We have had some major public apologies in Canada recently. The Prime Minister’s apology to aboriginal Canadians about the aboriginal schools issue is probably the best example.

http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/rqpi/apo/index-eng.asp

It can easily be argued that it was decades too late and that governments of both the Liberal and Conservatives ignored the issue for too long, hoping it would fade away as the population involved aged. But such wounds are not easily forgotten. Apology, even at this late date, had a profound effect, more than any financial settlement, in bridging the gap between the government and the native population.

The official apology to Japanese Canadians for internment during WWII was similarly late (1988), but better late than never.

Ontario’s “Apology Act” seeks to separate an apology from a legal admission of guilt, opening up the way for more apologies. I hope to see something similar in the Federal Parliament at some point.

Thanks Bob, and those whose works you quoted for filling in the blanks, I was aware of the “apology culture” at a high level, but you’ve provided some interesting insight.

James

Thanks for the great insight and introducing me here. The different attitude towards apology between the East and the West is a big question for me, and I’ve been thinking about this issue for some time as I plan to publish a book on apology this year.

So far, here’s my two cents:

1. If we think about the cross-country level, I guess the West is far more open than East, such as after World War II, with Willy Brandt’s apology in Poland back in 1970, Pope John Paul’s apology in 2000… If there’s ‘world chronology of apology’, I guess there are far more apologies from Western countries than Eastern countries.

2. If Asia is more open on apology than the West, then, probably it’s from a linguistic context. For example, in English if a person says “I’m sorry” then, there is a legal implication, but, in Korean, not necessarily.

3. Also, when it comes to apology between senior (age, position, etc.) and junior, probably, Asians would apologize more often than Westerners (even when they don’t need to apologize from a Western perspective).

4. Regarding the apology ‘bowing’ in Japanese news conferences, that’s expected in Japan, but not of Japanese companies overseas.

5. In a sense, Christian culture might have more emphasis on the importance of apology and admitting mistakes, such as confession in front of a priest…but in Asia, I can’t think of easily similar examples from traditional religion.

My point is when we compare “apology culture,” I guess there would be interesting differences when it comes to intra-country level (apology towards “their people”) and cross-country level (apology towards “other people”), hierarchical level and horizontal level (apology between colleagues and friends).

To me if there’s “apology 2.0″ the best example has been shown by Obama. When he called a journalist “sweetie,” when he made a mistake about Nancy Reagan at his first press conference after the election, when he made “stupid” comment on a policeman, he accepted his mistakes very fast, and publicly apologize. What’s differentiating him from other politicians is he doesn’t use “Classic Washington linguistic construct” which is “mistakes were made” like Ronald Reagan mentioned at the Iran-Contra…

This is a great contribution to the discussion of the place of corporate apologies when there has been harm.

I agree with your comment “On both sides of the Pacific these days, if you are slow to apologize, then people are less likely to trust the sincerity of the apology when it finally does come.” Some lawyers are starting to get. Others pay lip service to it but still insist on putting potential liability concerns ahead of the apology. The number who are actually willing to join PR people in urging an apology from a CEO are few and far between.

Oh yeah . . . and thanks for the kind words about my piece on the subject.