I had to pick up my 9yr old for a doctors appointment today. She broke down in tears in the car. Why? Because she was learning about residential schools today. She is Indigenous & knows had these schools not been abolished she may have been taken from us against our will. (1/12)
I made Canada my adopted home just under 10 years ago. What on the surface seems like a tolerant, multicultural society has some pretty messed up views on a) Indigenous people and b) immigration. The irony of this paradox is not wasted on me. (2/12)
Last night I sat back and watched Canadians tweet their disdain for the awful state of affairs over the border. I joined in, mainly out of shock at the dumpster fire of a debate, and my tweets got some modest attention. (3/12)
Also last night I tweeted how it wasn’t lost on me that we were here thinking our poop doesn’t stink when there is deep rooted anti-indigenous racism in our population. Evidence - the horrific last minutes of Joyce Echaquan’s life. This tweet received less attention (4/12)
I’ve always lived in Calgary in Canada. One of my earliest memories at work here was a lunchtime discussion about Stoney Trail and the deal to buy land from Tsuutʼina Nation. “They’re just trying to screw us over for every penny they can”. (5/12)
Or how about the time where someone connected to our friend group was complaining about 36th St NE being renamed Métis Trail. “We’ve given them a lot, what more do they want?” My wife is Métis. Our friends know. We were all too horrified to speak. (6/12)
I’m conscious I’m tweeting from a place of privilege. As a white British born man who has emigrated to Canada. But one who sees palpably the damage my ancestors have done. This damage done by ancestors is true for many other fellow Canadians. (7/12)
In the last few days I’ve seen calls for residential schools to reopen from right leaning knuckle-draggers from coast to coast. Whenever I tweet anything about anti-Indigenous racism, the right wing nut jobs weigh in. It’s exhausting - and I’m not the target. (8/12)
I’ve has to restrict replies to this thread to those who I follow. Today I was told to shut up for daring to suggest that we Canadians are not much better than our southerly neighbors. I posted no hashtag, I don’t follow this person, although we have a few mutual followers (9/12)
I try to get out of the echo chamber as much as possible. However, when it comes to racism and telling me to shut up my views about how openly anti-Indigenous wide swathes of our society are, I’m not tolerant of alternative perspectives. (10/12)
When it comes to racism, there is only one side you can legitimately be on. If you’re not, you’ll always be on the wrong side of history. And if you wish to disagree, I have a 9 year old who wants to tell you what your views do to her. (11/12)
If you find my views on this matter are not compatible with your own, you might want to think about unfollowing me. I won’t be offended. I’ll happily debate anything with you but I draw the line on racism. Thanks for listening (12/12)
You can follow @chrisroachYYC.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: