I sat at council fires with the elders and heard their stories of horror long before this became public knowledge. They had nothing to gain by lying about it then. Perhaps there are a few today who are trying to cash in, but then, which group can claim there are no scam artists among them?
Canada's shame - The truth is coming out and what we did as a country is disgusting.
- Thread starter Goober
- Start date
I didn't meet very many elders who had a good time of it. None that I can remember. After the 60s the abuses were less as aboriginal peoples were then beginning to be considered human. In fact, I believe, the only reason government policy began to change is because the Supreme Court ordered them to. It was ruled that treating native people as sub-human was unconstitutional and the government was ordered to give native people the vote. But the Indian Act to this day is still one of the most discriminatory pieces of legislation on the books.
Definitely time to move on. We will never get "fairness" or "just compensation" from the Shemanese. The very best we can hope for is full legal equality. I want NO special programs, because they are ALWAYS half-a ssed and underfunded. Giving us the exact same deal everybody else gets would be the best treatment we ever got from the Shemanese.
Try reading Bev Sellers book They Called Me Number One, the priest who was the principal of the school was tried and convicted of sexual abusing children in the school , but only after the church made him a Bishop!
Death or abuse - neither option is or was acceptable. Or at least it shouldnt have been.
Did you like school? I didn't.
I know plenty of attendees but not a single allegation of abuses other than the time spent doing chores (housekeeping) and their own laundry which is normal for any dorm.
Can you vote in America? No because it's not your "Nation". If you want autonomy as a Nation within a nation sacrifices need to be made.
My guess would be that the lady misspoke. I think her intended meaning was to put First Nations at the head of the pecking order of the founding nations.... which they were - the first of the founding nations: FN/France/UK
A terrible event to be sure and one that can/should be dealt with in terms of punishing the responsible parties in addition to compensating the victims.
That said, your original post that referenced this strongly alluded to all the attendees of the residential school program rather than a specific group in Mb.
... And this is related to my primary point; no one is arguing that abuses didn't happen, but it appears that the extremes are extrapolated to the entire population and then considered as fact.
Apparently it is quite a bit different when it happens to (Eastern) Europeans thereby cancelling-out the notion that it was abuse
Not the case at all. The archaeologist made the point very clear
Perhaps I am getting soft in my old age, but I look around and think to myself, I had it a lot easier than others. I mean my upbringing was a rather chaotic, what with my father being a career criminal, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse. I've been traveling between Canada and the US over the last few days and I wonder to myself (as a white guy) what it must be like to know that your people were brought over as slaves, that your right to vote, go to the same schools, drink from the same fountain was only afforded just shy of half a century ago.
And I think of our Native populations. Of all the racism they have endured, how we excluded and segregated them. How we imposed our religion upon them, demanded they abandon their culture and language. How we made promises that were never kept. Those treaties are still outstanding. And regarding the schools and the abuse, that doesn't stop with the abused, it in fact has a generational affect that breeds further abuse, sexual, physical and even substance. So here we created this toxic situation and we want to simply rub our hands together and say, "That was a long time ago. In fact I didn't do it."
I don't agree with everything First Nations does, get pretty pissed off about the abuses on the reserves, the barricades, the waste of money, but let's make no mistake. This situation was created by our founders and if we are ever tobecome a United Country we need to honor the commitments they brokered and reneged on.
And I think of our Native populations. Of all the racism they have endured, how we excluded and segregated them. How we imposed our religion upon them, demanded they abandon their culture and language. How we made promises that were never kept. Those treaties are still outstanding. And regarding the schools and the abuse, that doesn't stop with the abused, it in fact has a generational affect that breeds further abuse, sexual, physical and even substance. So here we created this toxic situation and we want to simply rub our hands together and say, "That was a long time ago. In fact I didn't do it."
I don't agree with everything First Nations does, get pretty pissed off about the abuses on the reserves, the barricades, the waste of money, but let's make no mistake. This situation was created by our founders and if we are ever tobecome a United Country we need to honor the commitments they brokered and reneged on.
