I'm speaking of eyeball's knee-jerk reaction towards completely disavowing himself of Canada due to these kinds of revelations.
I've been disavowing myself of what Canada is for about 25 years now. That was about the time the reality of indigenous land claims started hitting close to home. You talk about proactively getting over losing something or fighting for something, well, my answer to losing my boat, my livelihood and almost my home, my family and my life was to dig deeper into why land claims were so necessary as to threaten all these. Understanding why came soon enough and I learned where my anger and determination to effect a change should really be directed.
My single biggest contribution was to help capture a fisherman's 'coalition' that formed to oppose the DFO's AFS, the Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy. At the time the AFS felt like DFO's final nail in the coffin my fishery was being buried in. I didn't know it at the time but being the main spokesperson and organizer for that group put me in a position where I was able to let fall off a cliff thru neglect. I must have known instinctively I was on the wrong side of history and I'm just bloody thankful I didn't bring even more divisiveness into my community thru unfocussed anger.
It's pretty easy for the vast majority of Canadians to let this drag on because they've never felt the effects of letting it.
I live just up the road from a native village, we don't call it the reserve anymore. I'll never forget the time almost 45 years ago this fellow my age came walking up the road one day hollering..."Its all mine...this is all mine and they're giving it all back"! He repeated this a few times and as he passed my place I asked him what was up. He said "You didn't get the letter? Well they're giving it all back" What I asked..."Everything"! he said and wandered off. It was some 20 years before the significance of what he was saying became apparent. He was a hereditary chief, a residential school survivor I wound up befriending and fishing and logging with on occasion.
That old saying if I'd known then what I know now often comes to mind - it always makes me wonder what's happening now that I should be paying attention to. That's a hard learned lesson I teach my grandkids.