What about me?

Recently two things have sparked some surprisingly rabid anger in me. Firstly, the whole apology in regards to the residential schools. I accept that the stealing of children from their parents and the rape of the natives culture was at the very least wrong, and at worst evil (though the argument that at least some people did it with some misguided or deluded sense of good will does have at least an inkling of truth to it.) What I do not accept is that this apology is made on behalf of Canada as a whole. My ancestors (and a great many Canadians who came here before them and since) were not party to this process, they did not make these decisions, they probably did not know what was even going on. My blood does not make me responsible for this crime and that this happened does not reflect badly upon my grandparents or great grandparents. If the government wants to apologize for the role of the federal government (or provincial for that matter) as an organization fine, but don't make out that people without blood on their hands have blood on their hands just because they are white or Christian.

Secondly, I recently heard a program on CBC in which young Quebecois were discussing separation and the current state of Quebec. While most of these people were level headed, one young women repeatedly put down any and all attempts by the Canadian government to give Quebec as much sovereignty as they could without separation. She continually spoke of the loss of culture Quebec has and is experiencing because of its attachment to the rest of Canada. Let's forget for a moment that Quebec has some of the most xenophobic language laws in the developed world, there is something even more disturbing than that to me. In school I was required to learn French, even though most of my classmates were of a Germanic (let's face it Mennonite) origin. When we got to high school a German language coarse was offered in the last two years, but this was high German, not Plautdeutsch (low German, the language of most Mennonites.) This was in essence a token offering to display the appearance of multiculturalism. Even though the chances of me needing to speak French is minimal at best, I had to learn it because it's part of being Canadian. If I wanted to learn about my own ancestory or language that had to happen at home, but the history of Quebec and their language, that was important.

The reality is the natives are right when they say our governments have robbed them of their culture and language, but the truth is they have robbed all of us of our culture and language. They have done it in the name of the English, but even more disturbing is that they have done it to appease the Quebecois and the Quebecios don't even care.