Editor's Note: This is one of two related pieces in the October 2019 issue. Profs. Donald B. Smith and J.R. Miller offer a counterargument with "No Genocide."
Is Canada guilty of “cultural genocide”? Some argue that this is an inaccurate, vague, or overly emotional term within the context of Canadian colonial history. “Cultural genocide,” they contend, ignores internationally accepted legal definitions. Others argue that the phrase accurately describes the state-supported deaths of tens of thousands of people and the attempted annihilation of Indigenous peoples as a race. This is a debate that matters.
By now Canadians know, or at least should know, that some 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend government-sponsored religious schools, first established around 1830 to convert and absorb them into Euro-Canadian “civilization.” Canadians also have learned that these residential...
Harry S. LaForme was the first Indigenous judge on a Canadian appellate court, having served on the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Appeal.
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