The increasing division within Canada can be traced to the perception that non-Indigenous Canadians, often referred to as "settlers," should feel grateful for their presence in the Americas. This term primarily targets individuals of British and European descent but can also apply to anyone whose ancestors migrated from regions such as Africa, Asia, or the Pacific, excluding those who were part of earlier migrations to the continent.

Recent scientific research indicates that human settlement in the Americas began approximately 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. The first settlers likely arrived from Asia by boat, navigating along the Pacific coast due to glaciation in the interior. These early inhabitants migrated as far south as present-day Chile, although it remains unclear how far inland they traveled or if they merged with later groups.

Around 13,000 years ago, a new wave of migration occurred when an ice-free corridor opened in Alberta, allowing people from the submerged land of Beringia to move south through Alaska and into North America. Subsequently, the Dene-speaking peoples migrated to areas now known as Alaska and Canada’s North, while the Inuit crossed from Siberia to Greenland around AD 1000. Another group settled in the Arctic around 2500 BC, but their connection to the Inuit is not well understood.

In essence, the Americas were populated through successive waves of migration from Asia, and all current inhabitants are descendants of these settlers. The most recent Indigenous groups arrived just before the first European settlers, including the Vikings and Christopher Columbus, who initiated European colonization in the Caribbean.

The focus on Europeans as "settlers" has fueled land acknowledgments and calls for compensation and reconciliation. This narrative often evokes guilt over historical injustices committed by individuals long deceased, while ongoing demands for land, governance, and financial reparations continue without a clear endpoint. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) also reinforces the divide between Indigenous peoples and settlers.

This division is significant because the stability of peaceful, prosperous nation-states is not guaranteed. In fact, such stability is more the exception than the norm. To foster unity in Canada and prevent fragmentation into smaller, less significant entities—such as an independent Quebec, Alberta, or numerous First Nations with state-like powers—it is essential to critically examine these prevailing assumptions and the belief that Canadians have not adequately addressed historical wrongs.

Language plays a crucial role in this discussion. The idea that certain groups in the Americas have existed since "time immemorial" is both evolutionarily and historically inaccurate. All humans trace their origins back to Africa, where Homo sapiens emerged as a distinct species around 315,000 years ago. Prior to this, various hominin species existed for millions of years. Recognizing that all humans share a common ancestry should prompt a reevaluation of the term "time immemorial" and the artificial distinctions made between those labeled as "Indigenous" and those considered settlers, whose ancestors arrived in separate waves over thousands of years.