From Discrimination to Genocide - Indigenous Genocide in Canada

Genocide in Canada. What does this phrase make you think of?

It makes me think of the missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIWG), “a Canadian national crisis” as some call it. Perhaps you have heard of or seen missing posters and news reports about these women - society has been paying more attention to them recently. But genocide of the Indigenous people has a much longer history than just the MMIWG.

In truth, Indigenous genocide has been happening ever since the European colonizers arrived in Canada - around 500 years ago. Some may argue that actions done to the Indigenous people in Canada are not on par with those in America, it still remains a fact that aboriginal groups have gone extinct. One prime example being the Indigenous people of Newfoundland, who became extinct in 1829. The Beothuk people - last of the native people from Newfoundland - suffered and died from epidemics, starvation, displacement, and even genocide campaigns from the European colonizers who took over their land. European settlers on the coast cut the Beothuk people off from the sea, where most of their food comes from. Their other food sources, such as the caribou and other fur-bearing animals, were also over hunted by the Europeans. The Beothuk people struggled to maintain their nomadic lifestyle, and violent conflicts soon broke out. But European firearms overpowered their arrows, and high percentages of the Beothuk people were killed in each confrontation. Furthermore, Europeans started conducting organized genocides of the Beothuk people because they saw them as “savages” and threats to the settlers’ safety. Winter arrived at the same time, and it, along with the disturbance, diseases, and violence Europeans brought devastated the Beothuk people. The last Beothuk, a woman named Shanawdithit, died on June 6, 1829 from tuberculosis.

Indigenous people were not only murdered, but also enslaved and sold in slave markets. In 1709, New France (an area in North America that was colonized by the French) passed a law known as the Ordinance Rendered on the Subject of the Negroes and the Indians called Panis, which legalized slavery of the Indigenous and Black people. They were regarded as property, possessions, things one can own and sell. Even before this law, Indigenous people have been enslaved and sold. In fact, out of all the slaves in New France, two-thirds were Indigenous, and enslaved native people outnumber Black slaves two to one. But this encouraged and promoted the practice. Increasing numbers of Indigenous people became trading goods in the slave market. Enslaved native people from other parts of North America were brought to New France too: a minimum of 145 Indigenous slaves arrived in the colony between 1689 and 1713.

Then residential schools - a major part of Indigenous genocide in Canada - opened in the 1800s. A horrific 117 years before the abolishing of residential schools left hundreds of thousands of children stripped of their culture and permanently marked, both physically and mentally, by the violence they endured there. This targeting of Indigenous children killed thousands and left a permanent black mark on Canadian history. If interested more can be read in our recent article ‘Canada’s Black Mark’!

Listed above are a few examples of the cruel and unfair treatment that Indigenous people have endured in Canada, including - and in large part consisting of - genocide. The last residential school closed in 1996, but genocide of the Indigenous people are still happening now. The list of missing and murdered Indigneous women are still increasing. There have been 1,017 police-recorded homicides of Indigenous women between 1980 and 2012, and 614 missing Indigenous women since 1952. 16% of all homicide against women in Canada are committed against Indigenous women, and 11% of all missing women are Indigenous, yet only 4.3% of all Canadians are Indigenous. Homicides of Indigenous women from 2001 to 2014 was four times higher than that of non-Indigenous women. This is a ridiculously high amount, and the actual number of Indigenous women missing or killed may be even higher.

After reading all of that, do you want to help? Do you feel the urge to stop this cruelty from happening? Do you think that what has happened and what is happening right now is not right?

As more Canadians become educated about the history of Canada and become aware of what the Indigenous community have experienced and are experiencing, we are paying more attention. But that’s not enough - it will never be enough to make up for the evils that have been done and are still being done. What we can do is educate ourselves about the discrimination and genocide against the Indigenous people, and make other people learn and be aware too. If you want to learn more and join a community that is trying to help, join us! We welcome anyone who wants to help!

Thank you so much for reading!

Work Cited:

Joseph, Bob. “The Beothuk and how European contact led to their extinction”. Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. 16 July, 2012. https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/aboriginal-peoples-the-beothuk-and-how-european-contact-led-to-their-extinction

Lawrence, Bonita. “Enslavement of Indigenous People in Canada”. The Canadian Encyclopedia, 22 Nov, 2016. https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/slavery-of-indigenous-people-in-canada

“Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Ending Violence”. Assembly of First Nations, Bellegarde, Perry. https://www.afn.ca/policy-sectors/mmiwg-end-violence/

Monkman, Lenard. “Genocide against Indigenous Peoples Recognized by Museum for Human Rights | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 17 May 2019, www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/cmhr-colonialism-genocide-indigenous-peoples-1.5141078.

“Genocide of Indigenous Peoples”. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide_of_indigenous_peoples#Canada