Summary
Commemorating Indigenous History Month, this Advocacy Canada blog post addresses the urgent need to protect truth and reconciliation efforts amid growing denial of residential school atrocities. It links the resurgence of white supremacy and colonialism to modern-day discrimination, including anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate, and calls for collective vigilance, education, and solidarity with Indigenous peoples.
By Wilbur Turner, President and Founder of Advocacy Canada
June marks National Indigenous History Month in Canada — a time to honour the heritage, cultures, and contributions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. But it is also a time to reckon with the truth. This month does not exist simply to celebrate; it exists to remember, to listen, and to confront the painful realities that too many Canadians would still rather ignore.
Across this country, there are growing efforts to discredit and deny the horrors of the residential school system. Survivors are being doubted. Documentation is dismissed. And in some quarters, there is a deliberate push to rewrite — or even erase — the darkest chapters of our nation’s history.
This is not just ignorance. It’s ideology. The worldview behind these attacks on truth is rooted in a belief that white European settler culture, religion, and colonial systems are inherently superior to Indigenous cultures, governance, and ways of knowing. It is a resurgence of the same supremacy that justified land theft, child removals, language loss, and systemic abuse.
What’s worse: these efforts to undermine Truth and Reconciliation are often applauded by those who believe that equity for Indigenous peoples — and for all marginalized groups — is somehow a threat to their own comfort or power. They frame it as a zero-sum game, where justice for some must mean a loss for others.
But justice is not a pie. It is a promise.
This colonial mindset doesn’t stop with anti-Indigenous rhetoric. It is the same impulse behind the surge in anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate we are seeing across the country. Homophobia, transphobia, and racism all flow from the same poisoned well: a refusal to let go of outdated hierarchies that place some lives as more worthy, more valid, or more “normal” than others.
This is why solidarity matters. Truth and Reconciliation is not just an Indigenous issue. It is a Canadian one. It calls us all — especially those of us in positions of privilege — to name white supremacy where we see it, to dismantle it at its roots, and to amplify Indigenous voices instead of speaking over them.
In this Indigenous History Month, we urge everyone to move beyond performative gestures and dig deeper. Read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action. Learn whose land you live on. Support Indigenous-led initiatives. And most importantly: when someone tries to deny the truth or distort the past, speak up.
There is no reconciliation without truth. And there is no justice without courage.
We stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and recommit to walking the long road of truth, accountability, and healing — together.
