Aboriginals Don't Have A Monopoly On Past Suffering

[The Langley Ladyboy]

Great article here by my buddy Ricky Leong.

Even before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report on Canada's First Nations peoples was released, one could sense the injustices it was to reveal would be monumental.



After all, it was to be the culmination of years of research about forced relocations, abuse and cultural re-education.



As it turns out, it was even more horrifying than the average Canadian could have believed.



The report deemed this country's policies towards aboriginals to be nothing short of an attempt at cultural genocide.



The public record shows politicians, from Sir John. A. Macdonald on down, advocating for the assimilation of Canada's Native peoples as the only means through which the so-called savage Indian would progress as human beings — essentially, to become as advanced as the white man.



Seek out the testimony from survivors of the residential school system, one of the primary tools in the state's attempt to purge Native peoples of their identity.



Read it and understand why this period of our history is truly a national shame.



Sadly, this report is but the latest in a line of egregious examples of racial discrimination in Canada's history.



The mid-1700s saw the mass expulsion of Acadians from Atlantic Canada, first to other British colonies, with later waves sent to Louisiana via Europe. It is regarded by historians today as mass revenge against an ethnic population who resisted against invading British forces.



Pre-Confederation Canada in the 1800s saw a cultural genocide averted.



After rebellions flared in present-day Ontario and Quebec in 1837-38, the British sent Lord Durham to Canada to figure out why it happened and how to prevent it from recurring.



While Lord Durham's findings gave Canada and many sister colonies the political foundation for the democracy we currently enjoy, it also contained a plea to essentially eradicate what remained of French Canadians in British North America.



Lord Durham's hope was for massive immigration from Britain and the removal of freedoms enjoyed by French Canadians leading to the latter's assimilation.



This recommendation never came to pass.



In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Canadian citizens of Chinese descent were socially, economically, culturally and politically ostracized despite contributions to the country by their ancestors and themselves.



Chinese people couldn't go into certain stores, use public swimming pools or sit where they wanted to in concert halls.



Some regions had segregated schools for Chinese children. Chinese Canadians couldn't marry whomever they wanted, couldn't become professionals, and until 1947, they couldn't even vote in federal elections.



(By the way, until 1960, First Nations Canadians couldn't vote in federal elections without giving up their treaty status.)



During the First and Second World Wars, Canada sent tens of thousands of people to internment camps — not because they were suspected of aiding the enemy but for no other reason than their ethnicity.



Germans, Austrians, Hungarians, Ukrainians, Turks and Bulgarians were interned in the First World War. Germans, Italians and Japanese were locked up indiscriminately in the Second World War.



They lived in squalid conditions, were malnourished and used as forced labour.



Many had their property seized and never returned after the camps closed at war's end.



Modern-day Canada can gloat with abandon about how open our country is — how it derives strength from the diversity of its people.



But we must never forget the difficult journey that led us here and remember how, as shown by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we have much work to do.

http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/06/09/truth-and-reconciliation-report-canadas-latest-in-a-history-lined-with-racial-discrimination">http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/06/09/tr ... rimination">http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/06/09/truth-and-reconciliation-report-canadas-latest-in-a-history-lined-with-racial-discrimination

[RW]

I agree we should know and respect the lessons learned in our history but I'm tired of paying for it.  We didn't do these things to these people.  The best thing we could do is not repeat those mistakes not endlessly pay for them.

[The Langley Ladyboy]

What happened in residential schools was awful, no question about it. However, the real truth is that missing and murdered Native women's perpetrators are usually Native men. There's no doubt that more Native women have been sexually assaulted male friends and family members than by those running residential schools. We don't need a fake, expensive inquiry to tell us what we already know.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission summary report has already become political football.



This is because of the 94 recommendations and the responses they've garnered. A number of them are sensible and practical, but many aren't.



Both the Conservatives and NDP want to take time to reflect on them. This is wise, particularly in the months before an election. The Liberals, Justin Trudeau said in a statement, want to see full enactment of all of them. This is pandering.



But the recommendations are in some sense not the most important part of the 300-plus page document.



No, the important parts for everyone to read are the first person testimonials – the many stories from residential school students, in their own words, about just how harrowing the experience was.



The politics disappears when reading these. All that's left is raw emotion. It's hard to read them and not think: What if this had happened to my parents? My children? To me?



