My Personal Journey with Systemic Racism; Stopping It Starts with Truth and Reconciliation.

A few weeks ago, we at Lux had the great privilege of speaking with Kevin Lamoureux about Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. It was a life changing session for me. As the world seems to be reaching a tipping point for changing systemic racism, here in Canada we must start the conversation with our Indigenous peoples.  Through learning about our tough history and reconciling, we will have the frameworks needed to identify and stop inequality for all.

I’d like to share a few things I learned from Kevin that have changed my perspective as a Canadian. I believe these will help us lift Truth and Reconciliation to the forefront on our national conversation.

Before that however, I wanted to touch on my own story and some lies I needed to overcome.

My Story

My parents were born in Hong Kong and Shanghai. They fell in love in as young adults in Hong Kong and came to Canada in the 1970s as economic immigrants in anticipation of the British handover. My brother and I were born soon after.

Growing up we experienced and frankly, participated in (unintentionally) all kinds of racism. Without realizing it fully until recently, I was conditioned to be part of the model minority, and grew up trying to reconcile both pride and shame in my heritage.  

There are three lies that contributed to this and I hope to do everything in my power to make sure my kids don’t have their world view shaped this way. They should be proud, vibrant members of our Canadian mosaic and celebrate their own and others' heritage.

Lie #1: Keep quiet and work hard. Things will be better once you succeed.

• I am forever grateful to my parents for their sacrifices and the privilege they have afforded me. They have a resilience to them that is the hallmark of many immigrants. They came to Canada with nothing and through their effort we lived a comfortable, middle class lifestyle. My brother and I got good educations and are leaders in our professions.
• That said, they also taught me to keep my head down and just work hard. Success would make those things go away. While that might sound inspiring, I think this sort of thinking perpetuates and enables racism. I saw my parents get bullied and attacked over the years and while they didn’t back down from attacks, they never chose to speak out anymore once they and their kids were safe.  I assumed this was how I needed to behave also when I was faced with racism.
• Yes we need to put in the work to succeed, but at the same time stand up and call out any thinking, behaviour or speech that diminishes a person just because of one dimension of their demographics. If we don’t, we will enable the continuation of biases that have been passed from generation to generation.

Lie #2: I needed to aspire to Western culture.

• No one ever said this to me. Not once. Yet it was all around me. To fit in, I started preferring western food. I only wanted to speak English and wanted to learn French/Spanish over Chinese. I didn’t like how immigrants from other parts of the world dressed or their accents. I was embarrassed by my own family at times, and there was nothing to be embarrassed about.
• Growing up in the 80s and 90s this was almost inevitable. Back then, there were few leading characters in shows/movies or sports heroes who were Chinese.  Our leaders in the community were mostly white and male. This didn’t start to change until I was in my mid-to-late teens.
• With time and perspective, it’s obvious how wrong that thinking was. I love Shanghainese and almost all Chinese food (still can’t handle chicken feet though). I would have had access to many more business opportunities if I could read and write Chinese. I loved Hong Kong movies as a kid and wished I could have shared them more with my friends.

Lie #3: You can learn about someone based on where they come from or their appearance.

• I cringed when I wrote this. But we have all done it at some point in our lives.
• Labels are part of the problem and we need to stop classifying people based on their skin colour, speech, ancestry or anything else.
• When you write some of these labels out, you realize how ridiculous they are. Indigenous: which covers First Nations (50 different Nations and 50 languages), Inuit and Metis. All very different! Asian: Korea, China, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia. Again, all different. Black: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Congo, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda. All so different. White: which is often used to describe a person with European ancestry. People from Sweden, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and the UK are all pretty different.
• Racism exists among and between many groups all at the same time because it is a flawed mental shortcut. It is complicated and traumatic, but we can fight it if we stop taking those shortcuts.

Those lies early in my life incorrectly shaped how I saw Canada’s Indigenous peoples. I was never taught and didn't understand why they were separated from the rest of Canadians and only saw the terrible symptoms of what they have endured. There was more than one occasion where I ignorantly said “why don’t they just get over it?”

Learning from Kevin I now know why those issues exist and how we can help bring Canada closer to the country it was always meant to be. We need to educate and reconcile to move forward, because you would never ask the victim of any abuse to just “get over it.”

