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Canadian Political Science Association2025 Annual Conference Programme
The Politics of Belonging: Conflict,
Community, Curriculum
Hosted at George Brown College, Toronto, CANADA
June 3 to June 5, 20252025 Annual Conference Programme
The Politics of Belonging: Conflict,
Community, Curriculum
Hosted at George Brown College
June 3 to June 5, 2025
Race, Ethnicity, Indigenous Peoples and Politics
L02 - Roundtable: No Honour Here: Reconciling the Honourifics of Duncan Campbell Scott
Date: Jun 3 | Time: 10:15am to 11:45am | Location:
Chair/Président/Présidente : Amanda Buffalo (University of Toronto)
Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Joyce Green (University of Regina)
Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Tayte Gossling (Queen's University)
Lois Marie Moorcroft (University of Toronto)Adele Perry (University of Manitoba)
Abstract: "Duncan Campbell Scott, a white man with limited education, was appointed to a clerk position in 1879, obtained from Sir John A. Macdonald through the intercession of Scott’s father." .... Despite his limited education and through his vicious reach from “Indian Affairs,” he achieved much positive prominence, including election to the Royal Society of Canada in 1899, in recognition of his (often racist) poetry. He also served as its president in 1922-23. Scott had at least two honorary doctorates conferred upon him—one by Queen’s University in 1939, and one by the University of Toronto in 1922. Though celebrated for his contributions to canadian literature, he was also a bureaucrat deeply invested in finding a "final solution" to the "Indian problem" as Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs. His dogmatic “solution” was the widespread implementation of theft of Indigenous children from their families/communities and confinement in internment camps (aka Residential Schools) to "kill the Indian in the child" leading to the actual death of untold numbers of Indigenous children. At the height of his influence, he received honourary doctorates from University of Toronto and Queen’s. 100 years later, these institutions were asked to defrock him as an act of reconciliation. This roundtable will discuss and share our individual and collective experience(s) and insights within the academy and invite others to share our collective outrage and sadness at the continued inaction(s) of these institutions towards simple, everyday acts of reconciliation.