Canadian genocide of Indigenous peoples#Scholarly debate

{{Further|Genocide of indigenous peoples#Genocide debate}}

The debate over Indigenous genocide in Canada is complicated and contentious.{{sfn|MacDonald|2015|pp=411–431}}{{cite web |title=The Charge of Genocide |website=Facing History & Ourselves |date=July 28, 2020 |url=https://www.facinghistory.org/en-ca/resource-library/charge-genocide |access-date=November 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521031125/https://www.facinghistory.org/en-ca/resource-library/charge-genocide |archive-date=May 21, 2024}}{{cite web |title=What the debate around Indigenous genocide says about Canada |website=Macleans.ca |date=June 7, 2019 |url=https://macleans.ca/news/canada/what-the-debate-around-indigenous-genocide-says-about-canada/ |access-date=November 20, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240918174835/https://macleans.ca/news/canada/what-the-debate-around-indigenous-genocide-says-about-canada/ |archive-date=September 18, 2024}} According to certain genocide scholars, including Raphael Lemkin – the individual who coined the term genocide – colonialism was intimately connected with genocide.{{cite journal |last=Bryant |first=Michael |title=Canaries in the Mineshaft of American Democracy: North American Settler Genocide in the Thought of Raphaël Lemkin |journal=Genocide Studies and Prevention |volume=14 |issue=1 |date=2020 |issn=1911-0359 |doi=10.5038/1911-9933.14.1.1632 |doi-access=free |pages=21–39 |url=https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1632&context=gsp |access-date=January 24, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203044955/https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D1632&context%3Dgsp |archive-date=December 3, 2021}} Other genocide experts, such as Steven Katz, narrowly define genocide in the context of the Holocaust, arguing it requires the complete physical eradication of a group.{{cite book |last=Shaw |first=M. |title=What is Genocide? |publisher=Wiley |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7456-3183-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mVa6hyBaTV8C&pg=PA20 |access-date=December 13, 2024 |page=20}} The overlap of law and history leads to different views on genocide. The law focuses on serious acts, limiting it to physical and biological aspects, and requiring intent to destroy a group. Historians investigate the broader complexities of genocides, including long-term processes and various motives, without strict legal definitions.{{cite journal |author1-link=Leora Bilsky |last1=Bilsky |first1=Leora |last2=Klagsbrun |first2=Rachel |title=The Return of Cultural Genocide? |journal=European Journal of International Law |volume=29 |issue=2 |date=July 23, 2018 |issn=0938-5428 |doi=10.1093/ejil/chy025 |doi-access=free |pages=373–396 |url=https://academic.oup.com/ejil/article-pdf/29/2/373/25197971/chy025.pdf |access-date=January 8, 2025 |archive-url= |archive-date=}} The main debate centers around the definitions of genocide,{{cite journal |last=Moses |first=A. Dirk |author-link=A. Dirk Moses |title=Conceptual blockages and definitional dilemmas in the 'racial century': genocides of indigenous peoples and the Holocaust |journal=Patterns of Prejudice |volume=36 |issue=4 |date=2002 |pages=7–36 |issn=0031-322X |url=https://www.academia.edu/426145 |access-date=January 8, 2025 |doi=10.1080/003132202128811538}} as outlined in the United Nations Genocide Convention,{{cite web |title=Definitions of Genocide and Related Crimes |publisher=United Nations |date=August 12, 1949 |url=https://www.un.org/en/genocide-prevention/definition |access-date=December 18, 2024}} and within the Canadian context, the Rome Statute of which is defined in Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.{{cite web |title=Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act |website=Site Web de la législation (Justice) |date=July 20, 2024 |url=https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-45.9/fulltext.html |access-date=December 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241217074807/https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-45.9/fulltext.html |archive-date=December 17, 2024}}

The majority of Canadian historians contend that the treatment of Indigenous peoples by European settlers and subsequent Canadian governments constitutes genocide.{{cite web |title=The History of Violence Against Indigenous Peoples Fully Warrants the Use of the Word "Genocide" |website=Canadian Historical Association |url=https://cha-shc.ca/advocacy/the-history-of-violence-against-indigenous-peoples-fully-warrants-the-use-of-the-word-genocide/ |access-date=November 14, 2024 |quote=The Canadian Historical Association, which represents 650 professional historians from across the country, including the main experts on the long history of violence and dispossession Indigenous peoples experienced in what is today Canada, recognizes that this history fully warrants our use of the word genocide. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241224035827/https://cha-shc.ca/advocacy/the-history-of-violence-against-indigenous-peoples-fully-warrants-the-use-of-the-word-genocide/ |archive-date=December 24, 2024}}{{cite web |title=Ignore debaters and denialists, Canada's treatment of Indigenous Peoples fits the definition of genocide |website=Royal Society of Canada |date=October 25, 2021 |url=https://rsc-src.ca/en/voices/ignore-debaters-and-denialists-canada%E2%80%99s-treatment-indigenous-peoples-fits-definition-%C2%A0genocid |access-date=November 14, 2024 |quote=The existence of a very small group of naysayers — the vast majority of them not members of the Canadian Historical Association and some of them openly engaging in residential school denialism — does not invalidate the fact that there is a general scholarly agreement, or broad consensus, that the term genocide applies to Canada. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241226062641/https://rsc-src.ca/en/voices/ignore-debaters-and-denialists-canada%E2%80%99s-treatment-indigenous-peoples-fits-definition-%C2%A0genocid |archive-date=December 26, 2024}}{{cite web |title=Canada's treatment of Indigenous peoples fits the definition of genocide |first1=Sean |last1=Carleton |first2=Andrew |last2=Woolford |website=TVO |url=https://www.tvo.org/article/canadas-treatment-of-indigenous-peoples-fits-the-definition-of-genocide |access-date=December 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220220033629/https://www.tvo.org/article/canadas-treatment-of-indigenous-peoples-fits-the-definition-of-genocide |archive-date=February 20, 2022}} Some scholars have questioned whether genocide legally applies to Canada's history,{{harvnb|Dhamoon|2016|pp=14–15}}; {{harvnb|Rubinstein|2004}}; {{harvnb|MacDonald|2015|pp=411–413, 422–425}} with some scholars argue that the broader term "crimes against humanity" may be more fitting and legally defining.{{cite web |title=Ignore debaters and denialists, Canada's treatment of Indigenous Peoples fits the definition of genocide |website=UM Today |date=October 26, 2021 |url=https://news.umanitoba.ca/ignore-debaters-and-denialists-canadas-treatment-of-indigenous-peoples-fits-the-definition-of-genocide/ |access-date=November 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241209212411/https://news.umanitoba.ca/ignore-debaters-and-denialists-canadas-treatment-of-indigenous-peoples-fits-the-definition-of-genocide/ |archive-date=December 9, 2024}}{{cite web |last=Noël |first=Caroline |title=No Genocide |website=Literary Review of Canada |date=September 11, 2019 |url=https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2019/10/no-genocide/ |access-date=November 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241227150637/https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2019/10/no-genocide/ |archive-date=December 27, 2024}} Scholars, Including William Schabas, Ian Gentles, Robert Bothwell and Payam Akhavan, suggest that the legal challenges of determining genocide make it difficult to apply the term to Canada, as genocidal intent is very difficult to establish as outlined by the Genocide Convention.{{cite news |last=Kay |first=Barbara |title=Barbara Kay: Historical association's genocide statement 'brazenly unscholarly' |work=National Post |date=August 16, 2021 |url=https://nationalpost.com/opinion/barbara-kay-historical-associations-genocide-statement-brazenly-unscholarly |access-date=November 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210816130509/https://nationalpost.com/opinion/barbara-kay-historical-associations-genocide-statement-brazenly-unscholarly |archive-date=August 16, 2021}} - Original copy of [https://www.christopherdummitt.com/blank-page open letter]. Scholars like David MacDonald and Graham Hudson argue that Article 2 (e) would include residential schools in the Genocide Convention as currently worded.{{harvnb|MacDonald|Hudson|2012|pp=427–429}} Scholars, namely, Pamela Palmater and James Daschuk, have used the term ethnic cleansing to describe the displacement and removal of Indigenous peoples from the Canadian prairies.{{cite book |last=Daschuk |first=James William |title=Clearing the Plains |publisher=University of Regina Press |publication-place=Regina |date=2013 |isbn=978-0-88977-296-0 |page=123}}{{cite web |title=Overincarceration of Indigenous peoples nothing short of genocide |website=Law360 Canada |date=January 30, 2020 |url=https://www.law360.ca/ca/articles/1750335/overincarceration-of-indigenous-peoples-nothing-short-of-genocide-pamela-palmater |access-date=December 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250123080322/https://www.law360.ca/ca/articles/1750335/overincarceration-of-indigenous-peoples-nothing-short-of-genocide-pamela-palmater |archive-date=January 23, 2025}}

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| video1 =[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqokpUqkLqo&ab_channel=TVODocs" Is it really genocide? In Canada?"] (2019) – TVO (7:25 min)

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The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) in its final report in 2015 use the specific term cultural genocide, when addressed the history of the Indigenous residential school system.{{cite journal |last=Guematcha |first=Emmanuel |title=Genocide Against Indigenous Peoples: The Experiences of the Truth Commissions of Canada and Guatemala |journal=International Indigenous Policy Journal |volume=10 |issue=2 |date=June 4, 2019 |issn=1916-5781 |doi=10.18584/iipj.2019.10.2.6 |doi-access=free |pages=1–23}}{{cite web |title=Residential School History |website=NCTR - National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation |date=December 21, 2020 |url=https://nctr.ca/education/teaching-resources/residential-school-history/ |access-date=November 20, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250126141630/https://nctr.ca/education/teaching-resources/residential-school-history/ |archive-date=January 26, 2025}}{{sfn|Woolford|Benvenuto|2015|p=379}} The TRC’s final report stated "cultural genocide is the destruction of those structures and practices that allow the group to continue as a group". In 2019 the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) concluded that the crisis constituted an ongoing "race, identity and gender-based genocide."{{cite journal |last=García-Del Moral |first=Paulina |title=State Complicity: Settler Colonialism, Multisided Violence, and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada |journal=Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society |date=August 23, 2024 |issn=1072-4745 |doi=10.1093/sp/jxae013 |doi-access=free |page=intro}} The MMIWG inquiry used the definition of genocide as outlined in the Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, instead of the Genocide Convention, that the inquiry saw as "narrow" and based on the Holocaust.{{cite web |title=A Legal Analysis of Genocide |url=https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Supplementary-Report_Genocide.pdf |publisher=National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls |access-date=December 17, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250115194643/https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Supplementary-Report_Genocide.pdf |archive-date=January 15, 2025}}

In 2021, the Canadian Historical Association (CHA), which includes 650 professional historians, stated that the history of violence against Indigenous peoples in Canada warrants the use of the term genocide. They assert that there is broad agreement among historians about the negative effects of institutionalized genocide on Indigenous peoples over the past 150 years. An open letter by a group of 50 historians, initiated by Christopher Dummitt, criticized the CHA for advocating a specific historical interpretation, which they believe undermines the academic freedom necessary for historical debate.{{cite web |last=Dummitt |first=Christopher |title=Christopher Dummitt: Canada's historians are more lost than they realize |website=The Hub |date=February 2, 2024 |url=https://thehub.ca/2024/02/02/chris-dummitt-canadas-historians-are-more-lost-than-they-realize/ |access-date=December 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240907194556/https://thehub.ca/2024/02/02/chris-dummitt-canadas-historians-are-more-lost-than-they-realize/ |archive-date=September 7, 2024}} Signatories of the open letter, which includes Margaret Macmillan, Terry Copp, Frédéric Bastien, J. L. Granatstein, Robert J. Young and Susan Mann, disagree with the CHA's claim of broad consensus, reiterating the government’s goal was integration, not elimination and muting dissent and portray anyone who challenges the activists’ language as prejudiced or outdated. In response to the open letter, Sean Carleton and Andrew Woolford summarized the CHA position expressing that the existence of a small group of critics, many of whom are not part of the CHA and some who deny residential schools, does not change the broad scholarly agreement that genocide applies to Canada. Carleton and Woolford state that dissent and calls for debate from the fringe are strategies used by genocide denialists to create doubt and undermine general consensus. Ian Gentles has expressed concern over what he referred to as "activists" stating that discussing genocide is a "tool of genocide".

