Truth Before Reconciliation

This blog is part of my ongoing journey of unlearning. I grew up believing a version of history designed to serve the goals of nation-building and colonization. For years, I didn’t question the stories I was told — stories that painted my ancestors, who arrived in Quebec nearly 400 years ago, as civilized, moral explorers, while positioning the Original Peoples of Turtle Island as savage and inferior. These narratives erased Indigenous realities, and their influence lingers in the implicit biases carried by settler descendants today.

As I criticize what Israel is doing in Palestine in the name of nation-building and land, I realize I must also look inward — at my own country, my own daily actions. Canada is not a “post-colonial” nation. We may talk about breaking free, but colonialism continues to serve Canadians — or rather, it is presented as serving all, when in truth it primarily serves the elite. Meanwhile, decolonization is often framed as serving only Indigenous needs, setting up yet another power struggle. These are the ideologies still being perpetuated today.

My unlearning began in 2007, but in recent months it has taken on a deeper urgency as I’ve reckoned with the truth of my own family history — including the role my great-uncle played as a principal of a residential school. Until then, we had always described him as a missionary. Now, I feel compelled to bear witness through his archives: to see, from a settler descendant’s lens, how he justified his work.

This blog is my effort toward genuine repair and reconciliation — a process I believe will take generations to undo harmful narratives. Just as I believe in my prevention work, where prevention science guides the creation of healthier futures, I see this writing as prevention too: disrupting colonial myths before they are passed along unquestioned.

Here, I will share what knowledge I hold, reflect on what I continue to learn, and sit with the discomfort of how little I truly know. This is not about arriving at answers. It is about asking harder questions, telling truths, and exploring what it might take for us to get better at being human.