crying in zoom school III

professor publishes a letter / on "canada day"

professor publishes a letter
on “canada day”
genocide never happened here
not on this land

no such grounds for such a claim

professor will be offended
if we accuse him
of what he’s not committed

differing interpretations are to be expected


God Forbid history be
wrongfully convicted

we write to express our grave disappointment in the attacks to the profession of
historians


it was only an
assassination
assimilation

attempt

in insisting that there is only one valid interpretation of history, you have
fundamentally broken the norms and expectations of professional scholarship


still professor insists
we dig up graves
we search for sisters
we dust off records
we drag lakes
we keep up the Act

we demand the council retract its statement and commit itself to the real mission of
upholding the values of open scholarly debate


who knew the white man
got so red in the face

About the author

Annie MacKillican is a writer and policy researcher based in Tkaronto and a member of the Mattawa-North Bay Algonquin First Nation. Annie’s writing is forthcoming in Grain and has been published in The Salterrae, and some of Annie’s public scholarship has been published in The Journal of Multidisciplinary Research at Trent and with Climate Justice Toronto. When not writing, Annie can be found spending time with family and friends, reading, or learning how to figure skate.