{{main|Settler colonialism in Canada}}

{{further|Indigenous peoples in Canada#Forced assimilation}}

File:Numbered-Treaties-Map.svg signed between 1871–1921 transferred large tracts of land from the First Nations to Canada in return for different promises laid out in each treaty.]]

Attempts to assimilate Indigenous peoples were rooted in imperial colonialism centred around European worldviews and cultural practices, and a concept of land ownership based on the discovery doctrine.{{cite web |first=Travis |last=Tomchuk |title=The Doctrine of Discovery |website=Canadian Museum for Human Rights |date=November 2, 2022 |url=https://humanrights.ca/story/doctrine-discovery |access-date=November 21, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225141945/https://humanrights.ca/story/doctrine-discovery |archive-date=25 December 2024}} Original assimilation efforts were religiously-oriented beginning in the 17th century with the arrival of French missionaries in New France.{{cite web |last1=Gourdeau |first1=Claire |title=Population – Religious Congregations |url=http://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/population/religious-congregations/ |work=Virtual Museum of New France |publisher=Canadian Museum of History |access-date=July 1, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160708131814/http://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/population/religious-congregations/ |archive-date=July 8, 2016}}

Although not without conflict, European Canadians' early interactions with First Nations and Inuit populations were relatively peaceful.{{Cite book |last=Preston |first=David L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L-9N6-6UCnoC&pg=PA43 |title=The Texture of Contact: European and Indian Settler Communities on the Frontiers of Iroquoia, 1667–1783 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8032-2549-7 |pages=43–44 |access-date=February 10, 2019 |archive-date=March 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316173811/https://books.google.com/books?id=L-9N6-6UCnoC&pg=PA43 |url-status=live}} First Nations and Métis peoples (of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry) played a critical part in the development of European colonies in Canada, particularly for their role in assisting European coureur des bois and voyageurs in their explorations of the continent during the North American fur trade.{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=J. R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TcPckf7snr8C&pg=PT34 |title=Compact, Contract, Covenant: Aboriginal Treaty-Making in Canada |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4426-9227-5 |page=34 |access-date=February 10, 2019 |archive-date=March 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316173822/https://books.google.com/books?id=TcPckf7snr8C&pg=PT34 |url-status=live}}

The early European interactions with First Nations would change from friendship and peace treaties to dispossession of lands through treaties, displacement and forced assimilation legislation such as the Gradual Civilization Act,{{cite web |title=Gradual Civilization Act, 1857 |url=http://caid.ca/GraCivAct1857.pdf |publisher=Government of Canada |access-date=October 17, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324051032/http://caid.ca/GraCivAct1857.pdf |archive-date=March 24, 2024}} the Indian Act,{{cite web |title=Indian Act |website=Site Web de la législation (Justice) |date=August 15, 2019 |url=https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-5/ |access-date=September 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526125409/https://www.laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-5/ |archive-date=May 26, 2024}} the Potlatch ban,{{cite encyclopedia |title=Potlatch Ban |encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia |date=January 11, 2024 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/potlatch-ban |access-date=September 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240816232746/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/potlatch-ban |archive-date=August 16, 2024}} and the pass system,{{cite report |title=What We Have Learned: Principles of Truth and Reconciliation |url=http://www.trc.ca/assets/pdf/Principles%20of%20Truth%20and%20Reconciliation.pdf |isbn=978-0-660-02073-0 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607124229/http://www.trc.ca/assets/pdf/Principles%20of%20Truth%20and%20Reconciliation.pdf |archive-date=June 7, 2021 |date=2015 |pages=192}} that focused on European ideals of Christianity, sedentary living, agriculture, and education.{{multiref2|

|{{cite book |last=Williams |first=L. |title=Indigenous Intergenerational Resilience: Confronting Cultural and Ecological Crisis |publisher=Routledge |series=Routledge Studies in Indigenous Peoples and Policy |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-000-47233-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HehEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT51 |page=51 |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230223140054/https://books.google.com/books?id=HehEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT51 |url-status=live}}

|{{cite book |last=Turner |first=N. J. |title=Plants, People, and Places: The Roles of Ethnobotany and Ethnoecology in Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights in Canada and Beyond |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |series=McGill-Queen's Indigenous and Northern Studies |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-2280-0317-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JVjZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA14 |page=14 |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230223140056/https://books.google.com/books?id=JVjZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA14 |url-status=live}}

|{{Cite book |last=Asch |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Uae4mTTyYYC&pg=PA28 |title=Aboriginal and Treaty Rights in Canada: Essays on Law, Equity, and Respect for Difference |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-7748-0581-0 |page=28}}

|{{Cite book |last1=Kirmayer |first1=Laurence J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AXYDxvx3zSAC&pg=PA9 |title=Healing Traditions: The Mental Health of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada |last2=Guthrie |first2=Gail Valaskakis |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7748-5863-2 |page=9}}

|{{cite web |title=Indigenous Peoples and Government Policy in Canada |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |date=June 6, 1944 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aboriginal-people-government-policy |access-date=November 20, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240301054029/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aboriginal-people-government-policy |archive-date=March 1, 2024}}

}} Although these measures are viewed today as racist or genocidal; at the time they were seen as progressive, a form of state intervention.

{{further||Human rights in Canada#Human rights abuses}}

{{quote box|quote=The great aim of our legislation (Indian Act) has been to do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people in all respects with the other inhabitants of the Dominion as speedily as they are fit to change.|source =Prime Minister of Canada - Sir John A Macdonald (1887){{cite book |author=Canada. Parliament |title=Sessional Papers |publisher=C. H. Parmelee |issue=v. 16 |year=1887 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JOQyU4NTGCkC&pg=RA3-PA37 |access-date=December 11, 2024 |page=3-PA37}}|width=30%}}

The impact of colonization on Canada can be seen in its culture, history, politics, laws, and legislatures.{{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=J. |title=Canada and Colonialism: An Unfinished History |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |year=2024 |isbn=978-0-7748-8096-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b7wIEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 |pages=3–10}} This led to the systematic removal of Indigenous children from their families, the suppression of Indigenous languages and traditions, and the degradation of Indigenous communities. Other actions which have been highlighted as indicative of genocide include sporadic massacres, the spread of disease, the prohibition of cultural practices, and the ecological devastation of indigenous territories.{{sfn|Woolford|Benvenuto|2015|p=374}}

As a consequence of European colonization, the Indigenous population massively declined.{{Cite book |last=Marshall |first=Ingeborg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ckOav3Szu7oC&pg=PA442 |title=A History and Ethnography of the Beothuk |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-7735-1774-5 |page=442 |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-date=March 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316173816/https://books.google.com/books?id=ckOav3Szu7oC&pg=PA442 |url-status=live}}{{sfn|Harring|2021|p=99}} The decline is attributed to several causes, including the transfer of European introduced diseases,{{Cite book |last1=Northcott |first1=Herbert C. |last2=Wilson |first2=Donna M. |year=2008 |title=Dying and Death in Canada |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p_pMVs53mzQC&pg=PA25 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-55111-873-4 |pages=25–27}}{{bulleted list|

|{{Cite book |last=True Peters |first=Stephanie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v0zEiM_hijsC&pg=PA39 |title=Smallpox in the New World |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-7614-1637-1 |page=39}}

|{{harvnb|Woolford|2009|p=90}}

|{{cite book |first1=William G. |last1=Dean |first2=Geoffrey J. |last2=Matthews |title=Concise Historical Atlas of Canada |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dw39BoD0-6cC&pg=PA2 |year=1998 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-4203-3 |page=2}}

}} conflicts over the fur trade, conflicts with the colonial authorities and settlers, and the loss of Indigenous lands to settlers and the subsequent collapse of several nations' self-sufficiency.This resulted in the dispossession of lands and forced migration of Indigenous peoples using various justifications.{{bulleted list|

| {{cite web |title=Genocide and Indigenous Peoples in Canada |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |date=June 6, 1944 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/genocide-and-indigenous-peoples-in-canada |access-date=November 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241122001422/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/genocide-and-indigenous-peoples-in-canada |archive-date=November 22, 2024}}

| {{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Kimberly |title=Stampede: Misogyny, White Supremacy and Settler Colonialism |date=2021 |publisher=Fernwood Publishing |isbn=9781773632179 |quote=Canada is a settler colonial state, it is also what hooks (Jhally 1997) calls a white supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchy...}}

| {{harvnb|Lightfoot|Nelson|Grone|Apodaca|2021|pp=134–135}}

| {{Cite book |last1=Laidlaw |first1=Z. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ec-_BwAAQBAJ&pg=PT150 |title=Indigenous Communities and Settler Colonialism: Land Holding, Loss and Survival in an Interconnected World |last2=Lester |first2=Alan |publisher=Springer |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-137-45236-8 |page=150 |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-date=March 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316173822/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ec-_BwAAQBAJ&pg=PT150 |url-status=live}}

| {{Cite book |last=Ray |first=Arthur J. |url=https://archive.org/details/ihavelivedheresi0000raya/page/244 |title=I Have Lived Here Since The World Began |publisher=Key Porter Books |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-55263-633-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ihavelivedheresi0000raya/page/244 244]}}

