In early July, the musical production, SLĀV, playing at the Montreal Jazz Festival, was cancelled. Several weeks later, the production in development, KANATA, to be performed in Paris, was also cancelled. SLĀV is described as “a theatrical odyssey based on slave songs” of African American slaves, while KANATA aimed to tell “the story of Canada through the prism of relations between whites and Indigenous people”.
Reconciliation is not just for governments
There is another truth, though, about my citizenship, and that is the history of Canada’s shameful treatment of Indigenous peoples. My pride in Canada cannot obscure this reality, particularly in the wake of the 2015 report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on the legacy of Indian Residential Schools.
Bad news will continue for indigenous people until Canadians demand action
A dozen children make a suicide pact in Attawapiskat. A house fire kills nine members of a family — three of them children under 5 — in Pikangikum. Two-thirds of all First Nation communities have been under at least one drinking water advisory over the past decade.
