The case for passing Bill C-15, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, was crystallized last week with Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole’s ignominious remarks sanitizing the residential schools.
O’Toole suggested the intent of the schools was “educational” and snidely advised using the record of Liberal governments as a means to “silence” debate. While the comments betray O’Toole’s whitewashing of Canadian history, he was right about one thing: discrimination, dispossession and denial of Indigenous rights is a proud bipartisan tradition in Canada.
