National Inuit Leader Mary Simon Writes to Prime Minister Harper Seeking an Explanation of His Comment on Canada’s Colonialism

 Today I have written to the Prime Minister seeking an explanation of the comment he made during a press conference at the G-20 meeting in the USA in which he stated that “Canada has no history of colonialism.”

 

These comments are historically inaccurate. Coming a year after the Prime Minister’s solemn Apology to victims of residential schools in the House of Commons, this comment, if not properly clarified by the Prime Minister, could undermine future progress in the reconciliation of Aboriginal and other Canadians.

 

I am urging the Prime Minister to make a public statement acknowledging the true historical record.