}} Roland G. Robertson suggests that during the late 1630s, smallpox killed over half of the Wyandot (Huron), who controlled most of the early fur trade in the area of New France.{{cite book |last=Robertson |first=R. G. |title=Rotting Face: Smallpox and the American Indian |publisher=Caxton Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-87004-497-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-EoEm_OO8RgC&pg=PA108 |access-date=August 27, 2024 |pages=107–108}} During the 17th century Beaver Wars, the Haudenosaunee brutally destroyed large tribal confederacies like the Mohicans, Wyandot, Neutral, Erie, Susquehannock, and northern Algonquins. Some historians have call these actions genocidal, while highlight the fact British and Dutch merchants encouraged and armed the Haudenosaunee.{{cite journal |last=Blick |first=Jeffrey P. |title=The Iroquois practice of genocidal warfare (1534-1787) |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |volume=3 |issue=3 |date=2001 |issn=1462-3528 |doi=10.1080/14623520120097215 |pages=405–429}}

The most well documented impact of colonization in Canada is the Indian Residential School System that was intended to assimilate the population.{{cite web |title=Childhood denied |website=Canadian Museum for Human Rights |date=September 20, 2018 |url=https://humanrights.ca/story/childhood-denied |access-date=August 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240818044956/https://humanrights.ca/story/childhood-denied |archive-date=August 18, 2024}} Other examples include the forced relocation of Inuit populations during the cold war to propagate Canadian sovereignty,{{cite book |title=The High Arctic Relocation: Summary of Supporting Information |publisher=Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples |issue=v. 1 |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-662-22335-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FL91AAAAMAAJ |access-date=August 18, 2024 |page=intro}} medical segregation that led to poor conditions and lack of innovations being implemented,{{sfn|Lux|2016|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=o9gQDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 3]}} the sterilization of Indigenous men and women,{{cite book |last=Stote |first=K. |title=An Act of Genocide: Colonialism and the Sterilization of Aboriginal Women |publisher=Fernwood Publishing |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-55266-732-3 |page=Intro}} and the modern day plight of violence and discrimination faced by Indigenous females being marginalized.{{cite book |last1=Lavell-Harvard |first1=D. M. |last2=Brant |first2=J. |title=Forever Loved: Exposing the Hidden Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada |publisher=Demeter Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-77258-065-5 |page=7}}

Some scholars suggest Indigenous groups in Canada still suffer from the effects of settler colonialism.{{cite journal |last1=Smallwood |first1=Reakeeta |last2=Woods |first2=Cindy |last3=Power |first3=Tamara |last4=Usher |first4=Kim |title=Understanding the Impact of Historical Trauma Due to Colonization on the Health and Well-Being of Indigenous Young Peoples: A Systematic Scoping Review |journal=Journal of Transcultural Nursing |publisher=SAGE Publications |date=June 21, 2020 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=59–68 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/GCUUCBZSM3RNNYCUW3AD/full |access-date=December 12, 2024 |doi=10.1177/1043659620935955 |pmid=32567510 |url-access=subscription}} This manifests in forms of racially motivated discrimination,{{cite journal |first1=Corey |last1=Snelgrove |first2=Rita Kaur |last2=Dhamoon |first3=Jeff |last3=Corntassel |title=Unsettling settler colonialism: The discourse and politics of settlers, and solidarity with Indigenous nations |journal=Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society |volume=3 |number=2 |date=2014 |pages=11–12 |url=https://nycstandswithstandingrock.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/snelgrove-dhamoon-corntassel-2014.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170104164929/https://nycstandswithstandingrock.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/snelgrove-dhamoon-corntassel-2014.pdf |archive-date=January 4, 2017}} such as criminal justice inequity, police brutality and high incarceration rates, that have been subject to legal and political review.{{cite web |title=Understanding the Overrepresentation of Indigenous People |website=State of the Criminal Justice System Dashboard |date=June 11, 2024 |url=https://www.justice.gc.ca/socjs-esjp/en/ind-aut/uo-cs |access-date=November 21, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241203030633/https://www.justice.gc.ca/socjs-esjp/en/ind-aut/uo-cs |archive-date=December 3, 2024}}

{{main |Settler colonialism in Canada#Indigenous resistance}}

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Indigenous response to colonialism in Canada dates back before its founding.{{cite web |title=Indigenous Political Organization and Activism in Canada |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |date=December 18, 1970 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aboriginal-people-political-organization-and-activism |access-date=December 9, 2024}} Historically, Indigenous resistance in Canada has taken the form of some violent rebellions, protests, blockades, legal challenges, and cultural revitalization efforts, all aimed at challenging the policies and practices of the Canadian government and asserting Indigenous sovereignty over their traditional territories.{{cite magazine |last=Kitz |first=Tim |title=Timeline of Canadian Colonialism and Indigenous Resistance |magazine=The Leveller |date=September 26, 2019 |url=https://leveller.ca/2019/09/timeline-of-canadian-colonialism-and-indigenous-resistance/ |access-date=December 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240807081342/https://leveller.ca/2019/09/timeline-of-canadian-colonialism-and-indigenous-resistance/ |archive-date=August 7, 2024}} During the 20th century, various Indigenous groups emerged to address issues like land loss, unrecognized rights, harmful policies, and poor conditions on reserves.

The Lachine massacre of 1689 during the Beaver Wars, saw 1,500 Haudenosaunee warriors invade the small settlement of Lachine in New France, which had 375 residents. This attack was due to Haudenosaunee anger over French expansion that resulted in the capture of many and the killing of about 24 French inhabitants.{{cite web |title=Lachine Raid |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |date=December 15, 2013 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/lachine-raid#:~:text=On%20the%20morning%20of%205,raids%20in%20the%20following%20decade. |access-date=December 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250123194344/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/lachine-raid |archive-date=January 23, 2025}} In the 1800s, Louis Riel led the Métis in the Red River and North West Rebellions to fight for land and governance rights.{{cite web |title=North-West Resistance |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |date=July 8, 2021 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/north-west-rebellion |access-date=December 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241123050047/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/north-west-rebellion |archive-date=November 23, 2024}}

In 1967, the National Indian Brotherhood and other groups opposed the White Paper, which aimed to eliminate the Indian Act and the limited rights of Indigenous peoples.{{cite web |title=The White Paper, 1969 |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |date=December 18, 1970 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-white-paper-1969#:~:text=The%20backlash%20to%20the%201969%20White%20Paper%20was%20monumental.,Nations)%20and%20its%20provincial%20chapters. |access-date=December 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241202055101/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-white-paper-1969 |archive-date=December 2, 2024}} During the Oka Crisis in 1990, the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) of Kanehsatà:ke protested against a golf course on their ancestral lands and faced military intervention.{{cite web |title=Kanesatake Resistance (Oka Crisis) |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |date=September 1, 1990 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/oka-crisis |access-date=December 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915175215/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/oka-crisis |archive-date=September 15, 2024}} The Idle No More movement emerged in response to Bill C-45, which threatened environmental protections and treaty rights, utilizing various forms of activism to demand respect for treaties and Indigenous relationships.{{cite journal |last=Barker |first=Adam J. |title='A Direct Act of Resurgence, a Direct Act of Sovereignty': Reflections on Idle No More, Indigenous Activism, and Canadian Settler Colonialism |journal=Globalizations |volume=12 |issue=1 |date=January 2, 2015 |issn=1474-7731 |doi=10.1080/14747731.2014.971531 |pages=43–65 |bibcode=2015Glob...12...43B }} Chief Theresa Spence's hunger strike highlighted the poor conditions on Indigenous reserves.{{cite web |title=Canada: Indigenous protest movement highlights deep-rooted injustices |website=Amnesty International |date=January 4, 2013 |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2013/01/canada-indigenous-protest-movement-highlights-deep-rooted-injustices/ |access-date=December 9, 2024}} Recently, protests against a pipeline in Wet’suwet’en Nation territory met with government policing.{{cite web |title=Canada: Indigenous activists protest Coastal Gaslink pipeline construction & allege violations of UNDRIP; incl. company comments |website=Business & Human Rights Resource Centre |date=January 9, 2019 |url=https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/canada-indigenous-activists-protest-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-construction-allege-violations-of-undrip-incl-company-comments/ |access-date=December 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240715232737/https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/canada-indigenous-activists-protest-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-construction-allege-violations-of-undrip-incl-company-comments/ |archive-date=July 15, 2024}}

{{main|Beothuk#Genocide}}

File:Carlb-beothuk-museum-2002.jpg

With the death of Shanawdithit in 1829,{{sfn|Harring|2021|p=87}} the Beothuk people, and the Indigenous people of Newfoundland were officially declared extinct after suffering epidemics, starvation, loss of access to food sources, and displacement by English and French fishermen and traders.{{cite book |last=Rowe |first=F. W. |title=Extinction: The Beothuks of Newfoundland |publisher=McGraw-Hill Ryerson |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-07-082351-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mAQJAQAAIAAJ |access-date=September 2, 2024 |page=intro}} The Beothuks' main food sources were caribou, fish, and seals; their forced displacement deprived them of two of these. This led to the over-hunting of caribou, leading to a decrease in the caribou population in Newfoundland. The Beothuks emigrated from their traditional land and lifestyle, attempting to avoid contact with Europeans,{{cite book |first=Margaret |last=Conrad |title=History of the Canadian Peoples |edition=Fifth |pages=256–257}} into ecosystems unable to support them, causing under-nourishment and, eventually, starvation.{{cite web |url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/aboriginal/beothuk-disappearance.php |title=Disappearance of the Beothuk |publisher=Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador |access-date=September 6, 2017 |archive-date=September 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907081020/http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/aboriginal/beothuk-disappearance.php |url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/aboriginal/beo_extinction.html |title=Extinction of the Beothuk: Aboriginal Peoples: Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage |website=www.heritage.nf.ca |access-date=January 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006025555/http://www.heritage.nf.ca/aboriginal/beo_extinction.html |archive-date=October 6, 2008 |url-status=dead}}

Governor John Byron's proclamation that "I do strictly enjoin and require all His Majesty's subjects to live in amity and brotherly kindness with the native savages [Beothuk] of the said island of Newfoundland",{{cite web |url=http://visitnewfoundland.ca/beothuk.html |title=The Beothuk of Newfoundland |author= |date=January 5, 2013 |website=visitnewfoundland.ca |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130108130959/http://visitnewfoundland.ca/beothuk.html |archive-date=January 8, 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 7, 2013}} as well as the subsequent Proclamation issued by Governor John Holloway on July 30, 1807, which prohibited mistreatment of the Beothuk and offered a reward for any information on such mistreatment.{{cite web |url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/naval-john-holloway.php |title=Holloway, John (1744-1826) |author= |date=August 2000 |website=Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Website |access-date=December 3, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405234723/https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/naval-john-holloway.php |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |quote=}} Such proclamations seemed to have little effect, as writing in 1766, Governor Hugh Palliser reported to the British secretary of state that "the barbarous system of killing prevails amongst our people towards the Native Indians — whom our People always kill, when they can meet them".{{sfn|Harring|2021|p=87}}

