COVER N. 446 - CANADA

Postmark: 090138 Post Office/Bureau de Poste Brampton, ON L6W3M0 24.04.2024

Posted on the 24th April; received on the 2nd may 2024

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The last of Canadian mementos for which I have to thank Ravindra for -  Bohomȧ  sthoothi, Ravindra! - is a cover graced with the full set of stamps issued by Canada Post highlighting a theme that is borne out of the acknowledgment that history is not always a romantic happy ending tale, and that time, knowledge, development, democracy and most of all education will one day raise the  corner of the carpet under which many not so nice episodes had been swept and kept.

History, or better, the way it is conveyed to present and future generations, is in fact, in general terms, the result, on one hand, of convulsions, social movements, conflict, domination and subjugation and, on the other, of the  cultural perception the  dominant groups in society have of it, something that is also open to evolution and  reassessment, as civic conscience evolves too.

It is this cultural perception of the status quo that made it possible for societies to accept and even promote things which we now classify as unjustifiable abuses such as slavery, forced displacement, occupation ...(I know, I know, there's always the exception that validates the rule).

Times, notwithstanding, do change, as Dylan so aptly once pointed out, and even if "the looser now will (not always) be later to win" general civic consciousness at some point in time is impacted by the discomfort of knowledge and shame and that's usually the turning point, the milestone in progress towards a more just and equitable society.

Truth and Reconciliation, so important a theme that it was given a national day in Canada, and yet only in 2021....

Let me just copy a paragraph from the issue notes from this set of stamps, which explains the reason why Truth and Reconciliation day was established in 2021:

"Between the 1830s and the 1990s, more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children across Canada were taken from their families and sent to federally created Indian residential schools. Stripped of their languages, cultures and spiritual traditions and forced to assimilate into white society, the children endured unsafe conditions, disease, and physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Thousands of them never made it home." (Source: Canada Post)

The Truth and Reconciliation celeberatory set on the cover comprising four "P"ermanent self-adhesive stamps was issued on 29SEO2022.

The stamps feature artwork inspired on this theme, by contemporary Canadian artists,  three of them being members of the ethnic groups (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) victims of the forced acculturation which Truth and Reconciliation day acknowledges.