Canada's attempted genocide cannot be erased

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has denounced the spree of arson and vandalism targeting churches as "unacceptable".

Reportedly, dozens of churches have been burned, vandalized or defaced in recent weeks since the grim discovery of more than 1,100 unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools for Indigenous children.

"It is unacceptable and wrong that acts of vandalism and arson are being seen across the country, including against Catholic churches," Trudeau said on Friday, after at least 10 churches in Calgary of Alberta were defaced with red spray-paint on Thursday, Canada Day, and some were marked with the words "we were children" and "our lives matter".

Although Trudeau has called for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians, saying it will take more than just a few years to fix it all, that has proved far from enough to appease the anger of Indigenous people, particularly toward the Catholic church, which was the main operator of more than half the boarding schools opened to "assimilate" at least 150,000 Indigenous children of Indian, Inuit and Metis ethnic groups from the 1840s to the 1990s.

The church has never apologized for what many see as the organized and systemic cultural and physical genocide. It is believed that the remains of Indigenous children that have been discovered in three batches in the country since last month represent only the tip of an iceberg.

Ironically, this dark side of the country's history was brought under the spotlight while the Trudeau administration was leading some of its allies to hype up the so-called human rights issues in Xinjiang, irrespective of the fact that by doing so it was merely being a puppet in the hands of Washington's China containment strategy.

Canada's reflection on its history of persecuting the Indigenous inhabitants of the country remains shallow.

And moreover, it is also shameful that Trudeau has tried to pass the buck to the Pope. He said on June 25 that he has urged Pope Francis to come to Canada to apologize for the Catholic Church's role in running residential schools for Indigenous children.

Facing such a mess, Trudeau's attempts to provide a timetable to reach reconciliations between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians in five to six years are doomed to failure.