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Benjamin Kucher

@truthinthesoil.bsky.social
76 followers 87 following 160 posts

Researcher & writer. Museums, material culture, memory, sovereignty, politics, and occasionally yelling about academia.

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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
We received a federal response on Residential School denialism. It acknowledges harm, but offers no action, no timeline, no commitment to change. Recognition without action is not accountability. We believe Survivors.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
10/ If Alberta wants stability, legitimacy, and a future grounded in law rather than chaos, the path forward is simple: Respect Treaty. Honour constitutional obligations. Lead with accountability. Anything less is governance failure.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
9/ Treaty rights are not negotiable political tools. They are enduring commitments. They pre-date this government, and they will outlast it. Any government that ignores that reality does so at its own peril.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
8/ A unanimous vote of non-confidence from Treaty 6, 7, and 8 leadership is not performative. It signals a breakdown in trust at the highest level of Treaty relations in Alberta. Trust, once eroded, is not easily rebuilt.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
7/ Indigenous governance is about relational accountability. Leadership is not about power, it is about responsibility to agreements, to partners, and to future generations. That is a standard that is not being met.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
6/ The Chiefs have been clear: the current direction of this government is creating instability, division, and conditions that undermine Treaty obligations. That assessment carries constitutional weight.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
5/ You cannot claim to respect the rule of law while simultaneously destabilizing the very agreements that give your government authority to operate on this land.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
4/ Separation rhetoric, constitutional brinkmanship, and the erosion of democratic oversight are not abstract political strategies. They have direct implications for Treaty relationships, which are Crown-based and constitutionally protected.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
3/ Much of my work centers on how institutions fail when they treat Indigenous rights as political obstacles instead of constitutional realities. What we are seeing right now at the provincial level reflects exactly that failure.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
2/ Treaties are not historical artifacts. They are constitutional agreements. You do not sign treaties with people you conquered. Treaties are agreements between sovereign nations. If you undermine Treaty, you undermine the legal foundation of Alberta itself.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
1/ The Assembly of Treaty Chiefs of Treaty 6, 7, and 8 has passed a unanimous vote of non-confidence in the UCP government. I stand firmly with them. This is not symbolic. It is constitutional.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
16/ Removing EDI from hiring policy is not a bold or brave move. It is an institutional retreat from responsibility at the exact moment when accountability is being asked for.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
15/ If the University of Alberta genuinely believes in excellence, then it should be willing to defend hiring practices that recognize how uneven the academic playing field actually is, not pretend it is flat.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
14/ Calling that “merit-based hiring” does not make it principled. It makes it unexamined.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
13/ When universities weaken equity commitments, they are not becoming more neutral. They are choosing to protect existing hierarchies from scrutiny.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
12/ But beyond governance and legal risk, here is what matters most to me: Hiring policy determines who controls research culture. Who supervises students. Who decides what kinds of questions are deemed legitimate. Who gets to define rigor.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
11/ There are also public legal questions now being raised about whether removing explicit equity commitments is compatible with federal equity obligations tied to major research programs, including Canada Research Chair appointments. This alone should make leadership pause.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
10/ The General Faculties Council passed a motion opposing the elimination of EDI language from the draft recruitment policy. That should be read as an institutional red flag, not activist noise.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
9/ The claim that EDI introduces politics into hiring is ironic. Hiring has always been political. It reflects what an institution values, protects, and reproduces. The only difference is whether those values are named and accountable, or hidden behind vague appeals to “tradition” and “excellence.”
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
8/ I also want to be very clear about something that often gets lost in these debates. Equity policies do not tell committees who to hire. They tell institutions to take responsibility for how opportunity is distributed before hiring ever begins.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
7/ The uncomfortable truth is this: EDI threatens nothing about excellence. It threatens comfort. It forces institutions to confront how narrow their definitions of success, productivity, leadership, and scholarly legitimacy have become.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
6/ If merit were truly neutral, we would not see the same demographic patterns reproduce themselves generation after generation across Canadian universities. You do not get structural outcomes without structural causes.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
5/ Removing equity criteria does not suddenly make competition fair. It simply allows committees to rely even more heavily on informal reputation, institutional prestige, and unexamined assumptions about “fit.” Those are some of the least transparent and most exclusionary parts of academic hiring.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
4/ When people argue that EDI “lowers standards,” what they are really defending is a hiring pipeline that already privileges certain trajectories, institutions, supervisors, and networks. That is not excellence. That is inherited advantage.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
3/ The idea that merit is neutral is one of the most persistent myths in the modern university. Who gets mentored? Who gets invited into projects? Who is encouraged to publish? Who is shielded from reputational harm? Those advantages accumulate long before a hiring committee ever meets.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
2/ EDI does not replace merit. It corrects for how merit is measured inside systems that were built long before Indigenous people, racialized scholars, disabled scholars, and many others were allowed meaningful access.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
1/ The University of Alberta is moving to remove explicit Equity, Diversity and Inclusion commitments from its hiring policy. This is being sold as a return to “merit.” That framing is misleading, and frankly intellectually dishonest.
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Andrea DeKeseredy @andiewinnipeg.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
For too long the University of Alberta has been unduly influenced by right wing ideological bias. I am calling for institutional neutrality! We cannot let them indoctrinate our youth. Universities are places to LEARN.
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Amir Attaran @amirattaran.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
I strongly urge faculty, staff, and students at the University of Alberta to bring a human rights challenge at the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Win or lose (probably win) the University and UCP would hate to have their dirty laundry aired in public. So do it.
