Most Canadians do not have a guilty conscience about indigenous people because no one is responsible for the actions of their personal or racial ancestors. Each of us starts with the hand we are dealt, some better some worse. Sure, the political class mouths platitudes about the historic suffering of indigenous people, but I’m sure you know that politicians don’t really care about anything but themselves. Similarly, the chattering classes and the professional classes look and sound stricken by the plight of some indigenous people, but they are paid to care. There are a few saints out there, but vast majority of people will not willingly give up any substantial amount of their personal wealth to any poor person, whether indigenous or otherwise.

Unless someone swung an actual tire iron at your actual personal kneecaps, most people don’t really care for the colorful analogies. And if you’ve been hearing the same “condescending” logic all your life, maybe there is a lesson there. That lesson isn’t that you are wrong, but rather that people have limited fucks to give and don’t want to be burdened with other people’s problems. Everybody wants to claim victim status these days, even conservatives and billionaires like Trump, so I think it is a spent strategy.