I'm currently studying for my Canadian citizenship test (don't even get me started), but I think Canadians really need to know the kinds of rhetoric shared with newcomers. The section on residential schools is a paragraph long and describes them as "schools to educate".

I'm only 10pgs into the study guide and it's wild to me that this document meant to educate newcomers is using the words "Aboriginal" and "Indian" to describe Indigenous folks. There is maybe half a page on Indigenous history and info the rest is settler history.

Also, in 68pages, there's no mention of newcomers relationship to treaties and the land their own, which is on of the TRC's call to action (93 I believe). We have 2 pages on "Canadian Symbols" but not a sentence on how to learn who's nation you're on or its original caretakers.

This isn't me just nit picking; I have genuine concerns about including this test on the path to a safe and secure immigration status. But specifically, when we talk about structural within government, here's a good place to start:

Newcomers spend so much time+money going through the immigration process & this is the only official touch point to learn about their new homes. Making weak land acknowledgements feels weird when the feds have an opportunity to have important conversations with newcomers.

And this isn't just bringing a new generation of voters with an embedded respect for reconciliation and change. It's an opportunity to include pages on climate change, on POC achievements, and on the conflicts that settlers, immigrants and Indigenous folks are grappling with.

Let me end by saying, if you're going to force newcomers through the added level of stress of taking a pointless test, you may as well bring them into the fold with the knowledge and history to be good neighbours and not inflict more harm and violence to Indigenous Peoples.

For anyone interested in going through the study guide, linked here! Now let me go back to rage studying. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/ircc/migration/ircc/english/pdf/pub/discover.pdf

Ok...one last thing, consider your positionally in this conversation. I'm often scared this threads like this will be the used to take away my status here in Canada. Immigrants need white, nationalized settlers to have conversations about immigration and push for change.

I'm reflecting on what all you folks have mentioned on this thread. In 2013, when I had been in here about 2 years, and citizenship and citizenship tests were so far off (and impossible), I wrote this, and so much of it is still relevant many years later: https://medium.com/@SharonN/guest-in-a-stolen-house-on-immigration-colonialism-and-canada-84573b4cac29