November 18, 2013
[I wrote this letter last week, but the week became so busy with meetings that it is just getting out now!]
Dear Friends,
There were long lineups of people in the lobby of the Toronto City Hall. I wondered briefly if they were all there, as I was, for the City of Toronto’s Proclamation of a Year of Reconciliation. Toronto Conference Executive Secretary David Allen, who was alongside me, knew what it was about. They were all lined up to purchase bobblehead figures of Mayor Rob Ford. A collector’s item no doubt.
I hope that the ceremony upstairs, and the fine words spoken about the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission – and of all of us – is more enduring than the plastic dolls or the antics of the politician they portray. This is long-term work. For the city officials and citizens who are serious about this, it will be a busy year, and the year will really just be the beginning. This work is about painful memories, and about building a better future. Amongst several inspiring speakers, the most significant for many of us was Holly Laforme, a member of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, and a grade 10 student from the Hagersville Secondary School. She spoke of taking part in the Walking Together course, where students heard the stories of residential school survivors and created pieces of art depicting what they had learned. She gave thanks for the opportunity to learn about this part of our history, and spoke with confidence that her generation will be the generation of reconciliation, the generation who can hold this knowledge and value their culture and history as they take their full parts in society.
Remembering the past gives deeper understanding of our lives today, and serves as a reminder of the things we must protect for the future.
This is a week for remembering. The Proclamation of Reconciliation came the very day after Remembrance Day.
Like so many of us, each Remembrance Day, I find myself rich with memories of my father, grandfather, uncles and others. It’s ironic in a way, because Dad was never all that big on Remembrance Day. He honoured all those who had fought, but I always had the sense that the there was much he didn’t want to remember. All the World War I vets have passed on now, and the remaining veterans of World War II are elderly in a way that makes my heart go out to them and their courage in facing the memories on yet another Remembrance Day. There are younger veterans, too, and they carry their burdens without certainty of a nation fully engaged and supportive of their efforts. It is right to remember all of them, and all those whose lives have been directly affected by war. It’s particularly important for those of us with no personal experience of war to hear the stories.
We often speak of honouring those who fought to protect the freedoms that we enjoy, and so often take for granted, today. Some gave up their lives, some their physical strength, and all gave days of their youth when they might have been playing hockey or enjoying life on campus.
On Remembrance Day the images on TV of the veterans standing in the snow at the ceremony at the cenotaph in Ottawa were interspersed with pictures of the devastation in the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. In the midst of remembering, we were confronted with unexpected and horrifying events in the here and now. As dramatic weather disasters become more common, I find myself reflecting if our generation can get serious enough about sacrifice to change our climate-damaging ways. Delegates attending a UN Climate Change conference in Warsaw this week heard emotional words on behalf of small island nations who see this event as a stark reminder of the cost of inaction about climate change.
This is a week to remember that past, present, and future are all connected. We remember the past and the lessons it holds. We remember obligations we have in our lives today to remember the legacy for future generations.
Lest we forget.
Nora