Scholars disagree in their definition of genocide in relation to the Beothuk.{{sfn|Rubinstein|2004}} While some scholars believe that the Beothuk died out as an unintended consequence of European colonization, others argue that Europeans conducted a sustained campaign of genocide against them.{{cite book |first1=R. P. |last1=Knowles |title=Modern Drama: Defining the Field |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2003 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=dqTz89_fFjgC&pg=PA169 169] |isbn=978-0-8020-8621-1 |last2=Tomplins |first2=J. |last3=Worthen |first3=W. B.}}{{harvnb|Harring|2021|p=85}}; {{harvnb|Cormier|2017|pp=39–60}}; {{harvnb|Adhikari|2023|pp=115–116}}

{{Main|1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic}}

Pacific Northwest indigenous peoples experienced several earlier smallpox epidemics, about once per generation after European contact began in the late 18th century: in the late 1770s, 1801–03, 1836–38, and 1853. These epidemics are not as well documented in historical records as the 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic.{{cite journal |last=Boyd |first=Robert T. |title=Smallpox in the Pacific Northwest: the First Epidemics |date=Spring 1994 |journal=BC Studies |volume=101 |pages=33–34 |url=https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/anth_fac/141 |access-date=February 11, 2021 |doi=10.14288/bcs.v0i101.864 |archive-date=July 9, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709213946/https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/anth_fac/141/ |url-status=live}}

The 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic started in Victoria on Vancouver Island and spread among the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and into the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau, killing a large portion of Indigenous from the Puget Sound region to Southeast Alaska. Two-thirds of British Columbia Indigenous died—around 20,000 people.{{cite book |last1=Boyd |first1=Robert Thomas |title=The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline Among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774–1874 |year=1999 |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |isbn=978-0-295-97837-6 |chapter=A final disaster: the 1862 smallpox epidemic in coastal British Columbia |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_FdUPbmwCgC&pg=PA172 |pages=172–201 |access-date=February 10, 2021 |archive-date=January 6, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240106083406/https://books.google.com/books?id=P_FdUPbmwCgC&pg=PA172#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}

While colonial authorities used quarantine, smallpox vaccine, and inoculation to keep the disease from spreading among colonists and settlers, it was largely allowed to spread among indigenous peoples. The Colony of Vancouver Island made attempts to save some Indigenous inhabitants, but most were forced to leave the vicinity of Victoria and go back to their homelands, despite awareness that it would result in a major smallpox epidemic among the Indigenous population of the Pacific Northwest coast. Many colonists and newspapers were vocally in favor of expulsion.{{cite web |url=https://www.historylink.org/File/5171 |title=Smallpox Epidemic of 1862 among Northwest Coast and Puget Sound Indians |publisher=HistoryLink |last=Lange |first=Greg |access-date=February 8, 2021 |archive-date=January 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125204435/https://www.historylink.org/File/5171 |url-status=live}}

Some historians have described it as a deliberate genocide because the Colony of Vancouver Island and the Colony of British Columbia could have prevented the epidemic but chose not to, and in some ways facilitated it.{{cite web |url=https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/how-a-smallpox-epidemic-forged-modern-british-columbia |title=How a smallpox epidemic forged modern British Columbia |last=Ostroff |first=Joshua |date=August 2017 |publisher=Maclean's |access-date=February 9, 2021 |archive-date=January 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118211838/https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/how-a-smallpox-epidemic-forged-modern-british-columbia/ |url-status=live}}{{cite book |last=Swanky |first=Tom |title=The True Story of Canada's "War" of Extermination on the Pacific - Plus the Tsilhqot'in and other First Nations Resistance |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RSyPLwEACAAJ |date=2013 |publisher=Dragon Heart Enterprises |isbn=978-1-105-71164-0 |pages=617–619 }} According to historian Kiran van Rijn, "opportunistic self-interest, coupled with hollow pity, revulsion at the victims, and smug feelings of inevitability, shaped the colonial response to the epidemic among First Nations"; and that for some residents of Victoria the eviction of Indigenous peoples was a "long-sought opportunity" to be rid of them; and, for some, an opportunity to take over First Nation lands. At the time, and still today, some Indigenous leaders say that the colonial government deliberately spread smallpox for the purpose of stealing their land.{{cite journal |last=Van Rijn |first=Kiran |title="Lo! The poor Indian!" Colonial Responses to the 1862-63 Smallpox Epidemic in British Columbia and Vancouver Island |journal=Canadian Bulletin of Medical History |volume=23 |issue=2 |date=2006 |pages=541–560 |doi=10.3138/cbmh.23.2.541 |pmid=17214129 |doi-access=free}}{{cite web |url=https://www.tsilhqotin.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021_Chief-Ahans-Story_Chilcotin-War.pdf |title=Commemorating Nits'il?in Ahan |publisher=Tŝilhqot’in National Government |last=Swanky |first=Tom |date=2019 |access-date=April 8, 2023 |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405064918/https://www.tsilhqotin.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021_Chief-Ahans-Story_Chilcotin-War.pdf |url-status=live}}

{{main|Canadian Indian residential school system|Sixties Scoop}}

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Beginning in 1874 and lasting until 1996,{{cite web |url=http://www.omfrc.org/newsletter/specialedition8.pdf |title=Solving the "Indian Problem": Assimilation Laws, Practices & Indian Residential Schools |last=Rheault |first=D'Arcy |date=2011 |website=Ontario Métis Family Records Centre |access-date=June 29, 2016 |archive-date=June 11, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120611203916/http://omfrc.org/newsletter/specialedition8.pdf |url-status=live}} the Canadian government, in partnership with the dominant Christian Churches,{{harvnb|Woolford|2009|pp=84–85}}; {{harvnb|Akhtar|2010|p=118}}; {{harvnb|MacDonald|Hudson|2012|p=428}} ran 130 residential boarding schools across Canada for Indigenous children, who were forcibly taken from their homes.{{cite journal |last1=Popic |first1=Linda |title=Compensating Canada's 'Stolen Generations' |journal=Journal of Aboriginal History |date=2008 |page=14 |issue=December 2007–January 2008}}{{sfn|Akhtar|2010|pp=113–114}} Over the course of the system's existence, about 30% of Indigenous children, or roughly 150,000, were placed in residential schools nationally; at least 6,000 of these students died while in attendance.{{cite web |title=Residential School History: A Legacy of Shame |url=http://www.med.uottawa.ca/sim/data/Images/Residential_Schools.pdf |publisher=Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health |access-date=June 28, 2016 |date=2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151203062432/http://www.med.uottawa.ca/sim/data/Images/Residential_Schools.pdf |archive-date=December 3, 2015}}{{cite news |last1=Tasker |first1=John Paul |title=Residential schools findings point to 'cultural genocide,' commission chair says |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/residential-schools-findings-point-to-cultural-genocide-commission-chair-says-1.3093580 |access-date=July 1, 2016 |publisher=CBC |date=May 29, 2015 |archive-date=May 18, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160518220713/http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/residential-schools-findings-point-to-cultural-genocide-commission-chair-says-1.3093580 |url-status=live}} While the schools provided some education, they were plagued by under-funding, disease, abuse, and sexual abuse.{{cite journal |last1=Charles |first1=Grant |last2=DeGane |first2=Mike |title=Student-to-Student Abuse in the Indian Residential Schools in Canada: Setting the Stage for Further Understanding |journal=Child & Youth Services |date=2013 |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=343–359 |doi=10.1080/0145935X.2013.859903 |s2cid=144148882}}{{harvnb|Akhtar|2010|p=115}}; {{harvnb|MacDonald|Hudson|2012|pp=431–432}}; {{harvnb|Thielen-Wilson|2014|pp=189–190}} The negative effects of the residential school system have long been accepted almost unanimously among scholars researching the residential school system, with debate focussing on the motives and intent.{{sfn|MacDonald|2015|p=419}}

Part of this process during the 1960s through the 1980s, dubbed the Sixties Scoop, was investigated and the child seizures deemed genocidal by Judge Edwin Kimelman, who wrote: "You took a child from his or her specific culture and you placed him into a foreign culture without any [counselling] assistance to the family which had the child. There is something dramatically and basically wrong with that."{{cite book |title=Genocide |last=Szumski |first=Bonnie |publisher=Greenhaven Press |date=2001 |pages=155–158}} Another aspect of the residential school system was its use of forced sterilization on Indigenous women who chose not to follow the schools advice of marrying non-Indigenous men.{{cite journal |last=Pegoraro |first=L. |date=2015 |title=Second-rate victims: the forced sterilization of Indigenous peoples in the USA and Canada |journal=Settler Colonial Studies |volume=5 |number=2 |pages=161–173 |doi=10.1080/2201473X.2014.955947}}{{sfn|Green|2023}}{{sfn|MacDonald|Hudson|2012|p=445}}

File:Study period at Roman Catholic Indian Residential School, Fort Resolution, NWT (14112957392).jpg Indian Residential School in Fort Resolution, NWT|alt=Indigenous children working at long desks]]

Indigenous people of Canada have long referred to the residential school system as genocide,{{sfn|Thielen-Wilson|2014|p=182}}{{sfn|Akhtar|2010|p=119}}{{sfn|Woolford|2009|pp=81–82}} with scholars referring to the system as genocidal since the 1990s.{{sfn|MacDonald|2015|pp=419–420}} According to some scholars, the Canadian government's laws and policies, including the residential school system, that encouraged or required Indigenous peoples to assimilate into a Eurocentric society, violated the United Nations Genocide Convention that Canada signed in 1949 and passed through Parliament in 1952.{{cite book |last=Annett |first=K. |title=Hidden From History: The Untold Story of the Genocide of Aboriginal Peoples by the Church and State in Canada |publisher=The Truth Commission into the Genocide in Canada |year=2001 |url=http://www.hiddenmysteries.org/religion/christianity/genocide.pdf |access-date=March 25, 2017 |archive-date=July 9, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140709002824/http://www.hiddenmysteries.org/religion/christianity/genocide.pdf |url-status=live}}{{sfn|Harring|2021|p=83}} Therefore, these scholars believe that Canada could be tried in international court for genocide.{{cite book |last=Restoule |first=Jean-Paul |title=Aboriginal Identity: The Need for Historical and Contextual Perspectives |volume=24 |issue=2 |access-date=October 28, 2009 |year=2002 |publisher=Prentice Hall |location=Toronto, ON |pages=102–12 |chapter-url=http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=EJ630059 |chapter=Seeing Ourselves. John Macionis and Nijole v. Benokraitis and Bruce Ravelli}}{{sfn|Akhtar|2010|pp=133–135}} Others also point to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was adopted into Canadian law in 2010, where article 7 discusses the rights of indigenous people to not be subjected to genocide or "any other act of violence, including forcibly removing children of the group to another group".{{sfn|MacDonald|Hudson|2012|p=444}}

