Trigger Warnings: Mentions of violence, genocide, discrimination, transphobia
Reading is a funny thing: the eye is always going to scan the object for images and points of clear reference before, if ever, engaging the text of a statement, which is the meat of what the reader then considers.
At first glance, the statement from Albert-Riverview Progressive Conservative candidate Sherry Wilson may seem in solidarity with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Posted on Facebook on the holiday Monday where many gathered in public to reflect on the crimes committed by settlers against First Nations all over Canada. One might see “Every Child Matters” on the top left and Sherry Wilson wearing an orange t-shirt on the bottom right and assume the best intentions are being communicated in the text.
I would really have liked for the PC candidate from Albert-Riverview to have done that, and solely that. To spare you from reading it, here’s a summary of what Wilson wrote in what I interpret as its three main argumentative moves:
- Candidate Wilson acknowledges “Truth & Reconciliation Day” and the “Canadian Residential School System,” followed by a recitation of what reads like a mostly factual account of the issues, including a citation from the commission’s report.
- But then, Wilson claims that the issue of the residential school system has to do with not respecting the rights of the parents from whom the children had been abducted. Which doesn’t compute the most important result of those schools.
- The statement thus derails into a non-sequitur which implies – but does not quite state – the tragedy of unmarked graves of Indigenous children, among the host of abuses of Canada against Indigenous people, has somehow anything to do with the reality that non-binary and trans children exist and would like to continue to.
Maybe the intention of the Albert-Riverview candidate was that, by this statement, she was standing in solidarity with the murdered children, in memoriam. Those First Nations kids were murdered by the Canadian federal government, after being abducted by the RCMP from their parents without explanation, to be tortured and starved by school staff – the majority of the latter being descendants of settlers and members of the clergy.
Despite our differences of opinion, I think the candidates from all parties might agree with candidate Wilson on how the “Canadian Residential School System” did have a “tragic effect” on Indigenous parents and children. Parents of these children, as the Elsipogtog Spirit Singers testified on Monday, Sept. 30 in Moncton, were only told their children had died in the government’s care. Nothing more.
The “effect” of this, on those parents, was “tragic.”
The issue of kidnapping children and putting them in schools to be “washed” with DDT (a pesticide) and then killed and left in the ground without a burial is not one of parental oversight, however. As the federal government – under the Justin Trudeau Liberals and, previously, the Stephen Harper Progressive Conservatives, acknowledged – the victims of the Residential School system were abused and killed as part of a genocide, by the Canadian government, against First Nations communities, Canada-wide.
That’s the only thing anyone descended from settlers who are occupying First Nations land should say on Sept. 30. A moment of silence, a reflection on how we can do better, and a vow to never hurt First Nations children or their parents ever again.
As Wilson “quotes” the UN Declaration, one sees where this is headed. It’s not enough to misunderstand entirely the issue of Residential Schools and its victims, but Wilson needed to draw the link between those victims and the children today, Indigenous or not, who are being bullied by the Progressive Conservative leader, Blaine Higgs, the Education Minister, Bill Hogan, and, now by Sherry Wilson. For the “crime” [read: human right] of being born a transgender or non-binary person.
It would seem “obvious” to a descendant of settlers that the only thing one should do is reflect on how we, as settlers and residents of Canada can reconcile with First Nations, who lived here long before anyone else. We’re the ones who must do the work. First Nations, who do so much in our communities, are the victims of the Canadian state. That’s it.
Dragging trans kids into this mess is just cruel beyond such words one might muster as a further response. I would encourage candidate Wilson to resign her nomination in the election, and reflect on how she, personally, can do more to reconcile with not only First Nations people, but trans- and queer-identifying children, whom this post targets, harasses, and endangers.
I would also encourage the candidate to consider some equity, diversity and inclusion training, where she might learn about the intersectionality between the struggles of queer and trans people and those of First Nations, who themselves elaborate fascinating concepts on cisgender and non-cisgender identities. These folks also face anti-trans and queer discrimination, as well as for being Indigenous and/or for being trans, or Two-Spirit, or a member of the queer community in some other way.
These kids have enough to heal from, as it is. Leave them alone. Or help them. That would be better.
Dani McLean-Godbout is the Green Party candidate for Grand Falls-Vallée-des-Rivières-Saint-Quentin, and takes freelance work as an editor, writer, and translator. They conduct research on issues of media criticism and political trends.
P.S. This response also memorializes Wilson’s post, since the candidate deleted it, and our Premier more or less said: that’s good enough for me.