Here are my key takeaways from Kevin

I still have a lot to learn about all of these topics, so treat them as points for discussion to help us advance the conversation around reconciliation. They are not meant to be simple solutions or be the be all/end all of the conversation.

Takeaway 1: The Indian Act is a Major Challenge

The act was originally created to compel Indigenous people to "renounce their Indian status and join Canadian civilization", but also provided protections. While the act has been amended numerous times to move away from its original purpose, it remains one of the only pieces of legislation around the world that forces a country's government to treat their Indigenous peoples as a separate class of citizens.

This means that nearly all aspects of Indigenous peoples’ lives have a different set of rules, such as education, health care, land use, wills, etc. As an example, health care for status-holding Indigenous people in Canada is governed federally, while for everyone else it is governed by the province you live in.

• This leads to major problems. For example, when Jordan River Anderson from Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba was caught in a medical payment dispute for his care. He was hospitalized from birth and died while still in hospital at the age of 5, even though doctors said he could move home with special care for his medical needs at age 2. He never got to go home because governments couldn’t decide who would pay for it. A non-status Canadian kid would have gone home immediately.

We must challenge ourselves to learn more about the Indian Act, and how we can continue to move further away from its original purpose to forcefully assimilate Indigenous people. Jordan’s Principle, passed by the House of Commons in 2007 is an example of how we can start breaking down systems that discriminate.

Takeaway 2: Learn About Residential Schools – One of the Darkest Chapters of Canadian History

I grew up in the 80s and 90s in BC and never learned about residential schools. I know this is no longer the case (I am so happy to see my kids celebrate Orange Shirt Day and talk to me about it), but it broke my heart when I finally learned about them. In fact, I spent more time learning about European history and the genocide of World War II than something that was equally appalling happening right here in our country until the 1990s.

To quote Kevin in his talk with us, “if you know just one thing about Residential Schools, it is that they were very, very bad”.

• From 1876 until 1996, about 150,000 (~30% of) Indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in a school system designed to “kill the Indian in the child.”
• These were places of genocide and abuse. Survivors were challenged in that they had trouble reintegrating with their home communities and also the broader Canadian society.
• While these places no longer exist, it is our duty to learn about them and from them. We need to teach our kids about what happened and understand the part these schools played in our country’s history. Survivors of residential schools are beacons of hope who have bravely come forward with their stories and pushed for healing and reconciliation. We need to hear and support them.

Takeaway 3: We (all Canadians) Are Treaty People - Our Country Was Founded On Cooperation

Canada was founded in the spirit of cooperation through treaties signed with our Indigenous peoples. A treaty is simply a contract signed between sovereign nations, and Canada has continued to sign treaties with our Indigenous peoples even in the 2010s with the intention of cooperatively stewarding and benefiting from the amazing land we live on.

That said there remain gaps where treaties are unsigned (such as in some of the most populated areas of British Columbia, my home province) and addressing this is one of the key steps towards reconciliation.

Takeaway 4: Read the 94 Calls To Action

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada produced its final report. As part of this, there are 94 crucial calls to action that we as citizens can take to further Truth and Reconciliation.

Kevin challenged us with call to action number 92:

We call upon the corporate sector in Canada to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a reconciliation framework and to apply its principles, norms, and standards to corporate policy and core operational activities involving Indigenous peoples and their lands and resources. This would include, but not be limited to, the following.

• Commit to meaningful consultation, building respectful relationships, and obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples before proceeding with economic development projects.
•  Ensure that Aboriginal peoples have equitable access to jobs, training, and education opportunities in the corporate sector, and that Aboriginal communities gain long-term sustainable benefits from economic development projects.
• Provide education for management and staff on the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown relations. This will require skills based training in intercultural competency.

We didn't create these challenges, but we have all the power to create change right now. I encourage you to:

• Read the 94 Calls To Action;
• Read about the Indian Act, Residential Schools, Treaties and Jordan River Anderson;
• Watch Kevin's TED talk and/or invite him to speak to your organizations. It will change you; and,
• Speak to at least 2-3 other people about Truth and Reconciliation.

Thank you for allowing me to share this with you and I hope to engage with you in this conversation.

Hanson