A history of Canada’s medical colonialism against Indigenous people and why it needs to be recognized as genocide: doctors – Toronto Star
May 5, 2021
On April 1 — a month our Canadian government recognizes as Genocide Remembrance, Condemnation and Prevention Month — Canada’s minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, Bardish Chagger, issued a statement reminding Canadians that “it is our collective responsibility to honour and give voice to the victims and survivors of genocide by learning about these horrific events and ensuring we preserve the truth of this history” to confront “prejudice, hate as well as all forms of racism and discrimination.”
In 2015, the year that the House of Commons designated this month, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that Canada’s residential schools amounted to cultural genocide. In 2019, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls concluded that the genocide of Indigenous Peoples has happened in Canada.
Yet, in Chagger’s list of historical examples, she omitted to mention the very genocide that Canada is directly responsible for: that of Indigenous people on these lands.
