Cultural Genocide: A Canadian Tradition

This week Stephen Harper apologized, on behalf of the government of Canada, to the 80,000 (surviving) Aboriginals forced to attend residential schools. Schools that, as the chief of the Assembly of First Nations says, “…served to disconnect them from their culture, families and communities and left them feeling "ashamed" of being born native”

“They tried to kill the Indian in the child, to eradicate any sense of Indian-ness from Canada. It was two cultures clashing, one dominant and imposing its will on the other, and the other suffered.”

"It was cultural genocide," said Ted Quewezance, a residential school alumni and director of the National Residential School Survivors' Society.

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the era of residential schools, which ended around 1970, is a dark one in Canadian history. And while the program was one of the most violent and cold blooded examples of cultural destruction unfortunately it is not the only case practiced by a government that has claimed for decades to embrace multiculturalism.

Minus the kidnappings and beatings, Canada’s attack on unique cultures has been happening for decades in other communities as well and continues, though unrecognized, to this day.

A clear example of this fact is the systemic cultural attack on the people of Newfoundland and Labrador being waged in Canada. Thankfully it never reached the level of brutality experienced by aboriginal groups but never the less it is a clear case of two cultures clashing with the dominant one imposing its will on the other.

After losing its sovereignty and eventually becoming a part of Canada in 1949 Newfoundlanders (as they were known at the time) were encouraged, through a federally subsidized educational system, to forget their unique history in favor of the Canadian view of the world.

Nobody stopped to consider that Newfoundland’s history was not Canada’s history.

Nobody cared that Newfoundland’s music was not Canada’s music.

Nobody understood that Newfoundland’s art, cuisine, dialects, values and way of life were not the same as those experienced by Canadians.

In spite of the spirit of multiculturalism espoused by Canadians, for Newfoundland and Labrador, becoming a part of Canada meant giving up everything the people of the once proud Nation had ever known in favor of the Canadian way of life.

The “training” given to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador served to disconnect a people from their culture and leave them feeling ashamed of themselves for generations.

While the people of Newfoundland and Labrador were largely impoverished in 1949, over the years many opportunities to prosper where denied to them by Ottawa after Confederation. This, along with other government actions, prevented the people of Newfoundland and Labrador from achieving the progress they so desperately hoped to achieve and led directly to the high unemployment rates, poverty and desperation seen in many parts of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Indeed, in the case of Aboriginal communities, Ottawa tried to kill the Indian in the child, to eradicate any sense of Indian-ness from Canada, but the government of Canada is also guilty of trying to kill the Newfoundlander (and Labradorian) in the child and eradicate any sense of that culture from the Canadian landscape.

After 1949 the schools in Newfoundland and Labrador were encouraged, through political and monetary pressures, to dispense with offering meaningful historical information that might instill a sense of pride in a people being incorporated into a new culture.

Young minds were spoon fed Canadian history and the Canadian experience. The exception to this regime was the occasional dalliance into negative historical lessons. Dalliances intended to shame “Newfoundlanders” by reminding them the dark events in their past, such as the extinction of the native Beothuk, rather than the historically significant contributions they had made to the world before joining Canada.

For decades 500,000 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, like the the Aboriginal people identified in this week’s apology, have been led to believe that they are of less value than “ordinary Canadians”.

Newfie jokes are one example of the sort of abuse perpetrated against the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. Though the jokes are not directly attributable to government agencies the slurs never the less became accepted across the Country, as have terms like “stupid newfie” and “goofy newfie” and have been encouraged in many circles, including among the Ottawa elite and the general population. Nothing was done to quell these verbal attacks.

Within the Canadian culture Newfoundlanders and Labradorians were, and still are, often seen as nothing more than a cheap labour pool with limited intelligence. A people who can be used to tackle the menial jobs others abhor, but who can be depended on for little else.

Incorrectly viewed in many parts of Canada as drunks, seal beaters, uncouth and uneducated louts, many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have, understandably, been left with deep feelings of inadequacy that are a direct result of the action and, more often than not, the inaction of Canada’s government and Canadians themselves.

The Ottawa led dismantling of Newfoundland and Labrador’s railway system was one means by which Canada’s government stole away a cornerstone of a unique culture that is older than their own.

Witnessing the greatest food fishery in the world destroyed, after being greedily pulled into Ottawa’s death grip, served to help break down the resolve of many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.

Losing the ability to benefit from the massive power of the Upper Churchill hydro project, thanks to Ottawa’s support of Quebec, drove home the realization that, while there was a place for Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, it was not as an equal partner.

After having their means of financial survival stripped away from them, time after time, only to be repeatedly told they are a financial drain on Canada, is it any wonder many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, even the current generation, can’t wait to out-migrate rather leave than put their skills and abilities to work in a homeland they often perceive as sub par?

The actions of ordinary Canadians, and Ottawa specifically, since 1949 have left many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians with a broken self image and a damaged culture that is only now beginning to repair itself.

In recent years Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have begun to recognize how unique their history and culture truly is. Thanks to their strength of character and the possession of a will that refused to be completely broken, many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are now beginning to see some light at the end of a long dark tunnel.

A new appreciation of their unique music, art, cuisine and traditions has begun to slowly spread throughout a place long encouraged to view itself as insignificant and unworthy of anything but disdain within Canada.

There is no doubt that Aboriginal groups in Canada deserve far more than the apology being offered by the government of Canada this week. Nobody can reasonably argue otherwise, but without detracting from their moment in time, it would serve all Canadians well to recognize another case of cultural genocide that has been practiced in Canada for decades and is still going on.

Unfortunately, while Newfoundlanders and Labradorians rediscover their past and rediscover their self worth not one of the half million people living there, or the countless thousands who have migrated around the world but are no less affected, is holding out any hope that their plight will be recognized or in any way understood by the Canadian people, let alone the people’s government.