We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with the national Aboriginal organizations, to revise the information kit for newcomers to Canada and its citizenship test to reflect a more inclusive history of the diverse Aboriginal peoples of Canada, including information about the Treaties and the history of residential schools.
Currently, newcomers to Canada learn very little about the aboriginal people in their new country, and the Canadian citizenship test does not address Canadian aboriginals nearly as well as they should. Would you want to go to a new country and know next to nothing about a very significant part of its history? Immigrants are required to learn about many aspects of Canada’s history in order to pass the country’s citizenship test. However, the information given, and the test questions themselves seriously neglect to provide information on first nations, metis, and Inuit peoples. Think about why this matters. Take a minute and think about how you would feel if you played an important role of the history of your country, and things would be significantly different without your people’s presence, but no effort was made to inform new citizens of that important part of their new country’s past. Why does Canada neglect such a significant part of its history?
Compiled by: Laura Moore