From Residential Schools to Sir John A MacDonald - The Conservatives try to erase Canada’s genocidal history

Calls have been mounting for Tory leader Pierre Poilievre (PP) to drop their North Island-Powell River candidate Aaron Gunn from the ballot.

 

In social media posts between 2019 and 2021, Gunn repeatedly denied Canada's record of Indigenous genocide and the legacy of Indian Residential "Schools" (IRS). In one such post in October 2020 he wrote: "There was no [Indigenous] genocide. Stop lying to people and read a book. The Holocaust was a genocide." He has further claimed that "residential schools were asked for by Indigenous bands."

 

Bob (Galagame) Chamberlin, the former vice-president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) and elected chief of the Kwikwasut'inuxw Haxwa'mis First Nation, said in an April 3rd press release: "When I see someone like Aaron Gunn espousing what I see as racist comments-denialism of the impacts of Residential Schools on First Nations, it’s appalling, it’s disgusting, it’s offensive. I believe that Canadians need to understand that the Conservatives welcome these types of people into their party, and I think the leader needs to be asked does he support these statements.”

 

The First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC), representing the BC Assembly of First Nations (BCAFN), First Nations Summit (FNS), and UBCIC added their voices to the call, writing in a statement that "such attitudes are extremely harmful and divisive and should not be held by those in public office." This is particularly relevant for the riding of North Island-Powell River, which is home to many Indigenous peoples in dozens of First Nations communities.

 

The leadership of the Tla’amin Nation located there wrote in an email statement unequivocally rejecting Gunn as “an authority on what constitutes genocide", adding that “it is deeply troubling that, even after thousands of Residential School survivors courageously shared their truths across this country, individuals who minimize or deny the harms of these institutions continue to rise to positions of influence – and, more concerning still, receive public support. We stand in support of Tla’amin Residential School survivors.”

 

25 BC mayors and councilors signed a letter to the Tory party echoing these concerns, and also denounced "harmful comments made about LGBTQ rights" made by Gunn, urging the Tories "to act on this letter immediately."

 

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has supported these calls.

 

Gunn has not responded, but a Tory party spokesperson claimed that he "has been clear in recognizing the truly horrific events that transpired in Residential Schools." 

 

Poilievre also defended his candidate while campaigning in BC, stating that Gunn wants to "build stronger partnerships with First Nations people to unlock our resources so that we can produce incredible paycheques and opportunities for First Nations communities.” For this, Poilievre wants to fast-track the greenlighting of extraction and pipeline projects for the supposed benefit of First Nations communities, over the objections of Indigenous Land Defenders. 

 

This is a genocidal, settler colonial logic that is an attempt to roll back real gains won by the relentless resistance of Indigenous people over many decades to defend their lands, ways of living and cultural practices. This can't be allowed to happen.

 

In a recent video shared on X/Twitter where he urges the fast-tracking of a "national energy corridor", Poilievre awkwardly embraced a bust of Sir John A. MacDonald. He cringingly asks the ghost of this IRS architect and director of settler colonial violence, "What do you think, prime minister? Could you get the railway built today?"

 

Clearly, Pierre M. fashions himself as a modern day John A., intent on new "nation building" projects to fulfill an updated mythology of "Canada's promise".

 

So who was Canada’s first PM and Minister of Indian Affairs?

 

He directed policies that pushed Indigenous peoples onto reserves, instituted the pass system keep them there and created the North West Mounted Police, authorizing the violent suppression of Indigenous resistance.

 

In 1882, MacDonald praised the efficiency of Indian agents in Parliament, saying “I have reason to believe that the agents as a whole … are doing all they can, by refusing food until the Indians are on the verge of starvation, to reduce the expense.”

 

In 1885, MacDonald defended the execution of Cree leaders who joined the Northwest Rebellion alongside the Metis by saying “The executions of the Indians ought to convince the Red Man that the White Man governs.”

 

This thoroughly racist man sided with the slave holding states during the US Civil War. In 1885 he argued that “the Aryan races will not wholesomely amalgamate with the Africans or the Asiatics. It is not to be desired that they should come; that we should have a mongrel race, that the Aryan character of … British America should be destroyed by … crosses of that kind.”

 

In 2021, after ground radar findings of graves at former IRS sites, the anger bubbled over, and statues of MacDonald and other settler colonial figures were pulled down all over the country. In some places, authorities moved them to storage or boxed them in to protect them.

 

The attempt to rehabilitate MacDonald is an attempt to reassert pride in the history of Canadian settler colonialism that attempted to erase or assimilate Indigenous people, driven by capitalist logic. It is a project driven by the far right that has found a home inside Poilievre’s party.

 

There can be no pride in genocide.

 

Aaron Gunn's rhetoric is clearly objectionable and the calls for him to be removed should be supported. But the Tory fish is rotting from the head. 

 

But while the Liberals and NDP do not deny Canadian genocide, they have only implemented a handful of the 94 TRC and 231 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Inquiry recommendations seeking justice for Indigenous people, and they have repeatedly violated Indigenous sovereignty in the interests of capital accumulation.

 

Whichever party forms government after April 28, we will need broad based mobilizations in support of Indigenous sovereignty and justice struggles, and to confront the far right that seeks to divide the resistance to the crises of capitalism.