In one afternoon in 1995 the RCMP fired 77,000 rounds of ammunition in a standoff with a small group of Traditional Indigenous people in a camp in British Columbia.

It was the largest deployment of RCMP in Canadian history to that date. Over 400 officers. It led to one of the longest and most expensive criminal trials in Canadian history.

In this time of awakening to the systemic issues of racism in the United States, it is worth remembering that indigenous people of Turtle lsland weren't enslaved. In many cases, beyond being cheated of their lands, they were systematically exterminated.

The descendants of those people, the children, were systematically placed in residential schools in order to destroy their cultural memories and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. There, many were subjected to sadistic physical abuse, rape, molestation and psychological and emotional abuse.

We know that many, many thousands died in Canada within this system. I was humbled so deeply in my youth, hearing dozens and dozens of accounts first-hand from survivors that it shook my faith in the society we live in.