Patrick Bruyere attended a school in Fort Alexander, Manitoba: "There was you know, a few nights I remember that I just, you know, cried myself to sleep, I guess, because of, you know, wanting to see my mom and dad."



Julianna Alexander attended the same school as her brother in Kamloops, British Columbia. But she wasn't even allowed to speak to him: "Did I ever get a good pounding and licking, get over there, you can't go over there, you can't talk to him, you know. I said, 'Yeah, but he's my brother.'"



Wendy Lafond suffered humiliation in Prince Albert: "If we wet our beds, we were made to stand in the corner in our pissy clothes, not allowed to change."



Bernard Catcheway was at Pine Creek, Manitoba, in the 1960s: "There was a lot of times there I seen other students that threw up and they were forced to eat their own, their own vomit."



Josephine Sutherland recalls being sexually assaulted by one of the lay brothers in a Fort Albany, Ontario, school garage: "I couldn't call for help, I couldn't. And he did awful things to me."



Agnes Moses spoke about the long-term impacts of sexual abuse: "I never quite understood it, and it really wrecked my life, it wrecked my life as a mother, a wife, a woman, and sexuality was a real, it was a dirty word for us."



The residential school system is one of the state's worst intrusions on the individual - a complete disregard for the sanctity of family life and values.



The family unit is the core of our society. Without strong families, no community can survive. No wonder so many First Nations reserves persist in misery and squalor. Their foundations have been destabilized.



Speaking in 1883, Canada's first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, said "Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influ­ence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men."



If a politician today suggested children should be removed from their homes and placed in centralized facilities there would be public outrage. As there should be. Too bad there wasn't enough outrage back then.

http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/06/06/residential-schools-raw-emotion">http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/06/06/re ... aw-emotion">http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/06/06/residential-schools-raw-emotion

[The Langley Ladyboy]

I agree we should know and respect the lessons learned in our history but I'm tired of paying for it.  We didn't do these things to these people.  The best thing we could do is not repeat those mistakes not endlessly pay for them.

[size=200]BULLSEYE!![/size]

[kiebers]

I agree we should know and respect the lessons learned in our history but I'm tired of paying for it.  We didn't do these things to these people.  The best thing we could do is not repeat those mistakes not endlessly pay for them.

It will never go away, at least not in yours, mine, or our grandkids lifetimes. Too many Al Sharptons of all colors/races in this world.

[RW]

We need to pay for our history because learning from it isn't enough and it should be.  What more could you ask for than people willing to not repeat the past?  



I also have a problem with people who never lived such atrocities to be asking for an apology written on a cheque.

[kiebers]

We need to pay for our history because learning from it isn't enough and it should be.  What more could you ask for than people willing to not repeat the past?  



I also have a problem with people who never lived such atrocities to be asking for an apology written on a cheque.

Welcome to the world of the white American.

[Anonymous]

We need to pay for our history because learning from it isn't enough and it should be.  What more could you ask for than people willing to not repeat the past?  



I also have a problem with people who never lived such atrocities to be asking for an apology written on a cheque.

I demand a cheque for the Chinese exclusion act and headtax. When do I get my cheque for suffering I never endured? I'm a victim too dammit. ac_dance

[kiebers]

You didn't get it yet?????  It's in the mail. ac_razz

[Anonymous]

You didn't get it yet?????  It's in the mail. ac_razz

Woo Hoo Kiebs. This will help cure the pain I feel.



Party at the Iron Ch!nk's place this weekend. You guys are paying for it, so the least I can do is pour you a mojito when you get here. ac_drinks

[RW]

I'm on my way!

[Anonymous]

I'm on my way!

Bring friends with white guilt cheques. The more the merrier. ac_dance

[Lance Leftardashian]

Aboriginals need better housing, employment opportunities, easier access to education and more acceptance of their culture.

[Anonymous]

Aboriginals need better housing, employment opportunities, easier access to education and more acceptance of their culture.

I don't think anyone would dispute that First Nations Canadians suffer disproportionately..



But, some people would argue that more money is not the answer.

[Berry Sweet]

I agree we should know and respect the lessons learned in our history but I'm tired of paying for it.  We didn't do these things to these people.  The best thing we could do is not repeat those mistakes not endlessly pay for them.

Agreed.