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When an injustice or unfairness or other painful phenomenon not only occurs but is committed, ancestors of the aggrieved may make several demands of a tormentor’s successors. Two demands are in fashion. An apology may be called for; or, an erasure. Both approaches are often considered symptoms of political correctness. In fact they could not be more opposed to one another.

A personal apology, as Canadians well know, may be given offhand. But the most meaningful ones typically include a detailed admission of wrongdoing, an attempt to empathize with the pain that the wronged may feel, a willingness to be held to account and an offer to make whatever amends one can.

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Political apologies aren’t so very different. Trudeau offered one last week, a full century after Canada forced a ship full of South Asian people to turn back from Vancouver’s harbour. Political apologies typically involve a high-ranking politician saying a government once did something reprehensible and for this the nation is sorry — so sorry, in some cases, that reparations will be paid and remedies found. Recipients of the apology are assured that the mistake will not be repeated. Nor will it be forgotten.