Editor's Note: This is one of two related pieces in the October 2019 issue. The Hon. Harry S. LaForme offers a counterargument with "Yes, Genocide."
Only four years ago, a tremendous change occurred in how many non-Indigenous Canadians perceive Indigenous people. The chief justice of Canada, Beverley McLachlin, used the phrase “cultural genocide” in late May 2015 to describe a number of government policies. Days later, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued its interim final report, which employed the phrase as its main organizing theme. Since then, many public declarations on Canada’s relationship with the original peoples have included references to “cultural genocide.” In its June 2019 report, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls went further, concluding that genocide is being perpetrated against First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people in Canada...
Donald B. Smith, professor emeritus of history at the University of Calgary, is writing a book about non-Indigenous perspectives of First Nations.
J.R. Miller wrote Residential Schools and Reconciliation: Canada Confronts Its History. He is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Saskatchewan.
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