Ipperwash Summer Series: We need to learn after we leave school

September 6, 2020, will mark the 25th anniversary of the shooting death of unarmed protestor Anthony “Dudley” George by an Ontario Provincial Police sniper at Ipperwash Beach.  The Anishinabek News will feature an Ipperwash Summer Series to highlight the history, trauma, aftermath, and key recommendations from the 2007 Report of the Ipperwash Inquiry.  First Nations in Ontario understood that the Inquiry would not provide all of the answers or solutions, but would be a step forward in building a respectful government-to-government relationship.

For information on the 2007 Report of the Ipperwash Inquiry, please visit: http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/inquiries/ipperwash/closing_submissions/index.html

By Maurice Switzer

If you only know what you learned in school then you are not likely very bright!

While I am very appreciative of my formal learning experiences, if my education had ended when I stopped attending classes, I would not know that Neil Armstrong had walked on the surface of the moon. I would not know that Dr. Christiaan Barnard successfully transplanted a human heart. I would not know that Kim Campbell was – for a few months – Canada’s first and only female prime minister.

And I would still believe that the Toronto Maple Leafs were on the verge of winning another Stanley Cup!

The rapid pace of changing world events ensures that a dozen years of mandatory schooling is little more than a cumulative kindergarten for the learning we need to do just to keep pace with current events, to get and keep jobs, to be responsible citizens.

I am writing this article on a machine that didn’t exist when I was attending university.

We are moving so fast into the future that many of us don’t think there is time to keep track of the past. Yet the past should be one of our most important teachers. It can warn toddlers to keep their fingers off hot stoves, and should especially inform the actions of political leaders and the generals who command their armies.

Many philosophers are credited with saying something like “Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it.”

Indigenous Peoples understand that time is a circular, not linear concept. History tells us what works and what doesn’t. What goes around comes around. Let’s not waste time re-inventing the wheel.

Students must earn a total of 30 credits to receive their Ontario Secondary School Diploma, 18 of which are compulsory, and only one of which is history.

Concerted efforts to diminish the importance and relevance of teaching history to Ontario students began with the tenure of former premier Mike Harris. More enlightened subsequent provincial governments have found ways to provide more opportunities for students to learn about the immense role Indigenous peoples have played in the development of this country. However, Indigenous studies is still not a universal mandatory learning requirement in a country where over 6,000 Indigenous children died in government-run boarding schools where their parents were forced to send them.

Fortunately, some provincial students have been taught that Mike Harris was the first provincial leader to be summoned before a public inquiry in Ontario to account for his actions leading up to the Sept. 6, 1995 shooting death of unarmed Chippewa land protector Dudley George at the hands of an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) sniper.

The late Sgt. Kenneth Deane pulled the trigger on the assault rifle that killed Dudley George, but Ipperwash Inquiry commissioner Sidney Linden was critical of the pressure exerted by Harris— “Get the f*****g Indians out of the park!”— that influenced decisions made by Cabinet Members and senior police officers in how they dealt with First Nations occupiers of the provincial park after it had closed for the season.

This was an unprecedented event in Canadian history, but it was more than a decade before any students in the province where the tragedy occurred learned about it in school. For those who rely on media reports to stay informed, an expert witness told the inquiry that Ipperwash news coverage included the most racist examples of journalism he had ever seen!

In the 25 years since Dudley George’s murder, I continue to meet university students, teachers, journalists, and members of the general public who have absolutely no knowledge of that singularly tragic event. They also have little or no knowledge of the land dispute at Kanesatake 30 years ago this summer when 3,500 armed Canadian troops – larger than any overseas peacekeeping contingent in this country’s history— surrounded 64 Mohawk men, women, and children in what is referred to as “The Oka Crisis”.

Like the Chippewas of Kettle and Stoney Point after them, the Mohawks of Kanesatake were protecting ancestral burial grounds and standing their ground in the face of centuries of government inaction on their land claims.

There are many similarities to be found in the 440 recommendations of the Oka-inspired Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the 100 recommendations of the Ipperwash Inquiry, and the 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The importance of governments taking action to ensure greater public awareness about treaty rights is a common theme.

But until we see an entire generation of Canadians who learn about these things in school, this country will continue to be populated by citizens who think it’s okay to call sports teams redskins or chiefs. Or who don’t regard as a national emergency that one in ten First Nations does not have access to safe drinking water. Or that cops like Kenneth Deane tend to be more trigger-happy when dealing with Indigenous peoples – more than ten times more trigger-happy.

Improved curriculum is a work in progress, and there are indications that journalists— whose reports constitute what passes for education of many citizens— are better informed about Indigenous peoples and issues than their predecessors.

It takes time and commitment to be a lifelong learner. Most of us don’t get paid to expand our horizons by reading good books, or taking extension courses, or tuning into TV Ontario. We have to feel that being a good citizen requires us to keep current on events and issues that matter in our society. Spending every off-work hour on a golf course or in a saloon does not contribute to an informed electorate.

Public education comes in many forms. It can be a training event organized by your employer, a service club guest speaker, an evening panel discussion at the library, a free public lecture at the local university, a continuing education class offered by the community college, a professional development day for teachers, a sabbatical, a webinar. Or… just lounging in a hammock reading a book about a topic you know little or nothing about.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has actually provided many of us with more opportunities for self-improvement. At a time when words like diversity, equity, and inclusion are being included in more vocabularies, there is no better time to learn about people who are different from you, people with whom you have to share your street, your spaces, your country.

Every year just before Canada Day, the Ipsos polling firm conducts a national quiz for Historica Canada to test how well Canadians know their own country. This year, only one in six of the 1,000 respondents correctly answered as many as half of the 24 questions.

Most Canadians don’t know whose face is featured on the country’s $10 bill (Sir John A. Macdonald), and were least knowledgeable about personalities from minority or racialized groups. Only 6% had ever heard of renowned Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, whose documentary about the 1990 Oka crisis gained her international recognition and praise. Fewer than one in four had ever heard of Moncton’s Willie O’Ree, the first Black player in the National Hockey League.

“We don’t expect Canadians to know all of these stories,” said Historica Canada CEO Anthony Wilson-Smith, “But we hope they take time to learn them.”

A similar annual Globe and Mail poll of 1,500 Canadians yielded similar results, with participants demonstrating the least knowledge about people or events that happened the longest time ago.

Only one in three knew who scored the most famous goal in Canadian hockey history when Team Canada won the eight-game Summit Series against the Soviet Union in September 1992.

The tragic events at the former Ipperwash Provincial Park took place just three years later.

It would be a good thing if, 25 years from now, Dudley George’s name is at least as memorable to Canadians as Paul Henderson’s, albeit for a less celebratory reason. Nor should Mike Harris ever be forgotten as the man who held the highest political office in the province of Ontario, and who tarnished it through his lack of knowledge about treaty rights, and respect for Indigenous peoples.

Maurice Switzer is a citizen of the Mississaugas of Alderville First Nation. He lives in North Bay where he is the principal of Nimkii Communications, a public education practice with a focus on the treaty relationship that made possible the peaceful settlement of Canada.