Toronto Star – Library and Archives Canada’s website excludes important information from the biographies of some of Canada’s first Prime Ministers. John A MacDonald’s profile does not mention the words “Indigenous” or “residential schools” or “Chinese head tax”. As the main architect of the now infamous Indian Residential School system, the discriminatory policies of the Indian Act and the forced assimilation of Indigenous people, MacDonald laid the foundations for the “cultural genocide” against Indigenous people for which Stephen Harper apologized on behalf of the government of Canada on June 11, 2008.

it really is a whitewashing of history that has contributed to the ongoing colonialism” said Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society”…”It misleads another generation of children and young people into believing the mythology of Canada instead of its truth”. “Canada is still failing to acknowledge that ‘truth’ part of ‘truth and reconciliation’” said Jennifer Brandt, a professor at the Ontario Institute for Education…”By continuing to erase this deep and troubled history from Canadian consciousness, we can’t really move forward with reconciliation.”