The executive summary of the TRC concluded that the assimilation amounted to cultural genocide.{{cite web |title=Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada |url=http://www.trc.ca/assets/pdf/Honouring_the_Truth_Reconciling_for_the_Future_July_23_2015.pdf |website=National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation |publisher=Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada |access-date=May 30, 2021 |date=May 31, 2015 |page=1 |archive-date=May 30, 2021 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210530175713/https://www.trc.ca/assets/pdf/Honouring_the_Truth_Reconciling_for_the_Future_July_23_2015.pdf}}{{cite web |title=Canada's Residential Schools: The History, Part 1 Origins to 1939 – Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada |volume=1 |url=http://nctr.ca/assets/reports/Final%20Reports/Volume_1_History_Part_1_English_Web.pdf |website=National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation |publisher=Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada |access-date=July 1, 2016 |date=2015 |archive-date=March 5, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305044526/http://nctr.ca/assets/reports/Final%20Reports/Volume_1_History_Part_1_English_Web.pdf |url-status=live}} This conclusion has been supported by other scholars, including David Bruce MacDonald and Graham Hudson, who also comment that the residential school system may also amount to more than just cultural genocide,{{sfn|MacDonald|Hudson|2012|pp=430–431}} laying out specific arguments as to how the residential school system met the {{lang|la|dolus specialis}} requirement of the Genocide Convention.{{sfn|MacDonald|Hudson|2012|pp=434–438}} The ambiguity of the phrasing in the TRC report allowed for the interpretation that physical and biological genocide also occurred. The TRC was not authorized to conclude that physical and biological genocide occurred, as such a finding would imply a legal responsibility of the Canadian government that would be difficult to prove. As a result, the debate about whether the Canadian government also committed physical and biological genocide against Indigenous populations remains open.{{sfn|MacDonald|2015|pp=423–425}}{{sfn|Woolford|Benvenuto|2015|pp=378–379}}

{{Main|First Nations nutrition experiments}}

The First Nations nutrition experiments were a series of experiments run in Canada by Department of Pensions and National Health (now Health Canada). The experiments were conducted between 1942 and 1952 using Indigenous children from residential schools in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Ontario.{{Cite news |last=Blackburn |first=Mark |date=July 23, 2013 |title=Residential school commission received nutritional experiment documents in 2010 |url=https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/residential-school-commission-has-held-nutritional-experiment-documents-since-2010/ |access-date=April 30, 2021 |work=APTN News |language=en-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210430172324/https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/residential-school-commission-has-held-nutritional-experiment-documents-since-2010/ |archive-date=April 30, 2021}} The experiments were conducted on at least 1,300 Indigenous people across Canada, approximately 1,000 of whom were children.{{Cite news |first=Bob |last=Weber |date=July 16, 2013 |title=Canadian government withheld food from hungry aboriginal kids in 1940s nutritional experiments, researcher finds |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/hungry-aboriginal-kids-adults-were-subject-of-nutritional-experiments-paper/article13246564/ |work=The Globe & Mail |access-date=April 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213173720/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/hungry-aboriginal-kids-adults-were-subject-of-nutritional-experiments-paper/article13246564/ |archive-date=February 13, 2021}} The deaths connected with the experiments have been described as part of Canada's genocide of Indigenous peoples.{{cite news |first=Stephen |last=Maher |date=September 19, 2014 |title=Maher: It's getting harder to ignore Canada's genocide |url=https://calgaryherald.com/news/getting+harder+ignore+Canada+genocide/10219357/story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140920221808/https://calgaryherald.com/news/getting+harder+ignore+Canada+genocide/10219357/story.html |archive-date=September 20, 2014 |work=the Calgary Herald |access-date=August 24, 2019}}

The experiments involved nutrient-poor isolated communities such as those in The Pas and Norway House in northern Manitoba and residential schools{{cite news |url=http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/columnists/isabel-wallace-untested-drugs-harmed-many-in-the-past-1.1325452 |title=Isabel Wallace: Untested drugs harmed many in the past |work=Victoria Times Colonist |date=August 24, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820194643/https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/isabel-wallace-untested-drugs-harmed-many-in-the-past-4612852 |archive-date=August 20, 2023}} and were designed to learn about the relative importance and optimum levels of newly discovered vitamins and nutritional supplements.{{cite journal |last1=Mosby |first1=Ian |title=Administering Colonial Science: Nutrition Research and Human Biomedical Experimentation in Aboriginal Communities and Residential Schools, 1942–1952 |journal=Histoire Sociale/Social History |date=2013 |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=145–172 |id={{Project MUSE|512043}} |doi=10.1353/his.2013.0015 |s2cid=51823776}}{{cite news |first=Andrew |last=Livingstone |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/07/24/son_defends_scientist_behind_aboriginal_nutrition_experiments.html |title=Son defends scientist behind aboriginal nutrition experiments |work=Toronto Star |date=July 24, 2013 |access-date=August 5, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820194641/https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/son-defends-scientist-behind-aboriginal-nutrition-experiments/article_522a22d1-cc41-59c8-bcb7-05a37fbf9b6d.html |archive-date=August 20, 2023}}{{cite news |first1=Andrew |last1=Livingstone |first2=Bob |last2=Weber |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/07/16/hungry_aboriginal_kids_used_unwittingly_in_nutrition_experiments_researcher_says.html |title=Hungry Canadian aboriginal children were used in government experiments during 1940s, researcher says |work=Toronto Star |date=July 16, 2013 |access-date=August 5, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820194641/https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/hungry-canadian-aboriginal-children-were-used-in-government-experiments-during-1940s-researcher-says/article_e7481d09-35fd-51ac-be5c-fd109b8c7d36.html |archive-date=August 20, 2023}} The experiments included deliberate, sustained malnourishment and in some cases, the withholding of dental services.{{Cite news |date=July 30, 2013 |title=Aboriginal nutritional experiments had Ottawa's approval |work=CBC News |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/aboriginal-nutritional-experiments-had-ottawa-s-approval-1.1404390 |access-date=April 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205055516/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/aboriginal-nutritional-experiments-had-ottawa-s-approval-1.1404390 |archive-date=February 5, 2024}}

In 2013 the Assembly of First Nations passed a resolution stating the experiments "reveal Crown conduct reflecting a pattern of genocide against aboriginal peoples."{{cite web |title=AFN condemns nutritional experiments on aboriginal children |work=CBC |date=September 13, 2013 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/afn-condemns-nutritional-experiments-on-aboriginal-children-1.1324772 |access-date=December 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213184038/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/afn-condemns-nutritional-experiments-on-aboriginal-children-1.1324772 |archive-date=December 13, 2024}}

{{main|Compulsory sterilization in Canada}}

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| video1 =[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f91AKH_x__U&ab_channel=CBCNews%3ATheNational" New report sheds light on forced sterilization in Indigenous women"] (2022) – CBC (2:09 min)

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The practice of forcibly sterilizing individuals deemed mentally unfit or "socially inadequate" was widespread in the early to mid-20th century.{{cite web |title=Sterilization of Indigenous Women in Canada |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |date=October 22, 1921 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sterilization-of-indigenous-women-in-canada |access-date=December 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801201434/https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sterilization-of-indigenous-women-in-canada |archive-date=August 1, 2023}} The belief was that by preventing these individuals from reproducing, society would be protected from the perceived negative impact of their genes. This led to compulsory sterilization of thousands of people, many of whom were Indigenous women, individuals with disabilities, and those deemed to have "undesirable" traits.{{cite book |last=Stote |first=K. |title=An Act of Genocide: Colonialism and the Sterilization of Aboriginal Women |publisher=Fernwood Publishing |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-55266-732-3 |page=intro}}

The legal basis for compulsory sterilization in Canada can be traced back to the passage of the Sexual Sterilization Act in Alberta in 1928.{{cite web |last=Rutherford |first=Gillian |title=Reproductive control of Indigenous women continues around the world, say survivors and researchers |publisher=University of Alberta |date=June 27, 2022 |url=https://www.ualberta.ca/en/folio/2022/06/reproductive-control-of-indigenous-women-continues-around-the-world.html |access-date=December 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241209181323/https://www.ualberta.ca/en/folio/2022/06/reproductive-control-of-indigenous-women-continues-around-the-world.html |archive-date=December 9, 2024}} This legislation allowed for the sterilization of individuals deemed mentally deficient or mentally ill without their consent. Similar legislation existed in British Columbia, although records on sterilizations there are incomplete.{{cite web |title=CHAPTER 59. An Act respecting Sexual Sterilization. - BC Laws |url=https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/hstats/hstats/1887728313 |access-date=December 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241209182840/https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/hstats/hstats/1887728313 |archive-date=December 9, 2024}} Additionally, sterilizations occurred in Saskatchewan, Quebec, Manitoba, Ontario and other regions without specific legal frameworks.{{cite news |last=Cheng |first=Maria |title=Canada's Indigenous women forcibly sterilized decades after other rich countries stopped |work=CTV News |agency=Associated Press |date=July 12, 2023 |url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/canada-s-indigenous-women-forcibly-sterilized-decades-after-other-rich-countries-stopped-1.6476708 |access-date=December 10, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241223044843/https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/canada-s-indigenous-women-forcibly-sterilized-decades-after-other-rich-countries-stopped-1.6476708 |archive-date=December 23, 2024}}{{cite news |last=Zingel |first=Avery |title=Indigenous women come forward with accounts of forced sterilization, says lawyer |work=CBC |date=July 9, 2019 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/forced-sterilization-lawsuit-could-expand-1.5102981 |access-date=December 10, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250128060140/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/forced-sterilization-lawsuit-could-expand-1.5102981 |archive-date=January 28, 2025}}{{cite news |last=Fournier |first=Sylvie |title=Black, Indigenous mothers say they were sterilized without full consent at Quebec hospitals |work=CBC |date=September 24, 2021 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-hospital-sterilization-1.6188269 |access-date=December 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250124131944/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-hospital-sterilization-1.6188269 |archive-date=January 24, 2025}} These practices remained in place until the 1970s, when public opinion began to shift and the practice was eventually deemed unethical and inhumane.{{cite web |title=Eugenics in Canada |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |date=October 22, 1921 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/eugenics |access-date=December 10, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240222213755/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/eugenics |archive-date=February 22, 2024}} Despite legislation Indigenous women allege they were coerced into consenting to sterilization, often during vulnerable moments such as childbirth, from the mid 1970s onwards.{{cite journal |last1=Shawana |first1=Christine |last2=Ryan |first2=Chaneesa |last3=Ali |first3=Abrar |title=Forced or Coerced Sterilization in Canada: An Overview of Recommendations for Moving Forward |journal=International Journal of Indigenous Health |publisher=University of Toronto Libraries - UOTL |volume=16 |issue=1 |date=January 28, 2021 |issn=2291-9376 |doi=10.32799/ijih.v16i1.33369 |doi-access=free |page=}} In June 2021, the Standing Committee on Human Rights in Canada found that compulsory sterilization is ongoing in Canada and its extent has been underestimated.{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Public Services and Procurement Canada |date=July 1, 2002 |title=The scars that we carry : forced and coerced sterilization of persons in Canada. Part II / Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights; the Honourable Salma Ataullahjan, chair, the Honourable Wanda Thomas Bernard, deputy chair.: YC32-0/441-4E-PDF - Government of Canada Publications - Canada.ca |url=https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.913511/publication.html |access-date=October 20, 2023 |website=publications.gc.ca |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240518235313/https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.913511/publication.html |archive-date=May 18, 2024}} A bill was introduced to Parliament in 2024 to end the practice.{{cite news |last=Ryckewaert |first=Laura |title=Senate bill seeking to criminalize forced sterilizations raises concerns over unintended consequences |work=The Hill Times |date=March 25, 2024 |url=https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2024/03/25/senate-bill-seeking-to-criminalize-forced-sterilizations-raises-concerns-over-unintended-consequences/415997/ |access-date=August 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241211054527/https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2024/03/25/senate-bill-seeking-to-criminalize-forced-sterilizations-raises-concerns-over-unintended-consequences/415997/ |archive-date=December 11, 2024}}

