Chapter 11. First Nations from Indian Act to Idle No More
Chapter 11. First Nations from Indian Act to Idle No More
11.12 Idle No More
Mary-Ellen Kelm; Department of History; and Simon Fraser University
On June 11, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper rose in Canada’s House of Commons to give an official apology for residential schooling. He called the treatment of Indigenous children in the schools “a sad chapter in our history,” for which “the Government of Canada sincerely apologizes.”[1] Mr. Harper and the other party leaders expressed palpable remorse for the past injustices of Canadian policy, and leaders representing First Nations, Métis, Inuit peoples, women, and urban Indigenous people gravely responded to the apology from the floor of the House.
For many Canadians, this promised to be a turning point in our relations with Indigenous peoples. Until the 1990s when stories of abuse in the schools hit the media and the courts, most Canadians had never heard of the schools. Now the Prime Minister of Canada was admitting that a government policy had been wrong and that the attitudes that inspired the policy have “no place in Canada.” More importantly, he promised a new relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canadians, one of shared history, renewed understanding, and new respect for all cultures, traditions, and communities.[2] Two processes were meant to bring this new relationship about. First there was compensation for those who attended the residential schools. Second, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was tasked with documenting the full history of the schools. Restorative justice scholars gave the Harper apology high marks.[3]
However, the apology was not a turning point. Its major failing was that it situated all the wrongs of government policy in the past. It did not commit the Canadian Government in any concrete way to changing its actions towards First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples in the present. This was a significant mistake because a changed relationship with Canada was what Indigenous people wanted.[4]
By 2008, Indigenous people in Canada had already begun to shift the conversation between themselves and Canadians in really fundamental ways. In the 20th century, Indigenous people demanded government recognition of their rights and title to the land. As a new generation of Indigenous leaders arose, they increasingly sought resurgence — of their own cultures and communities — rather than recognition. They wanted a new relationship with Canada, the kind of relationship of sharing and mutual respect that their ancestors had expected when they signed treaties.
The trouble was that Indigenous people have not shared equally in Canadian wealth. In some parts of Canada, Indigenous people have poverty rates that are three times those of other Canadians.[5] Less money is spent on reserve schools and Indigenous children are ten times more likely to end up in foster care.[6] So while Mr. Harper was apologizing for the damage done to Indigenous children and families by residenti