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Part Five: The future of free speech

Part Six: Coaches see football as road to reconciliation

Q Is reconciliation unfolding as you envisioned?

A In the education sector … I would say nearly all jurisdictions are attempting to bring authentic Indigenous perspectives into the classrooms … And of course like all of this stuff, it’s not without its problems. It’s not that there are not plenty of examples of maybe students receiving misinformation or instructors perpetuating some of the myths that have continued to exist in the country, but the effort is being made. Now, is it perfect? No. Not by any means, but there is an effort there.

Q What about on an individual level?

A For all of this nice big picture stuff, the reality is very little has changed in the day to day lives of Indigenous peoples … The health crisis continues to rage. The suicide epidemic continues to burn. There are still multiple communities on boil water advisories … There are an ever increasing number of kids in care, and there remain persistent inequalities in funding formulas that the federal government is trying to rectify, but they persist nonetheless … There’s a real tension between the need to act in the immediate and the time that it takes in order to create the structures to really start improving in a tangible way the lives of Indigenous peoples.

Q Are individuals not keeping up with the changes that are being made at group levels?

A We know that there are still a lot of people that remain largely unaware of the fact the we had a truth commission in this country. We did public polling in 2015 that, at that point in time, affirmed that only about 40 per cent of Canadians were aware of the fact that we had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We also, at that time, probed and determined that while many people had heard of residential schools, most people were not able to clearly articulate what the true intent and effect and harm of those residential schools were. Canadians just remain largely unaware of what the true history of this country is.