by Michael Plante

“There was no genocide. Stop lying to people and read a book. The Holocaust was a genocide. Get off Twitter and learn more about the world.”  – Aaron Gunn.

If you feel more comfortable calling it Cultural Genocide then please go ahead. Yet the facts remain that the Catholic Churches and the Canadian government were in charge of the care and well-being of children that were taken away from their parents. Assimilation of a culture into another is considered Cultural Genocide, and in the process of assimilating the children of Indigenous Peoples of Canada many deaths incurred. Too many to be coincidence or by disease. Claiming ignorance of fact does not relieve the government of being compliant in those deaths.

Accountability and reconciliation is the only way forward. Repair to relations between the three groups must incur if trust and faith is to be established. You cannot shake hands with a person who’s hands you’ve just amputated. Sincerity to reconcile can only be established over time. The more people deny fact the longer it takes, the prolonged healing process is an insult to injury.

So where does Aaron Gunn stand in all of this? His words and justification to his comments remain an insult.

“I have never wavered in condemning these institutions of abuse, where countless First Nations suffered at the hands of a patronizing federal government. I have never wavered in condemning the theft of children from their families, or the forced destruction of Indigenous language, culture and traditions.

Not only have I repeatedly denounced what happened at residential schools, through my documentaries I have also interviewed more than two dozen Indigenous leaders on the importance of economic reconciliation with First Nations while also highlighting the disproportionate impact the addictions crisis has had on their communities.”

Aaron Gunn’s reply to his initial post does not rectify or explain his reasoning for such comments. The Geneva Convention definition of genocide is as follows; “According to article II of the Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group: (a) Killing members of the group. (b) Causing serious physical or mental harm to members of the group”. end quote. It would seem Arron Gunn should read a book himself, or at least the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. No one said it was a holocaust, but it was an attempted genocide upon the Indigenous Peoples of Canada.

The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada Pierre Poilievre has stated that he stands behind Arron Gunn, and in doing so, endorses Gunn’s viewpoint. This could be a turning point for Pierre Poilievre’s candidacy for Prime Minister of Canada. It is admirable to defend and back up a fellow candidate when an election campaign is underway, but to do so when such blatant behavior becomes an insult to the Indigenous community and fellow Canadians who are healing from such atrocities is perilous to say the least. In the end it will be the voter who tells Poilievre his decision was correct or incorrect.