The limits of reconciliation and collective apology: Patriarchy, rhetoric and the Canadian Indian residential schools controversy

• In Event: Cultural Rhetoric, Political Consequences

Abstract

This essay argues Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s apology for the Indian residential schools reinforces the patriarchal logic of the government by deploying the ‘student’ metaphor to construct the Natives as helpless. Given the recent political and legal advancements of the Canadian Natives, Harper’s rhetorical exigence is not purely the damaged relationship between Canadian and Native communities, as others have argued, but the threat their emancipation poses to the Canadian government’s reputation and image.

Author

• Lee Pierce, University of Georgia