The seven year switch: Harper misses chance to back up his apology
- Thread starter mentalfloss
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Always have been, I'm trying to decrease it instead of increasing it, unlike the usual suspects.
Really?? I thought I was singularly bad here as in suspect. Whom would be my cohorts?
The seven year switch: Harper misses chance to back up his apology
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Seven years ago today, Stephen Harper had his finest moment in aboriginal relations.
The Prime Minister stood in the House of Commons and apologized for the residential school tragedy. He said it was sincere. He said it was profound. He vowed that all of Canada would share the burden of aboriginal reconciliation in the future.
Today, there are legitimate grounds to wonder if it was all just an act.
By what could’ve been a beautiful coincidence, the Prime Minister had an audience with Pope Francis Thursday morning.
The coincidence is that just last week, the reconciliation commission which Harper created, recommended the Pope be asked to apologize this year for the Catholic church’s shameful role in a school system which was fronting a cultural genocide.
Opportunity beckoned. A Pope of the people, clearly possessing the compassion and capacity to deliver a heartfelt apology, probably needed only to be asked.
PM Harper meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican
But in what church officials confide was a short and tense meeting, Harper merely referred to a letter from his minister which doesn’t mention the apology and suggested His Holiness come to Canada for our 150th birthday bash two years hence.
It’s possible Harper didn’t want to cross the great political divide between church and state.
Or perhaps he thought it would waste a perfectly good papal visit to focus on such a dark purpose when the government can bask in the reflected glow of Pope Francis photo ops at Conservative-hosted party events.
But still, it was a golden opportunity wasted.
Commission Chair Murray Sinclair, aboriginal leaders and school survivors won’t have the chance to face the Pope and deliver the request in person. Only Stephen Harper had the access, backed by perfect timing, to deliver such an important invitation on behalf of so many First Nations.
There’s no easy way to implement most of the calls for atonement urged by Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Many are costly. Some need provincial co-operation. A few just defy common sense.
But to directly invite a religious leader whose church had a devastating role in a school system where an estimated 6,000 children died to apologize, well, that’s the easiest reconciliation to implement.
If the government can’t bother to merely deliver an ask, it casts doubt about his own commitment to the hard job ahead.
The seven year switch: Harper misses chance to back up his apology
Mentalfloss, I think you should apologize to the aboriginal people.
I would rather be posting on threads that look at other aspects of life, that doesn't seem to be the trend here so you play the cards you are dealt.
If belief that Russia has a rusty navy is what it takes to make people feel comfortable, as far as being able to fight them and win on their home turf, then I'm not the idiot in the room. (that doesn't mean the room is free of idiots)
If belief that Russia has a rusty navy is what it takes to make people feel comfortable, as far as being able to fight them and win on their home turf, then I'm not the idiot in the room. (that doesn't mean the room is free of idiots)
The room is few years wide. Is this really the time for a ride across it because I certainly can remember all the highlights. The Bible being a book of literal events was 1st introduction to what a collective looks like when most professed to have no interest in religion in general and Christianity specifically. Since my view didn't change from then until now I'm put into the classification of 'usual suspect'. Unfortunately I know a lot more about the book that the ones I've chatted with so that just makes them look less knowledgeable than they claim to be.
Being a Bill Stills fan didn't get me any bonus point but then I was never looking for any, that would cover all the other bits I left out.
The only thing 'odd' about this room is I locked it from the inside and I'm not in a lot of danger as sleeper seem be my biggest foe. Being in a closed room (like this was) stunts your growth if you all have to agree to the same view and the view has a few flaws in it.
Harper is part of a collective but that figurehead allows the 'puppet masters' to stay behind the curtain. It wouldn't matter who we voted in the domestic and foreign policy.
Closer to home that room seems to be pretty crooked as far as the medical community goes. Mould doesn't have any health effects even when it is an infection rather than an exposure according the the Colledge of Physicians and Surgeons. My parting note to them was they are a danger to the public at large as they would be supporting the 'overcrowding' rather than 'extensive mould' in the Federal Prison up north as being the reason for the excessive anger that was there. Not much hope for the little guy when the bosses are in denial. (at least in Canada, in the US they know the dangers)
The Courts are even more fuked up when mould spore counts get accepted when the tests are done after a period of more than 2 weeks has passed with no rain. When guidelines like that are buried they are in the same level of denial as the Medical community is.
That covers the room and I also know the deck is stacked, so what? Why accept something that I know isn't true, it doesn't seem to have helped anybody here who has done it.
Works better for me than trying to be like sleepy head here. When was his last good comeback, 4 or 5 years ago? Let's hope he isn't the best there is at defending this place.