Hold Carleton Accoutable for Upholding Indigenous Rights

Hold Carleton Accoutable for Upholding Indigenous Rights
If we want to dismantle racism we have to look at the structures and institutions that uphold it. We have to deconstruct them since racism is so deeply entrenched in our institutions. Carleton University named Robertson Hall after Gordon Robertson. This man played a key role in the “High Arctic Relocation” campaign. Inuit families were forced to move up north in the cold with little housing and food, all in efforts to establish “Canadian sovereignty” up north. The families were left without sufficient supplies of food and caribou skins and other materials for making appropriate clothing and tents. As they had been moved about 2,000 km (1,200 mi) to a very different ecosystem, they were unfamiliar with the wildlife and had to adjust to months of 24-hour darkness during the winter, and 24-hour sunlight during the summer. They were told that they would be returned home after two years if they wished, but these promises were not honoured by the government. This was a policy created to fix the “Eskimo problem” and establish control of land while gaining more power at the expense of Inuit families. So tell me why Carleton named a building after this man and continues to praise him? Carleton needs to change the name of their building to ensure they are not upholding the legacy of white supremacy.