Why is reconciliation stalling in federal departments?

Yellowhead Institute is an Indigenous policy think-tank that produces the yearly progress report on the 94 Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action. Eighty-one of the 94 Calls are still outstanding. But the 2023 Yellowhead Institute report also marked the end of the progress reports by authors Eva Jewell and Ian Mosby, simply because nothing has been accomplished by the federal government in the last two years. No call to action has been completed. One would think that the Canadian public’s horror in response to the findings of unmarked graves at residential schools in 2021 might have been a kick in the pants to the masses of ADMs in Ottawa. But no call to action has been completed since. And, no, progress is not completion. Details matter. Perhaps public interest is overshadowed by a few wars, economic pressures on food budgets, and mortgages. Perhaps Canadians' interest is only given when there’s a surplus of benevolence. No, that’s not it. Leaders of companies and organizations continue to move on reconciliation, so we can actually walk and chew gum at the same time. Perhaps the interest of Canadians is laden with guilt that the government and churches they held in esteem are actually the ones which perpetrated the crimes of residential schools. Granted, there is a loss in realizing institutions can do wrong, but are we actually saying that Canadians had so much trust in the federal government for generations? I don’t think that’s it, either. Failures in institutions is an age-old story. This can’t possibly be a surprise. In their 2023 Status Update on Reconciliation, Jewell and Mosby wrote “If only the Canadian public knew about their government’s lack of action, we believed, perhaps things would change." I think Canadians, for the most part, have come to grips with the federal government’s historical crimes against Indigenous Peoples through legalized racism and the theft of children. However, I think most Canadians can’t fathom that the current set of policy-makers are continuing in the tradition of underserving Indigenous Peoples. Canadians can’t believe that federal employees are still resisting serving Indigenous Peoples with excellence, and instead consumed with reducing risk to the government. Federal employees, executives, and unions need to take a good look at themselves. Are you an ally for Indigenous Peoples’ inclusion and well-being? Doing the learning, using the correct words, saying the right things? Are you comfortable with this work? If you’re comfortable, then you haven’t moved out of the initial stage of ally. It’s time to move to the next level. An ally who is acting must, by definition, take risks. The whole point of reconciliation is to change systems. Systems built by governments are the things keeping Indigenous Peoples excluded. An ally who is acting must be working to change systems. Advocating for change always comes with some risks as people usually don’t want change, so they resist. If you call yourself an ally for Indigenous Peoples in this town, I expect you to be uncomfortable. We expect you to be advocating for change—real systems change. If you work for the Government of Canada and you’re not advocating for Indigenous Peoples, but instead for protecting the status quo, then you are the problem. Allies take risks to stand shoulder to shoulder with Indigenous Peoples. Allies feel the pain of losing yet another Indigenous sister/mother/cousin to murder. Allies are outraged that, proportionally, more Indigenous Peoples are incarcerated than there were 20 years ago. Allies can’t help but speak up, act, demand change. But the wars, the economy, and the election year. There’s no time to think about "the Indigenous issue"! (FYI, this is an offensive term.) Sure, these are challenges. But every single one of these challenges also impact on Indigenous Peoples. We are the citizens you serve. The real question is why do civil servants who stall reconciliation receive no consequence? Rose LeMay is Tlingit from the West Coast and the CEO of the Indigenous Reconciliation Group. She writes twice a month about Indigenous inclusion and reconciliation. In Tlingit worldview, the stories are the knowledge system, sometimes told through myth and sometimes contradicting the myths told by others. But always with at least some truth. The Hill Times