I went to a Catholic school. It was a different world back then. Harder, harsher, more black and white.
Those old nuns would cuff you over the head, smack your face into the desk, strap the life out of kids and then tell you Jesus loves you.
No washroom breaks unless it was washroom time. (kids wet themselves and hid it). No water from the fountain unless it was washroom break. You could faint from heat they didn't care. I remember in grade 4 kids puking into a sink in the classroom ( I was one of them). You washed the sink out yourself and went back to your seat until you could go home for lunch.
And that was a high end, nice school.
I can't imagine what those kids endured.
Those old nuns would cuff you over the head, smack your face into the desk, strap the life out of kids and then tell you Jesus loves you.
No washroom breaks unless it was washroom time. (kids wet themselves and hid it). No water from the fountain unless it was washroom break. You could faint from heat they didn't care. I remember in grade 4 kids puking into a sink in the classroom ( I was one of them). You washed the sink out yourself and went back to your seat until you could go home for lunch.
And that was a high end, nice school.
I can't imagine what those kids endured.
I guess no sex made those nuns mean as sin. However at the end of the day you went home to presumably loving parents. The residential schools were boarding schools that the tax payers funded. There was no loving parents at the end of the day or week for the native children. Then of course some of the priests weren't doing without sex after all they had captive sex objects right there in the school. The kids could tell their parents, but the parents too were helpless in the face of the church and with the laws of the day. When the native children were finally allowed to go to the public schools they were still pretty much frozen in fear, and faced bullying from other students and teachers as well.
I don't believe throwing money at them is the solution, but rather taking away our privileges. The Indian Act, the Official Languages Act, the language provisions of the Constitution, and other such laws come to mind. Consult with the indigenous peoples on how to scrap the Indian Act and eliminate or at least rewrite the others to eliminate their assimilationist intentions.
Let's not forget the Official Languages Act was written at the height of the residential school system, just when the government was starting to wind it down. Essentially, the OLA was the back up plan, some of which is now entrenched in the Constitution.
The only thing the government is doing is preparing for the next round of stealing
from the natives. As I have said before the government picked out the worthless
land and put the reserves there. Now of course the minerals and oil are under
ground with tumbleweeds on it and the Natives don't want it exploited or they want
control of the resources. Our government is staying up at night trying to find new
ways to shaft them and get the oil and minerals for their friends.
This whole thing is not ancient history there are many who are alive who were beaten
and abused. All too often the guilty parties get to walk out of the courts for lack of
evidence in our (unjust) justice system.
Ukrainians, Japanese, Italians and a host of others were are in some cases are still
treated like crap or have derogatory remarks made about them. And of course we
have all kinds of new groups coming here that we can pick on. Some are saying we
should all live together in one culture. They are the people who don't understand
because we don't have one culture and we don't all just get along. The reason we
so often visit the subject is we hope that someday we can all have our own culture
and get along. History is a living thing so ancient or modern all history is connected
and unless we understand it, what went before we cannot understand what's in
front of us or the future.
from the natives. As I have said before the government picked out the worthless
land and put the reserves there. Now of course the minerals and oil are under
ground with tumbleweeds on it and the Natives don't want it exploited or they want
control of the resources. Our government is staying up at night trying to find new
ways to shaft them and get the oil and minerals for their friends.
This whole thing is not ancient history there are many who are alive who were beaten
and abused. All too often the guilty parties get to walk out of the courts for lack of
evidence in our (unjust) justice system.
Ukrainians, Japanese, Italians and a host of others were are in some cases are still
treated like crap or have derogatory remarks made about them. And of course we
have all kinds of new groups coming here that we can pick on. Some are saying we
should all live together in one culture. They are the people who don't understand
because we don't have one culture and we don't all just get along. The reason we
so often visit the subject is we hope that someday we can all have our own culture
and get along. History is a living thing so ancient or modern all history is connected
and unless we understand it, what went before we cannot understand what's in
front of us or the future.