Thinking Out Loud Together: Judge Marion Buller delivers special lecture at UTM
The lecture discussed the importance of having meaningful conversations on difficult subjects and the existing impacts of colonialism.
Last week, on Monday, January 20, retired Judge Marion Buller delivered a special lecture at UTM. The lecture, titled, “Thinking Out Loud Together,” focused on her findings and experience as Chief Commissioner of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) and the importance of having difficult conversations.
The lecture was opened by U of T Vice-President and UTM Principal Alexandra Gillespie, while the Honourable Judge Buller was introduced by Randy Boyagoda, U of T’s first Provostial Adviser on Civil Discourse.
During her lecture, Buller reflected on the discussions she had as Commissioner of the Inquiry, and how hearing the stories of Indigenous people who have experienced loss within their families and communities was very difficult for her. She also highlighted the power that meaningful discourse can have in overcoming difficult situations and revealing truths.
The National Inquiry into MMIWG was a government-funded investigation into the systemic causes of violence against Indigenous women and girls, who are more likely to go missing or be murdered than non-Indigenous women and girls. More than 2,380 people, including victims of violence and their family members, participated in the inquiry, sharing their stories with Buller and her team.
Buller was appointed as the Inquiry’s chief commissioner in 2016, and before that, worked as a civil and criminal lawyer, in addition to being the first woman First Nations judge in British Columbia in 1994. Since 2022, she has served as the chancellor of the University of Victoria.
“The worst thing you could do is stop talking”, Buller said during the lecture. She encouraged the audience to bring discussions of truth and reconciliation, or as Buller likes to call it, “reconstruction,” into our communities, households, and workplaces. Such an approach, involving speaking to one another and asking questions, is especially important for disseminating truth during discussions regarding topics that many may be misinformed about, such as MMIWG.
As chief commissioner, Buller experienced first-hand the power that discussion has in revealing truth. She reflected on her own education as a Canadian and all the history and colonial violations of Indigenous peoples which she was unaware of. “I ended up angry”, she revealed. “this was not the Canada that I was taught.”
Buller discussed the impact that colonialism still has on Canadian Indigenous communities. She mentioned that the closing of residential schools did not end the abuse of Indigenous children and that the conditions in residential schools still exist in 21st-century forms. “Forced relocation is not in the past…the conditions of settlements and reserves are so dire.”
Buller also touched upon how colonialism displaced traditional roles of power within First Nations communities, especially concerning Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirited people.
“Colonialism brought the idea of Indigenous people as [being] immoral and inhuman,” Buller remarked. “These beliefs are at the root of Canadian institutions.” To reconstruct our communities, Buller encourages open discussions of colonialism and its effects on Indigenous communities.
By educating ourselves, questioning our sources of information, respecting other’s voices, and allowing room for difficult discussions, we too can be agents of change within our communities.
