I’d be doing exactly what Harper is doing: erasing and negating the struggles of indigenous peoples because it’s inconvenient to the narrative that Canadians are nice and polite. Yet if I drew the line there, and ignored the fact that Saul is an Ojibway man taken from his family as a boy, forced to attend a residential school, abused and “lucky” enough to leave the school before it killed him, only to further experience systematic and personalized discrimination at the hands of others while he plays hockey … well, I’d be ignoring a handy chunk of subtext of this book. This book is intense and very personal, narrated as it is in Saul’s matter-of-fact, pull-no-punches style of descriptive delivery. I mean, yes, on one level Richard Wagamese tells a compelling story about an individual’s struggle with the effects of abuse, his love for the game of hockey, and his journey into and out of the oblivion of alcoholism. But you can’t not get political with a novel like Indian Horse, really-or at least, I can’t. Oh, didn’t expect me to get so political? Sorry (not sorry). And it’s sad that a government so interested in nationalistic chest-beating and touting Canada as a role-model for other countries is still not mature enough to recognize these problems and set aside the colonialism that is in place even today. Prime Minister Harper and his party’s lack of respect for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis nations and their citizens is manifest.

Unfortunately, despite the release of this report and so much other activism over the past few years, our federal government continues to ignore the needs and opinions of Canada’s indigenous peoples. Desmond Cole and Andray Domise break it down with the help of two expert guests. If you’re looking for some background and a good beginner discussion to this, check out the Canadaland Commons podcast episode on residential schools. So earlier this month, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, announced that the residential schools program was a program of “cultural genocide” against indigenous peoples.

Indian horse wagamese