The headline above is a line from Canada’s national anthem, unfortunately adjusted to circumstances.
The impetus for such an outrageous(?) modification comes from a book review in nature. The review introduces the book this way:
“A history of TB infections in homes in India to illuminate the racism that denies treatment to millions around the world.”
Well now, where does smug, ‘holier than thou, end-of-the-Black-underground-railway, first-world, G7-nation Canada, fit into this narrative on racism?
Why ask? Because, thanks to poverty, and most particularly poor housing, tuberculosis is endemic in Canada’s arctic.
Not at all to draw attention away from both nature‘s review as well as Vidya Krishnan’s book The Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History, but we’re intrigued by how Canada responds to the ugly colonial nature of its ‘shaping history.’
We know that Canadians across the nation regularly hear . . . “gosh darn,” (snap of the government fingers) . . . “we just happened to miss our housing targets again for the 10th . . .50th . . . 150th? . . . year.”
Even Canada’s activists lean towards fuming about ‘government inaction.’ This soft, barely-inoffensive, bureaucratic/political term so nicely draws a veil across much uglier truths we all need to be sharing about unvarnished conditions in the north.
How does ‘racist’ fit on your shoulders, Canada, so comfortable gazing south towards our neighbours with a prissy shake of the head at their sorry racism problems?
Should we visit your hollow Human Rights Museum on our next trip through Winnipeg, or skip it in solidarity with our Innuit and First Nation TB sufferers1? Or those who are evictees and homeless2?
Read more in nature: Rise of drug-resistant tuberculosis is hidden in plain sight
Footnotes
- This post is three years old. Has much happened since it’s been published? Nope. Updated: A Housing Way To Fight Aboriginal Tuberculosis
- This is a current story from the CBC: Five years of couch surfing: One N.W.T. woman’s struggle to find a home
