Canada's former justice minister, a lawyer and a First Nations leader, Jody Wilson-Raybould, says that one of the most common questions she's asked is: "what can I do to advance reconciliation?"
Recognizing a gap in information available to make genuine and meaningful progress toward supporting the Indigenous communitiesin Canada, her new book, 'True Reconciliation: How to be a force for change,' aims to address unanswered questions and offer her learnings about how to move past token gestures.
"Reconciliation is a word that is thrown around a lot these days. And many people, governments in particular, like to label everything as an act of reconciliation," Wilson-Raybould told CTV's Your Morning on Monday.
"But there are different levels of activity I call performative or symbolic acts of reconciliation that don't necessarily move the agenda forward or advance rights."
She said examples of symbolic acts include wearing orange shirts on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and lowering flags. While important to raise awareness, she said these moves don't "move the agenda forward or advance rights."
Her book breaks down the steps to reconciliation in three stages--learn, understand and act--which offer "operable" practices for a person's day-to-day life.
Wilson-Raybould saidshe hopes her book will help break down barriers between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and move away from the injustices of the past, hoping the reconciliation becomes an "agent of change."
Wilson-Raybould was the first Indigenous justice minister under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government but was ousted from the party in the fallout of the SNC-Lavalin affair- sparked by a media report that she had faced inappropriate pressure from top Liberals over the prosecution of the company.
Last summer, she announced she would not seek re-election as an Independent MP in Vancouver, saying Parliament had become 鈥渢oxic and ineffective鈥� and she was leaving because of a 鈥渄isgraceful鈥� emphasis on partisan politics over real action.
"The only way (forward) is by having open conversations recognizing that (we) have very different life experiences and that there are commonalities 鈥� between us as with all human beings," she said.
"We all need to be able to access inbetweeners to break down the silos and create a better space and shared story of Canada."
With files from The Canadian Press
