Scaling Memory: Reparation Displacement and the Case of BC

Although many historical injustices in Canada have BC roots, the ensuing debates have tended to frame redress as a federal responsibility. The article analyzes this dynamic and calls it "reparation displacement." Reparation displacement saves the recalcitrant community or group from fighting aggressively to avoid its unpleasant past, Shunting questions of cause, blame, and obligation away instead. Reparation displacement receives special attention here as an obstacle hindering BC's reconciliation with First Nations. The article also links the emphasis in "post-positivist" policy studies on civic deliberation to the focus in the reparations literature on historical acknowledgment. It suggests further that reparation displacement requires further research from scholars of federalism and multilevel governance.