Black History Month

Brenda Crawford | Feb 10, 2016

I have thought about this designation of February being Black history month for some time now. I realize this is an American attempt to bring awareness to inequalities and the history that created this situation in the US.

Canada has its own dark history that should be recognized in Canada as First Nation History Month. We have been just as cruel and violent to our indigenous people. We did not ship them from Africa, we invaded their land, and herded them unto reservations, took everything from them in the way of natural, cultural resources, sat back and prided ourselves in how we dealt with our differences.

Shame on us! Residential schools, trying to mould them into proper white ways, sitting back and letting horrid so-called religious groups better their living conditions. It did not work.

Some reserves in the north are squalid. We would not let dogs live in the conditions that our native people are forced to live in. This is 2016, people, and we must act now.

Now is the time to come clean and really help all people come together and learn from our mistakes. Teach our young people everything that was done in the past, with the hope that they can take these teachings and start a new generation, accepting the truth that white people were not the first to inhabit Canada.

The new Liberal government is promising to do just that, so let us keep them accountable and support them in the coming years. Talk is cheap.