Thanos Thanos:
What our nation both allowed and encouraged, from top to bottom, from both dominant language groups, and across all political parties:

For some things there is no forgiveness that could ever be earned by later generations, not when an attitude like this was built into the bedrock of the new country. Some guilt can be nothing but eternal.

I live in St. Albert, where Vital Grandin has a school, street and neighbourhood named after him. This prompted a petition to have his school renamed.
This ties right into what I've been writing about for years now-how do we remember people like these whose actions made it possible for us to live here? Are all our heritage, everything that makes us who we are, all the positive and negative experiences we've had morally tainted by association?
Vital Grandin not only participated in the residential school system, but also in the development of Franco-Albertan culture, the birth and growth of many central Alberta communities, and prominent regional cultures such as that of Ukrainian Canadians on the Prairies. How do we remember that? Can we morally take any pride in it?
It's why I support restoring Indigenous lands, clearly spelling out their rights and jurisdictions in the Constitution, not to mention updating the damn funding formulas, stopping fighting judgements to properly fund Native child welfare programs, rejecting the Doctrine of Discovery and in short acting on a lot of the recommendations of the Penner Report, RCAP, the TRC and all the other inquiries, reports and writings that have discussed the problems and how we could fix them.
I am Canadian. It's all I can be. This place is the only one I can call home. But that means I have a responsibility to know these things and try to set things right. I can't fix everything on my own, but I hope I've at least done something to help.