Apology and Forgiveness

Abstract

Canada has a history of unjust injury inflicted on innocents by institutions, by collectives, and by individuals in personal relationships. There is widespread consensus in Canadian society that a proper response to such injury is an apology. I argue that for moral repair to take place the apology is not a good place to start. Explicit apologies conceal systemic social, political, and hermeneutic questions: by speaking out, they silence. As an alternative, I propose forgiveness, which I fill with meaning drawn from a particular Canadian perspective of diversity and recency in nation building.