"Identity politics" is destroying the Canada I grew up in

Left wing leaders embrace of "colonialism" as a "genocide" ignores history

Under Justin Trudeau, there is a schizophrenic ideology that tries to combine “diversity and inclusion” with “racism” and “exclusion”. Trudeau defines Canadians by where their ancestors were born, by their skin colour, by their native language and by whether they descended from Europeans, Africans, Asians or “indigenous” peoples. The word “indigenous” is disengenuous since every person is “indigenous” to Earth and the Globe’s partition into “countries” came long after life on Earth began.

By defining countries or their equivalent, Trudeau puts everyone into a “tribe” and then argues that people who moved from one part of the world to another were “invaders” or “colonialists” who owe something to the people who preceded them as occupants of that area, ignoring the reality that even within that area, local tribes attacked one another seizing land and displacing their predecessors. To whom do the “colonialists” owe reparations - the most recent indigenous group who occupied the land or the previous tribe who they conquered or the one who previously conquered them? And why does it matter whether a conqueror was a tribe from the same geographic region or from abroad?

Trudeau’s rhetoric ignores the historical truth that First Nations were constantly at war with one another, a reality the Government of Canada describes in its own publications. Here is a clip from a Government website:

Trudeau paints a picture of aboriginal Canadians as “noble savages” who are “stewards of the land” rather than actual savages who murdered one another for economic gain and took slaves and kidnapped children.

“Reconciliation” is the absurd notion that Canadians who immigrated to Canada post-Confederation from all parts of the globe owe something to the descendants of aboriginal people who inhabited Canada before Confederation. Those immigrants and their descendants comprise the majority of Canadians and include the Trudeau family itself. While Justin Trudeau and his father Pierre Elliot Trudeau have inflicted enormous damage on Canada’s economy with their nonsensical attacks on our vital energy industry, the majority of Canadian immigrants can be credited with building one of the most successful economies in existence from which every Canadian has benefited, and neither those immigrants nor their progeny played any role in the alleged “genocide” of First Nations before colonialisation.

It is time to face the facts. Canada’s government (but not ordinary Canadians other than through poor choices of their elected representatives) built a reserve system, residential schools, and enacted the Indian Act all of which have been oppressive to aboriginal peoples, and it is long past time to remedy this system by repealing the Indian Act, disbanding the Ministry of Indian and Northern Affairs, and transferring title in fee simple of the lands now termed “reserves” to the people who live there with no restrictions on individual ownership of such lands nor on the ability of the owners to alienate their lands if they choose. Indigenous Canadians deserve the same opportunities as all Canadians, subject to the same laws (and not laws that distinguish them by race), with access to the same economic opportunities, banking systems, and personal freedoms. The land they occupy is rich in resources and with freedom to develop those resources they can end the cycle of poverty many have experienced.

The age of identity politics must end in Canada. We deserve better. Getting rid of Trudeau in Ottawa would be a good first start.