(Canada, 163 min.)
Written and directed by Alanis Obomsawin
Programme: Masters (World Premiere)
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| Courtesy of TIFF |
Alanis Obomsawin puts Canada on trial in her vital doc We Can't Make the Same Mistake Twice.
This ambitious film-- nine years in the making--is one of the gutsiest works in
Obomsawin’s brave career. The doc chronicles a landmark case in which social
workers advocate that Indigenous children on reserves deserve the same rights
and medical care that young Canadians receive around the country. The
legal arguments that Obomsawin presents are truly disconcerting, particularly
once a shrewd bit of editing brings the darkest chapter of Canada's past into
the open for an overdue conversation.
That discussion, of course, is Canada's history of Residential Schools in which the Canadian government sponsored Catholic schools to 'educate' Indigenous children and transform them, as one witness of the film so eloquently puts it, from a 'prairie male partridge' into a 'normal' (re: westernised) citizen. We Can't Make the Same Mistake Twice carries the underlying message that gross human rights violations persist because the Canadian government has historically neglected to see Indigenous persons as real Canadians and fails to do so even today. The case faces numerous setbacks, too, as delays and stalling from the Crown halt the case temporarily, like a plastic fork wedged underneath a faulty ceiling to impede its inevitable collapse if only for a few face-saving seconds.
The hero of the film is Cindy Blackstock, a courageous
social worker devoted to serving and protecting Canada's children. Blackstock
is an admirable figure and her articulate arguments position the film within
rational frameworks that Canada needs to do the right thing and protect its
children. Her perseverance with the case is inspiring as she finds herself
under surveillance by the government and dogged by setbacks in the proceedings.
Obomsawin’s portrait ensures that Blackstock never overwhelms the case, but the
subject would agree that the rights of the children are of primary importance.
Obomsawin faces the unenviable task of sifting through nine
years of testimony, but with some commendable help from editor Alison Burns,
she brings to life a film that is both compelling and illuminating. Where one
even begins to decide which voices remain in the picture when so few are
privileged to speak on this matter is a daunting task, and We Can’t Make the Same Mistake Twice honours its subjects by
affording them many opportunities to be a part of the conversation. The film is
surprisingly dynamic for a film comprised mostly of interviews and witness
testimony.
The courts eventually hear the testimony of activist groups
and members of the Indigenous community. They discuss inadequacies in health
care and debate situations that meet the criteria for action under “Jordan’s Principle,”
an act passed unanimously in the House of Commons that sets out standards for
medical care for children on reserves. The side of the petitioners has strong
merit, while witnesses from the Canadian government offer persuasive evidence
of bureaucratic complacency and laziness. The Crown’s arguments hold little
sway and ultimately seek out legal loopholes out of desperation. Prepare to
shake your heads at our tax dollars put to waste.
Obomsawin also gives time to witnesses who don’t get their
moment in court. Interviews with residents of Indigenous reserves show a child
with special needs and the devoted mother who cares for him. She obviously
doesn’t receive the same benefits that a family in, say, Toronto would garner.
Obomsawin interjects infrequently with her observant and soft-spoken voiceover.
One doesn’t even need to narrate the obvious: why does Canada put so much
effort into restricting care for its future? The cost of fighting adequate care
for children on reserves surely amounts to higher costs in legal fees, overtime,
and settlements.
While We Can’t Make
the Same Mistake Twice is exhausting in its measured procedure, Obomsawin gradually
gets to the heart of the case and the issue that the Crown is avoiding with its
setbacks and delays. When the case raises the question of Residential Schools
and evokes the history of Canada’s neglect for Indigenous children, and overall
ignorance to their rights, the film puts into the open history and evidence
that Canadians rarely acknowledge. Stories of physical, emotional, sexual, and
psychological abuse arise in emotional and cathartic testimony from survivors.
It’s in this act of the case that Obomsawin shows the work
of a master. We Can’t Make the Same
Mistake Twice cuts between the testimony of one survivor and one scholar,
who illustrate two essential and complementary aspects of Canada’s history with
Residential Schools. These interviews play off one another as a dialogue as
Obomsawin opens a conversation and juxtaposes the present case with history.
The film argues that the cultural genocide of the Residential Schools haunts
the neglect of Indigenous children as kids die while the government fails them.
The film is especially provocative thanks to Obomsawin’s
commitment to the story as she sticks with Blackstock and the case throughout
its journey. The longevity of the case runs throughout much of the reign of the
Harper government and We Can’t Make the Same
Mistake Twice captures Canada’s backslide during this chapter. Obomsawin
smartly introduces one of Harper’s legacies, his official apology for the
Residential Schools, as images of his speech appear intercut between witness testimonies
from the present case. How any government, let along any human being, can apologise
for gross human rights violations while enacting them in another form is infuriating.
While witnesses acknowledge the significance of the apology and its cathartic
power, Obomsawin cleverly holds Canada accountable to its history of
forgetting.
The final images of the film are ultimately therapeutic and
cleansing—a signal that progress might finally be coming. While Obomsawin’s
best work remains Kanehsatake: 270 Years
of Resistance, one suspects that We
Can’t Make the Same Mistake Twice will be her legacy. This film belongs in
every Canadian classroom.
We Can’t Make the Same
Mistake Twice screens:
-Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 5:45 PM at Cineplex Scotiabank
-Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 8:15 PM at TIFF Bell Lightbox
TIFF runs Sept. 8-18.
Please visit www.tiff.net
for more information.
