You cannot imagine someone with a deeper gratitude for what Canadian freedom fighters meant for the Netherlands: Liberation from the Nazis.
That’s why I wanted to see Canada for myself. I first did in 1994.
I met nice people but something wasn’t right. During that first trip the image of Canada I was brought up with started to show cracks. Those have only widened over time after I moved here in 1999 as I learned more about Canada’s colonial past and witnessed ongoing colonialism.
It has come to the point that I stopped attending the Remembrance Day ceremony.
And that is a big deal for me.
The cause was the attack by a heavily armed RCMP force on the Unist’ot’en and Wet’suwet’en protection camps on January 7, 2019.
The Wet’suwet’en are fighting for their lands and waters to be returned, and for their Indigenous Rights and Title to be recognized as it is in the Delgamuukw Supreme Court ruling. The Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en peoples won this case in 1997.
Canada and B.C. are unwilling to do so and instead support a pipeline to be constructed over Wet’suwet’en territory.
Since then, we have seen multiple blockades, and multiple attacks by the RCMP, in 2020 and last week. These attacks are in violation with the Delgamuukw ruling, but also with multiple articles of the United Nations Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples, which was adopted into law by the federal and B.C. governments.
This is the ugly face of colonialism, of which we settlers benefit every single day.
But we also value freedom. Canada went to war for it and we show up en masse to honour the people who fight for ‘our freedom’. But what than do we say when the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en peoples fight for theirs?
End note: Also see BIU column “Before reconciliation, we need to acknowledge the truth."
