An apology for the past, a pledge to do better in the future

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/07/2024 (494 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Sunday morning, I woke up to a barrage of posts on Facebook accusing me of being a racist against Indigenous people. I was stunned. Upset. I didn’t know how to deal with it.

The accusations were based on columns I wrote around 10 years ago when I worked as a columnist for the Winnipeg Sun.

They are columns I am not proud of. They covered sensitive topics such as the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the legal requirement that courts consider relevant systemic and background factors of Indigenous offenders at sentencing.

The conclusions I drew about those and other topics related to Indigenous people were not only wrong and misguided, they were hurtful and caused harm to Indigenous communities. For that, I am profoundly sorry.

The conclusions I drew about topics related to Indigenous people were not only wrong and misguided, they were hurtful and caused harm to Indigenous communities. For that, I am profoundly sorry.

The accusations of racism against me this week have to do with a book I have written that will be released in October. It’s called Treaties, Lies and Promises: How the Métis and First Nations Shaped Canada.

The research for the book helped me to better understand some of the contributions Indigenous people have made to Canada, while also providing documented evidence of how they have been mistreated, marginalized and dehumanized by colonial governments, churches and Canadian society.

Those accusing me of racism, some of whom are Indigenous people, say I have no right to write such a book given my past columns on Indigenous issues. It’s an entirely fair criticism. They raise valid points.

I no longer agree with the conclusions I drew in those columns. Through education, listening, speaking with Indigenous leaders, reading and conducting five years of research for my book, I have an entirely different perspective on Indigenous issues than I did a decade ago. When I go back and read those columns, I cringe. I’m embarrassed by them.

More importantly, I now realize the harm and hurt they caused. I did a disservice to society by writing them. They were not only hurtful to Indigenous people, they fuelled racist sentiment among non-Indigenous people. I deeply regret that.

I argued, wrongly, at the time that the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, launched in 2015, was a useless exercise because it would tell us things we already knew and would not lead to change. It would be another inquiry on Indigenous issues that governments would ignore, I wrote.

I also argued that governments and society should not distinguish between race when examining homicide rates and other harms against women and girls. That was a theme that ran through many of my columns at the time: that treating people differently based on race, including through an inquiry such as the MMIWG probe, is always wrong and racist.

I was naive and misinformed. I got it wrong.

Inquiries such as the MMIWG probe are important for many reasons, not the least of which is the need to find answers to these tragedies and to explore solutions to prevent them. They are important vehicles for victims and their families to be heard. They are also needed to ensure these issues remain front and centre, to keep the pressure on governments, the media, and society.

Indigenous women and girls are being murdered, assaulted, raped and are going missing at disproportionate rates compared with non-Indigenous women and girls. It was entirely appropriate and necessary to conduct an inquiry into the causes of that and to have an ongoing national conversation about it.

Ignoring that, as I did, was wrong.

I was also critical in my columns back then of the requirement that courts take into consideration the background of Indigenous offenders at sentencing, including how colonialism and Canada’s assimilative policies may affect or contribute to criminal behaviour (referred to as Gladue reports).

Again, I argued wrongly that offenders should never be treated differently based on race. Drawing that conclusion ignores the fact that Indigenous people are disproportionately convicted and jailed in Canada and that solutions are needed to address that injustice. Gladue is just one of many approaches that attempt to do that.

When the Canadian Museum for Human Rights announced in 2014 it would be providing free admission to Indigenous people, I wrote at the time that was a racist policy because it treated people differently based on race. I got that wrong, too.

I have changed my views on these issues because I have a better understanding today than I did then of the harmful effects of colonialism, Canada’s coercive assimilative policies and its failure to honour treaty obligations.

I have changed my views on these issues because I have a better understanding today than I did then of the harmful effects of colonialism, Canada’s coercive assimilative policies — including residential schools and the ’60s Scoop — and its failure to honour treaty obligations.

I also now understand that as a society we need to take multiple approaches and steps to find solutions to the inter-generational trauma and harm those have caused.

I see these issues through a different lens than I did 10 years ago.

I’m still learning and will keep learning, including how existing policies through the Indian Act and the child-welfare system continue to cause harm to Indigenous communities.

I believe people can change their views if they’re interested in growing and evolving as individuals. Ten years ago, I was entrenched in my opinions and was not willing to re-evaluate my position on many issues because I thought I was always right. I wasn’t.

I’ve since learned that it’s important to constantly re-evaluate your beliefs and test them with new information. I learned it’s OK to admit you were wrong.

I apologize from the bottom of my heart for the hurt and harm my columns caused and I commit publicly to finding ways to repair that damage.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca