Thread 05 / 07 · Stories

War and reconciliation.

To reconcile is not to forget. It is to refuse to let the wound have the last word.

The thread

Naming, apologizing, repairing: how societies rebuild an “us” after violence.

17 articles · each in four movements: a scene, a documented case, a voice, a question

All articles · page 1 of 2

Indigenous

Jordan first: when the child comes before the paperwork

Jordan River Anderson died in 2005 while two governments argued over who would pay for his care; his name became a simple principle: the child first.

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reconciliation

Forgiving without forgetting

Forgiveness erases neither the wrong nor the memory. Where it has taken root, the truth first had to be told.

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justice

More than our worst moment

A memorial in Alabama names the victims of lynching. Telling the truth without reducing anyone to their worst act: a path toward shared humanity.

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history

The garden with two soils

Racism cannot be reduced to a hateful act. A gardener's fable helps us see its three levels, and where to start repairing.

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history

Arrested at a wedding, on Dante Street

In 1940, Italian Canadians were interned without charge. In 2021, the prime minister offered an official apology in the House of Commons, beginning with a Montreal story.

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history

Northern Ireland: sharing power to share the future

After thirty years of violence, the 1998 Good Friday Agreement bet that yesterday's enemies could govern together.

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Indigenous

An apology that is not the end

At Maskwacis, in July 2022, Pope Francis asked Indigenous Peoples for forgiveness. Survivors remind us it is only a beginning.

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history

Repairing, for their children and for ours

In 1988, Canada recognized the injustice done to Japanese Canadians during the war and chose to repair, not just to regret.

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Indigenous

Ninety-four gestures to stitch a country back together

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada turned thousands of testimonies into 94 calls to action addressed to everyone.

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history

The battalion no one wanted to see

More than 600 Black volunteers served Canada in 1917-1918, kept away from the front. In 2022, the country finally apologized to them.

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Quebec

The day Quebec apologized

After the Viens Commission, the Premier of Quebec apologized to First Nations and Inuit in 2019. The real work was just beginning.

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Indigenous

An orange shirt to say every child matters

On September 30, a simple orange shirt recalls the history of residential schools and a collective promise: every child matters.

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