My Privilege In Canada

Introduction

Privilege is a concept felt by every single person around the world. Privilege can have an inherently positive impact on an individual’s life, or it can be felt through a lack of its existence in many people’s lives through oppression. Canada itself is often viewed as one of the more welcoming and tolerant countries, however a large portion of our population, and in fact the colonization of our country, rests on the back of oppression and how we have perpetrated this against indigenous peoples of Canada.

The Government of Canada has set forth on the path of reconciliation, but the history and trauma around the treatment of indigenous peoples is something that is still contested even to this day. Understanding our own social locations

I am able bodied, and besides suffering from depression regarding how dark and cold our province is most of the year, or a few bouts of anxiety, I have no mental illness. Through social standings my location on the spectrum of privilege is fairly decent, bordering on well-privileged, and before beginning to break down the constructs of oppression, I would like to note that I am a highly privileged individual in this day and age. However, intersectionality does play a vital role in my privilege, and through this I have experienced classism, homophobia, and while I was not the victim of racism, I have seen first hands the effect it has on

The government has done little to educate the people on the effects of residential schools, or even the harmful effects the Indian Act itself has had on the lives of indigenous citizens. The general feeling I get from the government is that it is embarrassed and therefore quick to want to apologize and sweep the incidents under the rug, when what the population of Canada truly needs is education on why this happened, how it happened, the effects that are still lingering, and most importantly, how we allowed it to happen even well into the 1990’s. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has made several recommendations on how to educate the youth, which I feel is a key step, however there needs to be education for every generation in order to target the racist and stigmatic attitude that seems to breathe through every city within