What's today and tomorrow?

There will hopefully be a day when we hit the Publish button on this weekly newsletter and it contains almost exclusively news and insight into sports betting, sports business and sports media.

Today’s not that day.

Seven days ago, the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation said that preliminary findings from a survey of the grounds at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia had uncovered the remains of 215 children buried at the site. The horrifying news sparked lowering of flags to half-mast for 215 hours, the placing of children’s shoes at makeshift memorials across the country, and other vigils. The Toronto Raptors were among the first members of the Canadian sports community to respond to the news.

‍https://twitter.com/Raptors/status/1399120232111906816

We’re not here to debate the timing of social media posts or other gestures to express horror and sorrow at the latest finding of girls and boys dying while they attended residential schools in this country. We’re trying to understand what we can do beyond a tweet, an Instagram or Facebook post to spark change. So, we reached out to a couple of members of the Indigenous community: Tracy Primeau, a member of Nipissing First Nation who’s working her final shift today as a manager at Bruce Power to complete a highly distinguished 30-year career in Ontario’s nuclear power industry; and Matthew Chegahno, a member of Ojibway First Nation who’s at the start of his professional career as a senior Indigenous engagement analyst at Enbridge.

From Primeau:

‍The 215 (bodies) were discovered Thursday but it took until Monday in many places to lower flags. When those young hockey players died (in Humboldt), (the tributes) happened immediately. They’re both tragedies but one was an accident and one was murder.

‍If you’re Indigenous, you know someone who went to a residential school. We all have relatives who have stories. And while we don’t have residential schools any more, we have a high number of Indigenous children in foster care and we’ve seen the biases from social agencies towards Indigenous parents. The Truth and Reconciliation Report had 94 calls to action. It’s now six years old and they’ve completed less than 10 (of those calls). What we need you to do is tell your MP that they need to make these calls to action a focus. 

‍Major sports, hockey in particular, have an opportunity to give back. Sponsor the Little NHL, have some players come to Indigenous communities and not just Indigenous players. I always appreciate Ron MacLean - he gets it. The kids love Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. In some northern communities kids start sniffing glue at seven. If they can connect with a hero. . . . ‘I’m important because you came here to do a camp, drop off some equipment, play some road hockey’. That kind of impact is so big.

From Chegahno: 

I’m appreciative that governments and industry have made the (social media) posts and lowered their flags, but that’s the minimum and what you would have expected. Lowering flags, cultural awareness training or setting a target for diverse hirings, that’s low-hanging fruit and everyone is doing that. Everyone wants to have the publicity but what are we going to do today and tomorrow? Do we need to find another mass grave to serve as an impetus?

It’s good to be seen and heard but that’s not what’s going to heal my community. Having tough conversations, bringing in diverse voices. Now’s the time for governments and industry to advance reconciliation within their organizations, and it really starts at the top. You need to get champions into positions of authority.”

The Raptors (originally) put out a tweet about standing in support of bodies that were found at a school for Indigenous children in Kamloops. The sentiment was there, but the language really missed the mark. A residential school has a very different meaning. The Raptors deleted the tweet, changed the language and used the term ‘residential school’. They recognized their mistake, they owned it, and they corrected it. That’s the spirit of reconciliation.