Although Canadian eugenics beliefs and practices operated via institutionalization and medical judgements, similar to other nations at the time, some modern scholars contend this was a form of genocide, aimed at limiting the rights and existence of a group of people.{{cite journal |last=Carranza Ko |first=Ñusta P. |title=Making the Case for Genocide, the Forced Sterilization of Indigenous Peoples of Peru |journal=Genocide Studies and Prevention |volume=14 |issue=2 |date=2020 |issn=1911-0359 |doi=10.5038/1911-9933.14.2.1740 |doi-access=free |pages=90–103}}

{{Main|High Arctic relocation}}

The High Arctic relocation happened in the context of the Cold War, the federal government forcibly relocated 87 Inuit citizens to the High Arctic as human symbols of Canada's assertion of ownership of the region. The Inuit were told that they would be returned home to Northern Quebec after two years if they wished, but this offer was later withdrawn as it would damage Canada's claims to the High Arctic; they were forced to stay.{{cite web |author=National Film Board of Canada |title=The High Arctic Relocation |website=National Film Board of Canada |date=June 19, 2017 |url=https://www.nfb.ca/film/broken_promises_-_the_high_arctic_relocation/#:~:text=Details,return%20home%20after%20two%20years. |access-date=September 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240728185205/https://www.nfb.ca/film/broken_promises_-_the_high_arctic_relocation/ |archive-date=July 28, 2024}}{{cite book |title=The High Arctic Relocation: A Report on the 1953-55 Relocation |publisher=Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-660-15544-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a8J1AAAAMAAJ |access-date=September 2, 2024 |page=18}}{{cite web |first=Alan R. |last=Marcus |title=Inuit relocation policies in Canada and other circumpolar countries, 1925-60 |url=https://publications.gc.ca/site/archivee-archived.html?url=https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/bcp-pco/Z1-1991-1-41-149-eng.pdf |access-date=September 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240902210247/https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/bcp-pco/Z1-1991-1-41-149-eng.pdf |archive-date=September 2, 2024}} In 1993, after extensive hearings, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples issued The High Arctic Relocation: A Report on the 1953–55 Relocation.{{cite report |title=The High Arctic Relocation: A Report on the 1953–55 Relocation |first1=René |last1=Dussault |first2=George |last2=Erasmus |publisher=Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, Canadian Government Publishing |date=1994 |url=http://www.fedpubs.com/subject/aborig/arctic_reloc.htm |access-date=June 20, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001232453/http://www.fedpubs.com/subject/aborig/arctic_reloc.htm |archive-date=October 1, 2009}} The government paid compensation and in 2010 issued a formal apology.{{cite web |date=September 15, 2010 |title=Apology for the Inuit High Arctic relocation |url=https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100016115/1534786491628 |publisher=Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240520163656/https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100016115/1534786491628 |archive-date=May 20, 2024}}

{{Main|Indian hospitals}}File:Coqualeetza Institute.jpg which was located in Sardis, British Columbia, ]]

The Indian hospitals were racially segregated hospitals, originally serving as tuberculosis sanatoria but later operating as general hospitals for Indigenous peoples in Canada which operated during the 20th century.{{sfn|Lux|2016|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=o9gQDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA7 7]}}{{cite journal |first=Maureen |last=Lux |url=http://shm.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/11/14/shm.hkr152.abstract |title=We Demand 'Unconditional Surrender': Making and Unmaking the Blackfoot Hospital, 1890s to 1950s |journal=Social History of Medicine |volume=25 |number=3 |date=August 2012 |pages=665–684 |doi=10.1093/shm/hkr152 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url-access=subscription |access-date=January 30, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120827050301/http://shm.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/11/14/shm.hkr152.abstract |archive-date=August 27, 2012 |url-status=dead}} The hospitals were originally used to isolate Indigenous tuberculosis patients from the general population because of a fear among health officials that "Indian TB" posed a danger to the non-indigenous population.{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/indian-hospitals-in-canada/ |title=Indian Hospitals in Canada |encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia |access-date=January 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180130204548/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/indian-hospitals-in-canada/ |archive-date=January 30, 2018 |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/a-brief-look-at-indian-hospitals-in-canada-0 |title=A Brief Look at Indian Hospitals in Canada |date=June 3, 2017 |website=Indigenous Corporate Training |access-date=November 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240203054408/https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/a-brief-look-at-indian-hospitals-in-canada |archive-date=February 3, 2024}} Many of these hospitals were located on Indian reserves, and might also be called reserve hospitals, while others were in nearby towns. Low salaries, poor working conditions, and the isolated locations of many hospitals made it difficult to maintain adequate numbers of qualified staff.{{sfn|Lux|2016|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=o9gQDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA77 77–78]}} These hospitals also did not receive the same level of funding as facilities for non-Indigenous communities. Although treatment for tuberculosis in non-Indigenous patients improved during the 1940s and 1950s, these innovations were not propagated to the Indian hospitals. From 1949 to 1953, 374 experimental surgeries were performed on TB patients, without the use of general anesthetic at the Charles Camsell Indian Hospital.{{Cite news |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/atkinsonseries/2018/10/19/the-health-system-in-canadas-north-is-failing-but-not-by-accident-it-is-designed-to-do-what-it-is-doing.html |title=The health system in Canada's North is failing — but not by accident. 'It is designed to do what it is doing' |work=The Toronto Star |access-date=October 24, 2018 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181024192255/https://www.thestar.com/news/atkinsonseries/2018/10/19/the-health-system-in-canadas-north-is-failing-but-not-by-accident-it-is-designed-to-do-what-it-is-doing.html |archive-date=October 24, 2018 |url-status=live}}

{{main|Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women}}

{{Further|Highway of tears}}

From 2016 to 2019, the Canadian government conducted the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. The final report of the inquiry concluded that the high level of violence directed at First Nations, Inuit, and Metis women and girls is "caused by state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies."{{cite web |last=Dalton |first=Jane |date=June 1, 2019 |title=Murdered and missing women and girls in Canada tragedy is genocide rooted in colonialism, official inquiry finds |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/canada-genocide-murdered-missing-women-girls-indigenous-inquiry-report-a8939646.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220515/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/canada-genocide-murdered-missing-women-girls-indigenous-inquiry-report-a8939646.html |archive-date=May 15, 2022 |access-date=June 2, 2019 |website=The Independent |quote=State 'actions and inactions and ideology' blamed for allowing attackers to get away with violence over nearly 50 years}}

The National Inquiry commissioners said in the report and publicly that the MMIWG crisis is "a Canadian genocide."{{cite web |last=Barrera |first=Jorge |date=May 31, 2019 |title=National inquiry calls murders and disappearances of Indigenous women a 'Canadian genocide' |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/genocide-murdered-missing-indigenous-women-inquiry-report-1.5157580 |access-date=June 5, 2019 |work=CBC News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240604125212/https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/genocide-murdered-missing-indigenous-women-inquiry-report-1.5157580 |archive-date=June 4, 2024}} It also concluded that the crisis constituted an ongoing "race, identity and gender-based genocide."{{cite news |last=Abedi |first=Maham |date=June 4, 2019 |title=Why 'genocide' was used in the MMIWG report |publisher=Global News |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/5350772/genocide-canada-mmiwg/ |access-date=June 8, 2019 |archive-date=June 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608011117/https://globalnews.ca/news/5350772/genocide-canada-mmiwg/ |url-status=live}}{{cite report |url=https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Final_Report_Vol_1a.pdf |title=Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls |volume=1a |page=728 |isbn=978-0-660-29274-8 |access-date=June 5, 2019 |archive-date=June 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605193245/https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Final_Report_Vol_1a.pdf |url-status=live}} CP32-163/2-1-2019E-PDF{{cite news |last=Ivison |first=John |date=June 4, 2019 |title=At MMIW report's heart, a contradiction that's impossible to ignore |work=National Post |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/john-ivison-at-mmiw-reports-heart-a-contradiction-thats-impossible-to-ignore |access-date=June 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190605020803/https://nationalpost.com/news/john-ivison-at-mmiw-reports-heart-a-contradiction-thats-impossible-to-ignore |archive-date=June 5, 2019}}

{{external media | width = 180px | float = right | video1 = "[https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.3595523 B.C.‘s infamous Highway of Tears]" (2006) - CBC Archives, (2:32, min) }}

The MMIWG inquiry used a broader definition of genocide from the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act which encompasses "not only acts of commission, but 'omission' as well." The inquiry described the traditional legal definition of genocide as "narrow" and based on the Holocaust. According to the inquiry, "colonial genocide does not conform with popular notions of genocide as a determinate, quantifiable event" and concluded that "these [genocidal] policies fluctuated in time and space, and in different incarnations, are still ongoing."{{Cite report |date=May 29, 2019 |title=A Legal Analysis of Genocide: Supplementary Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls |url=https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Supplementary-Report_Genocide.pdf |access-date=January 18, 2024 |website=www.mmiwg-ffada.ca |page=9 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240716234141/https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Supplementary-Report_Genocide.pdf |archive-date=July 16, 2024}}

On June 3, 2019, Luis Almagro, secretary-general of Organization of American States (OAS), asked Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland to support the creation of an independent probe into the MMIWG allegation of Canadian 'genocide' since Canada had previously supported "probes of atrocities in other countries" such as Nicaragua in 2018.{{cite news |last1=Connolly |first1=Amanda |date=June 8, 2019 |title=Organization of American States wants to probe MMIWG allegation of 'genocide' |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/5354323/oas-mmiwg-genocide-report-probe/ |access-date=June 8, 2019 |work=Global News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240228040134/https://globalnews.ca/news/5354323/oas-mmiwg-genocide-report-probe/ |archive-date=February 28, 2024}} On June 4, in Vancouver, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that, "Earlier this morning, the national inquiry formally presented their final report, in which they found that the tragic violence that Indigenous women and girls have experienced amounts to genocide."

