Federal government not learning from past mistakes

“There’s not much evidence frankly at this point,” Swann said.

– Excerpt from Nunatsiaq News story “Dog slaughter inquiry still a ‘maybe,'” June 17.

This is a prime example of how the federal government continues the colonialist practice of justifying the denial of justice to aboriginal peoples by placing a greater and more legitimate weight on the apparent lack of self-admitted, written government documentation with respect to government wrongdoing, and less weight and legitimacy on the oral testimony and evidence given by aboriginal leaders and elders who experienced the wrongdoing, by saying there is a lack of evidence to admit any wrongdoing and to accept responsibility.

It has the same effect as saying: “If we can’t find it written down somewhere it isn’t reality. It didn’t happen. The aboriginal practice of maintaining oral history, and the testimony that aboriginal peoples give today doesn’t carry any weight. It isn’t legitimate. This is how we keep our power over aboriginal peoples, deny them justice, and deny our past.”

There has been no cognitive retention on the government’s part in learning from past mistakes that previous governments made in the treatment of Inuit, which the entire nation learned about through testimony given by Inuit leaders and elders in hearings conducted by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

(Name withheld by request)
Ottawa