As part of its monthly Book Review Forum, the IPAC NWT Regional Group is pleased to present the
following review for the month of September:
Henderson, J., & Wakeham, P. Eds. (2013). Reconciling Canada: Critical Perspectives on the Culture of
Redress. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Canada is living an age of reconciliation movements. From Stephen Harper's 2008 apology for the
treatment of Aboriginal peoples in residential schools to the establishment of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission (TRC), these movements seek to right historical wrongs and foster collective
solidarity. Reconciling Canada is a compilation of critical essays examining the geopolitical, social and
historical contexts in which these movements occur. It asks a series of important questions: how has the
rise of reconciliation movements enabled Aboriginal sovereignty claims? In what ways has the state
attempted to co-opt this culture within a discourse of nation-building and citizenship? And lastly, how
does this undermine Indigenous struggles for recognition and freedom from oppression?
Reconciling Canada is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand why the contemporary project
of reconciliation is so complex and fraught with challenges. It unpacks the ways in which power
structures complicate reconciliation, ultimately suggesting that the culture of redress is little more than
neocolonialism cloaked in the guise of legitimate and sincere gestures of healing. Matt James’ essay, for
example, explores how state-sponsored tropes promoting atonement through multiculturalism, or what
he terms “neoliberal heritage redress,” are in fact “sanitized discourses of heritage and cohesion” which
“anesthetize social memory rather than enrich it” (38). Elsewhere, Anna Carastathis offers the example
of “reasonable accommodation” of culture in Quebec to demonstrate that reconciliation initiatives often
intentionally do not perform their stated function. By situating injustices as strictly historical and failing
to acknowledge current venues of oppression, these commissions, inquiries, settlements and apologies
become self-legitimizing ideological tools which reproduce, rather than dissolve, unequal racial
formations in society.
The central strength of Reconciling Canada lies in its interdisciplinary approach to studying the culture of
redress in all its forms. Scholars of political science, law, anthropology, sociology and cultural studies
provide the reader with a nuanced and multifaceted analysis of issues at play. Where one essay expands
on the intentions, components and implications of political apologies, another explores constitutional
reconciliation and the role of Indigenous legal and political systems therein. Still others turn their
attention to redress movements germane to Japanese-Canadians and Ukrainian-Canadians.
The common thread through all these topics, of course, is the critical lens through which they are
investigated. This is an imperative yet at times limiting feature of the book. Imperative because no
understanding of Canada’s culture of redress is complete without an appreciation of how ongoing
experiences of oppression continue to circumscribe the state’s relationship with marginalized groups
(and therefore why reconciliation initiatives often fail), yet limiting in that the book spends little time
discussing ways forward. The overarching sentiment is that Canada’s approach to reconciliation is
broken and even harmful. But how might we take stock in this knowledge and use it to redefine
exploitative relations past and present? The book would do well to explore this further. One valuable
exception is Dale Turner’s essay in which he argues that the TRC’s mandate fails to put the inherent right
to Aboriginal self-government at the centre of the reconciliation process. He envisions a reconfiguration
of Indigenous-Settler relations premised on the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples’ (RCAP)
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articulation of Canada as a nation of treaty peoples. For Turner, all reconciliation efforts must respect
the immutable nation-to-nation basis of this relationship and return to it.
Turner’s analysis makes two convincing points. First, the legitimacy of the culture of redress hinges on
its ability to recapture the nation-to-nation spirit embodied by pre-confederation treaties and, more
recently, RCAP’s report. Second, and most importantly, honouring this mutually respectful
understanding can, in every arena in which reconciliation is sought, whether political, legal, cultural,
through formal reparations or otherwise, reaffirm Aboriginal ways of knowing and therefore engender
true processes of reconciliation. Only by recalibrating in this way can the culture of redress circumvent
much of the criticism levelled in Reconciling Canada.
The implications for public administrators are, unfortunately, somewhat ambiguous. Much of the crucial
sites of reconciliation require high-level change through the political system and courts. Nonetheless,
Reconciling Canada reminds us of the importance of situating government operations in the historical,
cultural and geopolitical contexts in which they operate. Respecting these realities is a necessary
condition of forming meaningful government-to-government relationships. More broadly, Reconciling
Canada’s message problematizes the role of the public service in functioning as an objective,
nonpartisan body. Since the public service is the apparatus through which policy is actioned, the public
service, according to the implications of the book’s argument, becomes complicit in the business of
nonperformative redress. The result is that public administrators are challenged to critically consider
how and why programs are delivered while at the same time remaining neutral and professional in their
service to policymakers.
Reconciling Canada offers provocative, powerful and on the mark observations of contemporary
Canadian reconciliation movements. It is relevant, well-researched and interdisciplinary. At times, it is
also critical to the point of losing pragmatism. With this in mind, it is most certainly worth time,
consideration and reflection.
DON COUTURIER is a Policy Officer with the Department of Executive, Government of the Northwest
Territories. This review was prepared for Northern Public Affairs magazine by IPAC’s NWT Regional
Group. Please note that the views expressed herein are those of the author and not IPAC or the
Government of the Northwest Territories.
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