Responsible Citizenship

Ever since the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report and Calls to Action in 2015, as well as listening to interviews with Commissioner Murray C. Sinclair (who has also served in the Senate of Canada and was the first Indigenous person to serve as judge on the Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba), I have been thinking about the key action we are asking our citizenry. In a well-summarized quote, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission states:

“Together, Canadians must do more than just talk about reconciliation; we must learn how to practise reconciliation in our everyday lives—within ourselves and our families, and in our communities, governments, places of worship, schools, and workplaces. To do so constructively, Canadians must remain committed to the ongoing work of establishing and maintaining respectful relationships” (TRC, 2015, p. 21). In terms of newcomers to Canada, recommendation 94, the final call to action, states,

“We call upon the Government of Canada to replace the Oath of Citizenship with the following: I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada including Treaties with Indigenous Peoples, and fulfill my duties as a Canadian citizen” (TRC, 2015, p. 337).

It was after a guest lecture on Indigenous peoples and their cultures to a group of newcomers in 2020 that it dawned on me: what we are asking every citizen to do is demonstrate responsible citizenship in our day-to-day lives. As an educator, and in response to the TRC’s Calls to Action, my job is to create a learning opportunity that educates our students about what responsible citizenship means and looks like through this period of reconciliation. I contend that we are quickly seeing our society and other societies in the world at a crossroads, as we see grave mistakes of the past being repeated. In one word — it’s disrespect; disrespect for all our relations on Mother Earth, living and non-living.

Since the release of the TRC Report, sadly, we see that progress has been quite slow in the implementation of the recommendations across sectors and institutions identified as prime agents of change (Reconciliation Education, 2024; CBC, 2023). I do know that we cannot be complacent or become distracted. The UPEI Faculty of Indigenous Knowledge, Education, Research, and Applied Studies is committed to the Calls to Action and we will do its part. Yet, each of us needs to stay focused on reconciliation and responsible citizenship as a way to alter our future. What may seem isolated to Canada is not necessarily so. We must understand that colonization and colonizing behaviours, presenting as other ideologies and practices, are still in existence and have manifested themselves globally. We must consider the broader need to commit to responsible global citizenship in this period of reconciliation.

In his memoir, Who We Are: Four Questions For A Life And A Nation,  Elder Sinclair reminds us that the four great questions of life include: where do I come from, where am I going, why am I here, and who am I? (Sinclair, 2024). These apply equally to individuals, communities, and nations. Canada could not be in more deep reflection about these very questions. On March 1, 2025, in a televised White House meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was publicly humiliated and berated by US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. During the month, Canadians awoke to daily threats of tariffs being levied by Trump on many sectors of the economy. Most disturbing of all, he has spoken incessantly about the annexation of Canada, making it the 51st state.

In a June 2021 CBC interview with Murray Sinclair, which focused on the further steps needing to be done to move reconciliation forward in Canada, he presented a very chilling and ominous possibility. Please take a moment to view the first 4 minutes and 43 seconds of this interview.

Murray Sinclair on moving reconciliation forward in Canada (2021)

While many Canadians would not be familiar with Sinclair’s chilling analogy now playing out for Canada and requiring an answer to the four earlier questions, Justice Sinclair provided us with clear direction – education. In a further interview in 2021, after being installed as the 15th chancellor of Queen’s University, he stated, “Education is what got us into this mess and education is key to getting us out of it” (National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, n.d.). Education provides a means to help us understand how power relations operated in colonial systems and continue to affect all citizens in this era of neo-colonialism and reconciliation.