How Does Canada Atone?

I have a practical suggestion to partly address the title's question, but I'll leave it for a future post. Today, some letter-writers from the print edition of the Toronto Star offer their views:

All the groups that have been victimized by threats, abuse, violence and death as a result of ignorant hate are sick and tired of hearing the false apologies. They are false because we know the politicians are pressured by the constituents to say something. They need the votes. Other groups may speak up because they feel compelled by general social actions.

But what matters is the real action taken. And there is usually no action. Some protests, some memorials, possible reparations.

The recent horrific findings of Indigenous burials is unspeakable. How these families were treated is abhorrent. The action we need is education. We need to get the education into the schools, teach all our youth from the very start. We need to develop our history lessons to include so much of this real history. English class should include reading lists that focus on books about so many of these tragedies. Every student should have to select two or three books in a term from different cultural tragedies, to read, reflect on and review.

Young people need to understand how others have been targeted and how easy it could be for anyone to be a target.

Corinne Broder, Collingwood, Ont.

We have a national monument, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, to honour those who fell in battle but whose bodies were not identified or recovered.

There should be a national monument to the unknown children from the residential schools who died while attending these schools — children who were abused while living and whose bodies were so callously discarded in death.

It won’t change the past, but it will be an eternal reminder of the sacrifice imposed on their families and the children.

Greg Narbey, Toronto

Like many, I am saddened to read about Indigenous children who died in Canada’s residential school system. Fixing this failure in our history will take action, time and resolve from all Canadians.

I propose our federal legislators designate a Reconciliation Day on our calendar, like Remembrance Day observed on Nov. 11, to remember and honour those Indigenous children who perished in residential schools.

On Reconciliation Day, our nation pauses from its day-to-day functions.

Canadians come together as one inclusive people in public gatherings, to learn and show respect for Indigenous people and their time-honoured culture.

Constantine Argiropoulos, Toronto

The tragedy of the residential school system and the racism endemic in our history and culture has created enormous harm, grief, and loss to Indigenous families.

This perfidy stains our national identity and our souls.

I’d like to see a National Day, or a National Week, of mourning, to pay tribute to these children and their families. Why are flags not at half-mast?

I want to see these enormous losses, this enormous injustice, recognized, finally, in the hope that it would have some meaning for Indigenous families.

I would like to see this national acknowledgment followed quickly by meaningful government action on the promises of many years.

Marcia Cannell, Richmond Hill