TRC Calls to Action: #6

Legacy
Education

6. We call upon the Government of Canada to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada.

The first Call under the Education subheader relates to corporal punishment; Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada - colloquially known as "the spanking law" - states: "Every schoolteacher, parent or person standing in place of a parent is justified in using force by way of correction toward a pupil or child, as the case may be, who is under his care, if the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances."

There have been several attempts to repeal this law, the most recent having been undertaken by the Trudeau government in 2015, in response to this Call to Action. As yet, Section 43 has not been successfully repealed, for various reasons. Have a read through this Library of Parliament page for an overview of this issue.

Rather than delve too deeply into my own thoughts about corporal punishment, instead I'll speak to my understanding of how this issue relates to reconciliation. As we know, children in residential schools were subjected to every form of abuse imaginable, including corporal punishment; many residential school survivors who became parents, in turn, abused their children... and so on and so forth. Violence begets violence; trauma begets trauma. Psychology knows this. In calling to repeal this law, the Commission points to this history of violence against Indigenous children and acknowledges that, moving forward, we should do everything we can do avoid repeating it, including repealing a law that essentially allows it to happen.

This law pertains to all children, of course. But I'd be interested to see modern statistics regarding corporal punishment used against Aboriginal vs. non-Aboriginal students. I don't imagine accurate statistics will be very easy to find, because who is going to openly and honestly report on such a thing in their own school or organization? But I'm going to look into it.

On a broader sociological scale, I see this Call as referencing the dehumanization of Indigenous people in general - it is easier to commit violence against someone we see as less than ourselves. You could then make a connection between this Call and the very real and prevalent issue of violence against Indigenous women; if Indigenous lives (and specifically female Indigenous lives) are devalued, and if violence against them is perhaps not overtly condoned, but also not acutely condemned, it will continue to occur.