In the United States, they refer to their national parks as “America’s Best Idea.”

Books and documentaries have been dedicated to the notion that in 250 years of nationhood their greatest creation has been national parks, starting with the world’s first, Yellowstone, in 1872.

Not here in Canada. Parks Canada, the government agency charged with preserving, protecting and operating this country’s 37 national parks now calls them a “colonial injustice.”

A two-year-old report, hidden from the public until June of this year, says “Parks Canada now acknowledges this harmful historical legacy and its impact on Indigenous language, culture, laws and governance systems.”

What exactly do these woke bureaucrats propose we do? Shut down the parks, remove the wildlife protections, declare the campgrounds off-limits, pull down the historic hotels, cordon off the hiking trails, shutter the museums and interpretive centres and turn the entire 350,000 square kilometres over to First Nations?

Or do we follow B.C.’s lead with the popular Joffre Lakes Provincial Park and declare it closed to non-Indigenous visitors for up to two months a year while First Nations hunt, fish and use the park for spiritual ceremonies?

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When is this endless institutional guilt trip going to end?

We’re not now talking about reconciliation with First Nations, but rather capitulation by “European” culture. This is the willing subversion of more than 300 years of history to a narrative that may or may not be entirely accurate, but is perpetuated by non-Indigenous “progressives” to demonstrate how tolerant they are.

Statues of prominent Canadian historical figures have been pulled down. At least six of first prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald have been toppled. One of Queen Victoria on the legislative grounds in Winnipeg was felled, then beheaded.

Ryerson University in downtown Toronto, has been renamed Toronto Metropolitan University and its sports teams renamed “the Bold” from the Rams, all because the university’s namesake, Edgerton Ryerson, came to be seen as an architect of the residential school system.

While Ryerson was in favour of residential schools, he saw them mostly as trades training colleges to help Indigenous young people learn marketable skills. But never let an important nuance get in the way of a good outrage.

There was a worldwide hysteria about the Kamloops residential school and mass graves that never existed. (The latest research-based theory is that what were touted as the unmarked graves of 215 Indigenous children were really outflow pipes for a septic field.)

Conveniently, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, on whose land the school is, has never bothered to exhume the field to see what really lies beneath.

Streets and neighbourhoods across the country have been stripped of their non-Indigenous names in favour of Indigenous ones. For instance, Edmonton’s Oliver neighbourhood has been renamed Wîhkwêntôwin (Cree for a “circle of friends”) because city founder Frank Oliver looks like a racist to 21st Century eyes.

Vancouver’s Siwash Rock, a famous landmark in Stanley Park, has been renamed Slhx̱i7lsh rock, which is unpronounceable to most residents, Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

This past spring, a Senate committee proposed making “residential school denialism” punishable under the Criminal Code.

This rush to prostrate Canadian culture to Indigenous values has had profound impacts in other ways: A Richmond, B.C. neighbourhood saw private property nullified so a First Nation that had not used the land in 180 years could be given title.

And an Alberta referendum was upended before it could even be held because a federal judge found some new Charter right that required First Nations to give their approval in advance,

We need to make First Nations full partners in Canadian society and the economy. Acknowledge and learn from their historical contributions, including injustices they suffered, rather than prostrating ourselves out of guilt and giving them first say over everything the rest of us do.

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