and reconciliation” in Canada." Briarpatch, June-July 2008