One of the things I have been doing a lot of here in Arizona is going for long walks. I have enjoyed this immensely.  I have  often listened to podcasts as I walk.  I particularly like CBC podcasts. Now I can listen to their radio shows when it suits me. Sometimes technology is a blessing.

While in Arizona, I listened to an interesting podcast by Connie Walker a Cree journalist. It was called “Exposing the Truth.” She quoted Justice Murray Sinclair who was the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission ‘TRC’) who said at the last of its events: “There is not a single indigenous person in Canada today who has not been touched by the legacy of residential schools.” I mulled that one over. It must be true it comes from Murray Sinclair.

The TRC’s final report directly linked the violence indigenous women suffered and the violence indigenous women face today. The TRC exposed this uncomfortable truth. Indigenous women are 3 times as likely to be the victim of a violent  crime compared to other women in Canada. And indigenous women are 7 times more likely to be murdered  than other women in Canada.

And yet some good people ask where is the data that establishes system racism in Canada. The fact that such people ask such a question in light of these facts itself demonstrates that systemic racism lives in Canada today.