Democracy is not a spectator sport. One of the simplest (and most overlooked and taken for granted) civil liberties we have as Canadians is the right to directly contact our elected officials. So, of course, I did! I recently sent an email to Minister Dale Nally, Alberta’s Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, asking for clarity. I’m sharing that email below, online, and on social media publicly for one reason: Because civic engagement should be accessible to AL

I want to be clear about something first: Many Canadians born after 1990 did learn about treaties and Indigenous history in school. But for many of us, it wasn’t emphasized, revisited, or treated as foundational. It was often presented briefly, abstractly, or as something from the past... not as something that still shapes our lives today.