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The Canadian Historical Association's Fake 'Consensus' on Canadian Genocide
Dummit, Christopher
http://quillette.com/2021/08/10/the-canadian-historical-associations-fake-consensus-on-canadian-genocide/Date Written: 2021-08-10 Publisher: Quillette Year Published: 2021 Resource Type: Article Last month, the Canadian Historical Association (CHA) issued a public 'Canada Day Statement" -- described as having been "unanimously approved" by the group's governing council -- declaring that "existing historical scholarship" makes it "abundantly clear" that Canada's treatment of Indigenous peoples amounts to “genocide." The authors also claimed that there is a "broad consensus" among historians on the existence of Canadian "genocidal intent" (also described elsewhere in the statement as "genocidal policies" and "genocidal systems"). Abstract: - Excerpt: Last month, the Canadian Historical Association (CHA) issued a public “Canada Day Statement”—described as having been “unanimously approved” by the group’s governing council—declaring that “existing historical scholarship” makes it “abundantly clear” that Canada’s treatment of Indigenous peoples amounts to “genocide.” The authors also claimed that there is a “broad consensus” among historians on the existence of Canadian “genocidal intent” (also described elsewhere in the statement as “genocidal policies” and “genocidal systems”)—an alleged consensus that is “evidenced by the unanimous vote of our governing Council to make this Canada Day Statement.” The authors went further by arguing that both federal and provincial governments in Canada “have worked, and arguably still work, towards the elimination of Indigenous peoples as both a distinct culture and physical group” (my emphasis); thereby suggesting that there is “arguably” an ongoing genocide going on, to this day, on Canadian soil. The idea that Canada is currently waging a campaign of mass extermination against Indigenous people may sound like something emitted by Russian social-media bots or Chinese state media. But no, this is an official statement from the CHA, a body that describes itself as “the only organization representing the interests of all historians in Canada”—presumably including me. In fact, there is no “broad consensus” for the proposition that Canadian authorities committed genocide, let alone for the completely bizarre idea that a genocide is unfolding on Canadian soil even as you read these words. And while many of us have become used to such plainly dilatory claims being circulated by individual Canadian academics in recent years, the CHA’s use of its institutional stature in this way was so shocking that it caused dozens of historians to affix their names to a letter of protest. Notwithstanding what this (or any other) official body claims, the question of whether Canada committed genocide is not a settled issue among scholars. Subject Headings |