GATINEAU—Almost four years to the day after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said Canada committed a cultural genocide against Indigenous people, the national inquiry into our murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls took it a step further.They said the death of our women, by the thousands, was simply a genocide.The echo is not coincidental.The genocidal process was the same.In the words of the four-person commission, the epidemic of deaths and disappearances is the direct result of a “persistent and deliberate pattern of systemic racial and gendered … rights violations and abuses, perpetuated historically and maintained today by the Canadian state, designed to displace Indigenous people from their lands, social structures and governments, and to eradicate their existence as nations, communities, families and individuals.”Read more:Trudeau pledges to turn inquiry’s calls into Indigenous-led action Report on missing and murdered Indigenous women leaves unanswered questions for family of Amber TuccaroOpinion | Chantal Hébert: Murdered and missing women report risks being ignored with its all-or-nothing approachAs expected, the protests quickly emerged. This is no “genocide,” the critics said. The coast-to-coast-to-coast commission, which interviewed over 2,000 families, survivors and knowledge keepers, exaggerated or got it wrong. Former aboriginal affairs minister Bernard Valcourt, who served under Stephen Harper, started off the bashing with a bang:“What has been the cost to Canadians for this propagandist report?” he tweeted.For his part, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to say the word “genocide” as he addressed the assembled families, survivors and commissioners.But those of us who have been on the wrong side of the “persistent and deliberate pattern” know that “genocide” is the right word.As the ceremony began, it was Chief Commissioner Marion Bu ...
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