Canada Continues World-Leading Program Of Acknowledging Problems Without Interfering With Them

The federal government responded to an international tribunal’s finding that Canada’s treatment of Indigenous Peoples constitutes an ongoing genocide by reassuring Canadians that it has spent the last decade acknowledging historical injustices with unprecedented sincerity.

The ruling followed testimony describing residential schools, stolen children, cultural destruction, abuse, and the continuing impacts felt by Indigenous communities today.

Government officials declined to participate in the hearings, explaining that hearing evidence could have compromised their ability to issue carefully worded statements afterward.

“We recognize the harms,” read a federal statement, marking the 4,000th consecutive government response built entirely from the phrases “healing,” “partnership,” “moving forward,” and “ongoing commitment.”

Officials emphasized that residential schools remain a shameful part of Canada’s past, a grammatical choice experts say is critical because it allows the country to discuss genocide as something that happened, rather than something anyone might be expected to stop.

At press time, Ottawa had announced a new task force to investigate why previous task forces had failed to investigate the findings of earlier investigations.

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