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Amir Attaran @amirattaran.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Here is the CBC News story by Emily Williams warning of this appalling decision on the University of Alberta's part. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
U of A looks to remove EDI from hiring policy | CBC News
The University of Alberta is proposing to eliminate Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) from its hiring policy, a year after the school initially said it was moving away from the term.
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Amir Attaran @amirattaran.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
I've been saddened today to learn that the University of Alberta is going down MAGA road and wants to abolish Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. So I've written to University President Bill Flanagan, warning him of the legal risks. Because the University may need suing.
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Mark Kersten @markkersten.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
This isn’t enough. To support international law and democracy, we must be able to denounce its imposition on #Venezuela’s citizens by the illegal use of force. We must oppose those who insult the rule of law & condemn those who violate the UN Charter & international laws.
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Mark Kersten @markkersten.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
For a man who claims he opposes America’s illegal war and subsequent occupation of Iraq, Trump seems remarkably eager to illegally wage war against Venezuela and now “run” it. How did it work out the first time? 🤔 www.theglobeandmail.com/world/us-pol...
theglobeandmail.com
Trump says U.S. will ‘run’ Venezuela after capturing Maduro in military strike
U.S. President says Maduro, who faces charges along with his wife, was seized during an assault on a fortress in Caracas
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Mark Kersten @markkersten.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
While the urge to get rid of despots by illegal means is both common and, to some extent, understandable, it is also indefensible, for the simple reasons that; 1️⃣ two wrongs never make a right, and 2️⃣ it does not make things better; history shows it makes everyone less safe.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Violations of international law must be named, especially when committed by powerful states. If the law only applies to some, it protects no one.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Explaining context ≠ excusing violence. Understanding history ≠ staying silent.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
135 years later, Wounded Knee is not just history, it is a wound that still speaks. We remember the lives taken, the futures interrupted, and the violence of a state that feared Indigenous survival. Memory is an act of resistance. Truth is an obligation. Justice is still owed.
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Andrea DeKeseredy @andiewinnipeg.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
The Indigenous Graduate Students’ Association has released a formal statement condemning the ongoing actions by the GSA at the U of Alberta. As a councillor-at-large, I stand in solidarity with them.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Sharing on behalf of the Indigenous Graduate Students Association at the University of Alberta: Statement from the Indigenous Graduate Students’ Association (IGSA) concerning the Graduate Students' Association - University of Alberta December 22, 2025
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Mark Kersten @markkersten.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
"Denialism is not an Indigenous problem; confronting it is a Canadian responsibility...Truth & reconciliation cannot survive if the truth is minimized, downplayed or disavowed." Critically important piece by @seancarleton.bsky.social & @truthinthesoil.bsky.social theconversation.com/confronting-...
theconversation.com
Confronting residential schools denialism is an ethical and shared Canadian responsibility
Residential schools denialism is harmful on many levels, and jeopardizes Canada’s ability to work with Indigenous Peoples to create a stronger future.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
Earlier this week I joined @aptnnews.bsky.social to discuss residential school denialism and the need for legislative action Listen here: open.spotify.com/episode/07MQ...
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Sean Carleton @seancarleton.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Also, what kind of journalist would not disclose that the person he is talking about in this tweet (below)....IS HIS WIFE? Oh, right, the same kind of activist who is promoting a far-right Christian nationalist, IRS denialist conspiracy theory. You goofs are cooked.
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Sean Carleton @seancarleton.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
As @truthinthesoil.bsky.social have argued, confronting this residential school denialism - ways that do not give these people the attention they are hoping to manufacture through free speech stunts like this - is an ethical and shared responsibility: theconversation.com/confronting-...
theconversation.com
Confronting residential schools denialism is an ethical and shared Canadian responsibility
Residential schools denialism is harmful on many levels, and jeopardizes Canada’s ability to work with Indigenous Peoples to create a stronger future.
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Sean Carleton @seancarleton.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
For context, the BC Conservative staffer fired for spreading residential school denialism on Orange Shirt Day has a long and clear history of promoting anti-Indigenous, denialist content. It's no accident; they are following the far-right playbook: provoke, platform, profit🧵
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Wearing orange on September 30th is important. But the work doesn’t end when the shirt comes off. Indigenous Peoples live with the intergenerational impacts of residential schools every single day. Remembrance without action is just performance. Carry the truth with you beyond today.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
On #TruthAndReconciliationDay, we call on Canada to confront Residential School denialism. We believe Survivors. We honour their truth. We will never stop fighting for those who never made it home. Read our letter:
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Greenpeace Canada @greenpeaceca.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
"Residential school denialism is not simply an alternate perspective. It is a form of harm that retraumatizes Survivors, undermines truth and perpetuates colonial ideas that jeopardize Canada’s ability to work with Indigenous Peoples..." – @seancarleton.bsky.social @truthinthesoil.bsky.social
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
The cover is done. The manuscript is almost there. One step closer to publishing The Death of A Curious Mind: A Manifesto for Surviving the Violence of the Academy. This one’s for every voice that’s been silenced in the name of rigor. #AcademicTwitter #AmWriting #DecolonizeAcademia
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UAINE @mahtowin1.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
I was one of many Native people who showed up in 1990 to support the heroic Mohawk resistance in Kahnawake & Kanehsatake. While some have walked on to the spirit world, many of us continue to be committed to defending the Land, the People and the Law. The defense of Native sovereignty cannot rest.
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Benjamin Kucher @truthinthesoil.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
8/ Let this anniversary be more than a memory. Let it be a commitment: To listen. To act. To fight for justice, not just when it’s trending, but every damn day. #Kanehsatake #Kahnawake #35YearsLater #NeverForget #LandBack
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