{{further|Canadian Indian residential school system#Reconciliation|Canadian Indian residential school system#Apologies}}

{{external media

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| float =right

| video1 =[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Gi0ycmekE" Canada's cultural genocide of Indigenous Peoples"] (2017) – Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (3:59 min)

}}

Canadian history has evolved significantly over the years, with early interpretations often downplaying or denying the extent of violence and harm inflicted on Indigenous peoples.{{cite web |last=LaForme |first=Harry S. |title=Yes, Genocide |website=Literary Review of Canada |date=September 11, 2019 |url=https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2019/10/yes-genocide/ |access-date=December 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240916131403/https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2019/10/yes-genocide/ |archive-date=September 16, 2024}} In more recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the systemic nature of the atrocities perpetrated against Indigenous peoples in Canada.{{cite web |title=Confronting genocide in Canada |website=CMHR |date=April 26, 2018 |url=https://humanrights.ca/news/confronting-genocide-canada |access-date=December 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250118084118/https://humanrights.ca/news/confronting-genocide-canada |archive-date=January 18, 2025}} Indigenous leaders and scholars such as Phil Fontaine, Alice MacLachlan and David Bruce MacDonald have long argued that the Canadian government should "officially" recognize the totality of atrocities as "genocide".{{multiref

|{{Cite web |url=https://theconversation.com/canadas-hypocrisy-recognizing-genocide-except-its-own-against-indigenous-peoples-162128 |title=Canada's hypocrisy: Recognizing genocide except its own against Indigenous peoples |first=David |last=MacDonald |website=The Conversation |date=June 4, 2021 |access-date=June 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610145336/https://theconversation.com/canadas-hypocrisy-recognizing-genocide-except-its-own-against-indigenous-peoples-162128 |archive-date=June 10, 2024}}

|{{cite book |last=MacLachlan |first=Alice |title=Justice, Responsibility and Reconciliation in the Wake of Conflict |chapter=Government Apologies to Indigenous Peoples |publisher=Springer Netherlands |publication-place=Dordrecht |date=2013 |isbn=978-94-007-5200-9 |doi=10.1007/978-94-007-5201-6_11 |pages=183–203}}

|{{cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/cancel-canada-day-ottawa-algonquin-anishnaabe-1.6080870 |title=Indigenous people ask Canadians to 'put their pride aside' and reflect this Canada Day |first=Matthew |last=Kupfer |work=CBC News |date=June 28, 2021 |access-date=June 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231105031551/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/cancel-canada-day-ottawa-algonquin-anishnaabe-1.6080870 |archive-date=November 5, 2023}}

|{{cite news |last=Fontaine |first=Phil |date=July 19, 2013 |title=A Canadian genocide in search of a name |url=https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/07/19/a_canadian_genocide_in_search_of_a_name.html |access-date=March 28, 2023 |work=Toronto Star |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328183530/https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/07/19/a_canadian_genocide_in_search_of_a_name.html |archive-date=March 28, 2023}}

|{{Cite news |first=Maan |last=Alhmidi |date=June 5, 2021 |title=Experts say Trudeau's acknowledgment of Indigenous genocide could have legal impacts |work=Global News |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/7924188/trudeau-indigenous-genocide-legal-impacts/ |access-date=June 30, 2021 |archive-date=June 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210622101020/https://globalnews.ca/news/7924188/trudeau-indigenous-genocide-legal-impacts/ |url-status=live}}

}} A period of redress and apologies to Indigenous peoples began in 2008 with the formation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by the Government of Canada, resulting in recognition of cultural genocide, settlement agreements, and betterment of racial discrimination issues, such as addressing the plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women. The report also resulted in an apology by then Prime Minister Stephen Harper on behalf of the Canadian government and its citizens for the residential school system was issued.{{cite news |last=Benjoe |first=Kerry |title=Group gathers for Harper's apology |newspaper=The Leader-Post |date=June 12, 2008 |url=http://www2.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=2e362bf9-0f5a-43c6-ab5e-81a276b4767c |access-date=October 2, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915023426/http://www2.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=2e362bf9-0f5a-43c6-ab5e-81a276b4767c |archive-date=September 15, 2012}}

In 2015, Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin said that Canada's historical treatment of Indigenous peoples was "cultural genocide".{{Cite news |last=Fine |first=Sean |date=May 28, 2015 |title=Chief Justice says Canada attempted 'cultural genocide' on aboriginals |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/chief-justice-says-canada-attempted-cultural-genocide-on-aboriginals/article24688854/ |url-status=live |access-date=December 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826090619/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/chief-justice-says-canada-attempted-cultural-genocide-on-aboriginals/article24688854/ |archive-date=August 26, 2017}} In October 2022, the House of Commons unanimously passed a motion to have the Canadian government officially recognize the residential school system as genocide against Indigenous populations.{{cite news |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-motion-to-call-residential-schools-genocide-backed-unanimously/ |title=Motion to call residential schools genocide backed unanimously |author=The Canadian Press |work=The Globe and Mail |date=October 28, 2022 |access-date=December 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223222741/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-motion-to-call-residential-schools-genocide-backed-unanimously/ |archive-date=February 23, 2024}}{{cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/house-motion-recognize-genocide-1.6632450 |title=Motion to call residential schools genocide backed unanimously |first=Richard |last=Raycraft |work=CBC |date=October 27, 2022 |access-date=December 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240621185435/https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/house-motion-recognize-genocide-1.6632450 |archive-date=June 21, 2024}} This acknowledgment was followed by a visit by Pope Francis who apologized for Church members' role in what he labeled the "oppression, mistreatment and cultural genocide of indigenous people".{{cite news |last=Maqbool |first=Aleem |title=Pope Francis: Did the pontiff's apology in Canada go far enough? |work=BBC News |date=July 30, 2022 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62353811 |access-date=May 22, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240522153708/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62353811 |archive-date=May 22, 2024}}{{Cite news |last=Horowitz |first=Jason |date=July 30, 2022 |title=Francis Calls Abuse of Indigenous People in Canada a 'Genocide' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/30/world/americas/pope-francis-canada-genocide.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231107101356/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/30/world/americas/pope-francis-canada-genocide.html |archive-date=November 7, 2023 |access-date=October 7, 2023 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last=Taylor |first=Stephanie |date=August 2, 2022 |title=After Pope called residential schools 'genocide,' House of Commons should too: NDP MP |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-indigenous-leaders-wish-pope-franciss-acknowledgment-of-genocide-was/ |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221030143044/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-indigenous-leaders-wish-pope-franciss-acknowledgment-of-genocide-was/ |archive-date=October 30, 2022 |access-date=October 30, 2022 |work=The Globe and Mail}} Scouts Canada also issued an apology for "its role in the eradication of First Nation, Inuit and Metis people for more than a century".{{Cite news |last=Pimentel |first=Tamara |date=October 5, 2023 |title=Scouts Canada issues apology for role in 'historical harm' on Indigenous Peoples |url=https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/scouts-canada-issues-apology-for-role-in-historical-harm-on-indigenous-peoples/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231007083544/https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/scouts-canada-issues-apology-for-role-in-historical-harm-on-indigenous-peoples/ |archive-date=October 7, 2023 |access-date=October 7, 2023 |work=APTN News}}

Since 2022 Library and Archives Canada "Harmful content advisory" states:

{{blockquote |We acknowledge that archives can be sites of trauma for Indigenous peoples. Working with historical records that document experiences of genocide, assimilation, and oppression, as well as the inherent anti-Indigenous bias and offensive language in these records, can create feelings of distress, grief, and pain for researchers.{{cite web |title=Notices about the collections |website=Library and Archives Canada |date=August 23, 2022 |url=https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng/Pages/notices-collection.aspx#a2 |access-date=December 19, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241231041234/https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng/Pages/notices-collection.aspx |archive-date=December 31, 2024}}}}

{{further|Denial of genocides of Indigenous peoples#Canada}}

Despite decades of recognition and acknowledgments denialism claims is a factor within Canadian society.{{cite web |title=Truth before reconciliation: 8 ways to identify and confront Residential School denialism |website=Beyond |date=August 16, 2021 |url=https://beyond.ubc.ca/8-ways-to-confront-residential-school-denialism/#:~:text=Murray%20Sinclair%2C%20the%20TRC's%20chair,is%20not%20applicable%20to%20Canada. |access-date=December 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241112034356/https://beyond.ubc.ca/8-ways-to-confront-residential-school-denialism/ |archive-date=November 12, 2024}}{{cite web |first=Raymond |last=Frogner |title=Residential-school denialism doesn't stand up to reality |website=NCTR - National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation |date=May 8, 2023 |url=https://nctr.ca/residential-school-denialism-doesnt-stand-up-to-reality/ |access-date=December 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250127024017/https://nctr.ca/residential-school-denialism-doesnt-stand-up-to-reality/ |archive-date=January 27, 2025}} In 2022, Gregory Stanton, former president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, issued a report stating Canada is in the "denial stage" of the ten stages of genocide.{{Cite web |last=Stanton |first=Gregory |author-link=Gregory Stanton |date=December 6, 2023 |title=Canada |url=https://www.genocidewatch.com/country-pages/canada |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220705130005/https://www.genocidewatch.com/_files/ugd/1585f1_6b86a1ecf0924980bbbb4b272c5ebd83.pdf |archive-date=July 5, 2022 |access-date=December 25, 2023 |website=Genocide Watch}}

{{external media

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| float =right

| video1 =[https://globalnews.ca/video/10840737/push-to-criminalize-residential-school-denialism-in-canada-difference-between-free-speech-and-inciting-hate "Push to criminalize residential school denialism in Canada: ‘Difference between free speech and inciting hate’"] (2024) – Global News (5:35 min)

}}

On National Truth and Reconciliation Day in 2023, prime minister Justin Trudeau stating that denialism was on the rise after disputes regarding the conclusiveness of the evidence of Indian residential schools gravesite discoveries.{{Cite news |date=October 1, 2023 |title=Trudeau says 'denialism' rising as nation marks holiday for indigenous reconciliation |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trudeau-says-denialism-rising-nation-marks-holiday-indigenous-reconcilation-2023-09-30/ |url-status=live |access-date=October 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231001162549/https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trudeau-says-denialism-rising-nation-marks-holiday-indigenous-reconcilation-2023-09-30/ |archive-date=October 1, 2023}}{{cite news |first=Moira |last=Wyton |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/denialists-tried-to-access-unmarked-gravesite-tkemlups-report-1.6879980 |title=Residential school denialists tried to dig up suspected unmarked graves in Kamloops, B.C., report finds. |work=CBC News |date=June 16, 2023 |access-date=May 30, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250125084950/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/denialists-tried-to-access-unmarked-gravesite-tkemlups-report-1.6879980 |archive-date=January 25, 2025}}{{cite news |first1=Kisha |last1=Supernant |first2=Sean |last2=Carleton |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-residential-schools-unmarked-graves-denialism-1.6474429 |title=Fighting 'denialists' for the truth about unmarked graves and residential schooling: Opinion |work=CBC News |date=June 3, 2022 |access-date=May 30, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240530030402/https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-residential-schools-unmarked-graves-denialism-1.6474429 |archive-date=May 30, 2024}} Federal Justice Minister David Lametti said in 2023 that he was open to outlawing residential school denialism.

Kimberly Murray from the Office of the Independent Special Interlocutor, released a report in 2023 starting;{{blockquote |Some still deny that children suffered physical, sexual, psychological, cultural, and spiritual abuses, despite the TRC’s indisputable evidence to the contrary. Others try to deny and minimize the destructive impacts of the Indian Residential Schools. They believe Canada’s historical myth that the nation has treated Indigenous Peoples with benevolence and generosity is true.{{cite web |last=Depner |first=Wolf |title=Growing residential school denial 'the last step in genocide': report |website=The Golden Star |date=June 20, 2023 |url=https://thegoldenstar.net/news/growing-residential-school-denial-the-last-step-in-genocide-report/ |access-date=December 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241214020839/https://thegoldenstar.net/news/growing-residential-school-denial-the-last-step-in-genocide-report/ |archive-date=December 14, 2024}}}} The report prompted Leah Gazan, an NDP Member of Parliament, to introduced Bill C-413 in 2024 that would ban residential school denialism.{{cite web |title=NDP's Gazan urges Liberals to adopt her bill to ban residential school denialism « Canada's NDP |website=Canada's NDP |date=October 31, 2024 |url=https://www.ndp.ca/news/ndps-gazan-urges-liberals-adopt-her-bill-ban-residential-school-denialism |access-date=December 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241117040230/https://www.ndp.ca/news/ndps-gazan-urges-liberals-adopt-her-bill-ban-residential-school-denialism |archive-date=November 17, 2024}}{{cite web |title=An Act to amend the Criminal Code (promotion of hatred against Indigenous peoples) |website=Parliament of Canada |date=September 26, 2024 |url=https://www.parl.ca/documentviewer/en/44-1/bill/C-413/first-reading |access-date=December 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213132153/https://www.parl.ca/documentviewer/en/44-1/bill/C-413/first-reading |archive-date=December 13, 2024}} However, legal scholars have previously asserted that a bill of this nature probably would not pass a constitutional challenge under the Canadian Charter.{{cite web |last=Russ |first=Geoff |title=Legislation criminalizing 'residential school denialism' unlikely to survive constitutional challenge, legal scholars say |website=The Hub |date=December 7, 2023 |url=https://thehub.ca/2023/12/07/legislation-criminalizing-residential-school-denialism-unlikely-to-survive-constitutional-challenge-legal-scholars-say/ |access-date=December 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241229071845/https://thehub.ca/2023/12/07/legislation-criminalizing-residential-school-denialism-unlikely-to-survive-constitutional-challenge-legal-scholars-say/ |archive-date=December 29, 2024}}

{{portal|Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Canada}}

{{main|Outline of genocide studies}}

• Bloody Falls massacre
• Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Genocides in history
• Genocide of Indigenous Australians
• Historiography of Indigenous genocide
• List of Indian massacres in North America
• Long-term drinking water advisories (Canada)
• Native American genocide in the United States{{Clear}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last1=Adhikari |first1=Mohamed |author-link=Mohamed Adhikari |date=2023 |chapter="Now We Are Natives": The Genocide of the Beothuk People and the Politics of "Extinction" in Newfoundland |title=Genocide and Mass Violence in the Age of Extremes |editor1-first=Frank |editor1-last=Jacob |editor2-first=Martin |editor2-last=Göllnitz |publisher=De Gruyter |pages=115–136 |doi=10.1515/9783110781328 |isbn=978-3-11-078132-8 |issn=2626-6490}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Akhtar |first1=Zia |title=Canadian Genocide and Official Culpability |journal=International Criminal Justice Review |date=2010 |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=111–135 |doi=10.1163/157181209x12584562670938}}
• {{cite journal |last=Cormier |first=Paul Nicolas |title=British Colonialism and Indigenous Peoples: The Law of Resistance–Response–Change |journal=Peace Research |volume=49 |number=2 |date=2017 |pages=39–60 |jstor=44779906}}
• {{cite journal |last=Dhamoon |first=Rita Kaur |date=2016 |title=Re-presenting Genocide: The Canadian Museum of Human Rights and Settler Colonial Power |journal=The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics |volume=1 |number=1 |pages=5–30 |doi=10.1017/rep.2015.4}}
• {{cite news |last=Green |first=Sarah |date=August 23, 2023 |title=The 'silent genocide' haunting Canada's liberal dream |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/violence-against-indigenous-women-canada-justin-trudeau/ |work=The Daily Telegraph |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240713043234/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/violence-against-indigenous-women-canada-justin-trudeau/ |archive-date=July 13, 2024}}
• {{cite book |last=Harring |first=Sidney L. |date=2021 |chapter='Shooting a Black Duck': Genocidal Settler Violence against Indigenous Peoples and the Creation of Canada |title=Civilian-Driven Violence and the Genocide of Indigenous Peoples in Settler Societies |editor1-last=Adhikari |editor1-first=Mohamed |editor1-link=Mohamed Adhikari |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-003-01555-0 |pages=82–109}}
• {{cite book |last1=Lightfoot |first1=Kent G. |last2=Nelson |first2=Peter A. |last3=Grone |first3=Michael A. |last4=Apodaca |first4=Alec |date=2021 |chapter=Pathways to Persistence: Divergent Native engagements with sustained colonial permutations in North America |title=The Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interaction in the Americas |editor1-first=Lee M. |editor1-last=Panich |editor2-first=Sara L. |editor2-last=Gonzalez |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-27425-1 |pages=129–146}}
• {{cite book |last=Lux |first=Maureen K. |year=2016 |title=Separate Beds: A History of Indian Hospitals in Canada, 1920s-1980s |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-6312-1 |series=G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o9gQDAAAQBAJ}}
• {{cite journal |last1=MacDonald |first1=David B. |author-link=David Bruce MacDonald |title=Canada's history wars: indigenous genocide and public memory in the United States, Australia and Canada |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |date=October 2, 2015 |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=411–431 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2015.1096583}}
• {{cite journal |last1=MacDonald |first1=David B. |author1-link=David Bruce MacDonald |last2=Hudson |first2=Graham |date=2012 |title=The Genocide Question and Indian Residential Schools in Canada |journal=Canadian Journal of Political Science |volume=45 |number=2 |pages=427–449 |doi=10.1017/s000842391200039x}}
• {{cite book |last1=Moses |first1=A. Dirk |author1-link=A. Dirk Moses |chapter=Empire, Colony, Genocide: Keywords and the Philosophy of History |pages=3–54 |editor1-last=Moses |editor1-first=A. Dirk |editor1-link=A. Dirk Moses |title=Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and Subaltern Resistance in World History |publisher=Berghahn Books |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-84545-452-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RBgoNN4MG-YC |ref={{harvid|Moses|2008a}}}}
• {{cite journal |last=Rubinstein |first=W. D. |author-link=William Rubinstein |year=2004 |url=https://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5002110956 |title=Genocide and Historical Debate: William D. Rubinstein Ascribes the Bitterness of Historians' Arguments to the Lack of an Agreed Definition and to Political Agendas |journal=History Today |volume=54 |access-date=February 10, 2019 |archive-date=January 31, 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130131211914/http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5002110956 |url-status=live}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Thielen-Wilson |first1=Leslie |date=2014 |title=Troubling the Path to Decolonization: Indian Residential School Case Law, Genocide, and Settler Illegitimacy |journal=Canadian Journal of Law and Society |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=181–197 |doi=10.1017/cls.2014.4}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Woolford |first1=Andrew |title=Ontological Destruction: Genocide and Canadian Aboriginal Peoples |journal=Genocide Studies and Prevention |date=2009 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=81–97 |doi=10.3138/gsp.4.1.81}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Woolford |first1=Andrew |last2=Benvenuto |first2=Jeff |title=Canada and colonial genocide |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |date=October 2, 2015 |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=373–390 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2015.1096580 |issn=1462-3528 |doi-access=free}}

{{refend}}

{{See also|Bibliography of Canadian history#Indigenous}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Adema |first1=Seth |title=Not told by victims: genocide-as-story in Aboriginal prison writings in Canada, 1980–96 |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |date=2015 |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=453–471 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2015.1096581 |issn=1462-3528}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Barker |first1=Adam J. |title=The Contemporary Reality of Canadian Imperialism: Settler Colonialism and the Hybrid Colonial State |journal=American Indian Quarterly |date=2009 |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=325–351 |doi=10.1353/aiq.0.0054 |jstor=40388468 |s2cid=162692337 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40388468 |issn=0095-182X |url-access=subscription}}
• {{cite journal |last=Green |first=Robyn |date=December 2015 |title=The economics of reconciliation: tracing investment in Indigenous–settler relations |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |volume=17 |number=4 |pages=473–493 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2015.1096582}}
• {{cite journal |last1=June |first1=Wanda Nyx |last2=Woolford |first2=Andrew |date=2024 |title=Water People: Genocide, Children, and Nature in Canadian Residential Schools |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |volume= |number= |pages=1–21 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2024.2388340}}
• {{cite journal |last=Logan |first=Tricia |date=December 2015 |title=Settler colonialism in Canada and the Métis |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |volume=17 |number=4 |pages=473–493 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2015.1096589}}
• {{cite journal |last=Özsu |first=Umut |date=2020 |title=Genocide as Fact and Form |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |volume=22 |number=1 |pages=62–71 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2019.1682283}}
• {{cite book |last=Starblanket |first=Tamara |date=2018 |title=Suffer the Little Children: Genocide, Indigenous Nations and the Canadian State |publisher=Clarity Press |isbn=9780998694771}}
• {{cite journal |last=Wakeham |first=Pauline |date=2022 |title=The Slow Violence of Settler Colonialism: Genocide, Attrition, and the Long Emergency of Invasion |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |volume=24 |number=3 |pages=337–356 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2021.1885571}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Wildcat |first1=Matthew |title=Fearing social and cultural death: genocide and elimination in settler colonial Canada—an Indigenous perspective |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |date=2015 |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=391–409 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2015.1096579 |issn=1462-3528}}

{{refend}}

• [https://www.indigenouswatchdog.org/2021/08/25/did-canada-commit-genocide-against-indigenous-people-you-decide/ Did Canada commit genocide against Indigenous people? You decide] - Indigenous Watchdog
• [https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/how-canada-committed-genocide-against-indigenous-peoples-explained-by-the-lawyer-central-to-the-determination How Canada committed genocide against Indigenous Peoples, explained by the lawyer central to the determination] - The National
• [https://cha-shc.ca/advocacy/media-coverage-reaction-to-the-canadian-historical-associations-canada-day-statement-recognizing-the-genocide-of-indigenous-peoples-in-canada/ Media Coverage/Reaction to the Canadian Historical Association’s Canada Day Statement Recognizing the Genocide of Indigenous Peoples in Canada] -Canadian Historical Association

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