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Canada Haunted by Past Sins
Starting in 1876, with the passage of the unfortunately named “Indian Act,” the Canadian government started a system of residential schools intended to educate native children to integrate them into the larger Canadian society and economy. Management and operation of these schools were entrusted to several Church organizations. With the movement of granting tribal nations more self-governing powers, these schools began closing in the 1940s and 50s, with the last closing in the late-60s. Recently unmarked graves have been uncovered at the sites of 4 former schools and to date, a total of 1148 graves have been discovered.
So far these sites are located in:
Kamloops, British Colombia
Cranbroke, British Colombia
Marieval, Saskatchewan
Brandon, Manitoba
As many as 30,000 children may have died at residential schools while they were in operation.
Sadly, time may have robbed the communities of any semblance of justice as it’s unlikely that many of these children will be identified or a cause of death to be determined. These are not mass graves, these are unmarked graves. In the case of Marieval SK, the gravesites are unmarked because in the 1960s, members of the local Roman Catholic church removed the headstones from the graves.
The denial of justice can lead to disturbing vigilantism and in the past few weeks, four Churches have been burned, with Sacred Heart Church in Penticton BC, St. Gregory’s Church on Osoyoos Indian Band, St. Ann’s Church on Upper Similkameen Indian Band land; and St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Gitwangak was damaged by fire, but remains standing, unlike the other three Catholic churches.
Fortunately, so far nobody has been hurt in any of the church fires, but I fear this is only a matter of time before someone’s luck runs out. Given Canada’s recent track record of arresting pastors for continuing to practice their faith during the COVID hysteria. Will Canada tolerate the persecution of Christians?
It’s the question of the day: Can Canada avoid the sins of the past being fanned into fresh hate by the Social Justice crowd to renewed violence? Is Justine Trudeau really the man for the job?
Published in History
That’s an easy, often sleazy, way to react.
??
I can’t get too worked up over either term. First Nations is embedded in the language of Canada, and even though it betrays a Euro-Centric attempt to shoehorn indigenous social organization into European categories, if the indigenous people aren’t offended by it I’m not going to be, either. (I imagine there has been a variety of opinions about the term.)
My reaction would be about the same as yours. You’ve heard that on Ricochet podcasts? Whether or not, I’d resist that kind of formula for the same reason Vaclev Havel’s greengrocer might resist putting the sign, “Workers of the World Unite” in his window.
Thank you for recognizing that. I usually try to avoid glorifying the cultures of a sinful people. I enjoy learning about Native cultures, and have learned a lot about our own in learning how they work or worked. (It has done a lot over the past 25-30 years to lead me away from an inclination to libertarianism.) But glorifying them? Because I do try to respect their cultures to some extent, sometimes with the overriding objective of protecting aspects of my own culture, and sometimes because it’s the right thing to do, I do run into people who glorify their imagined idea of indigenous cultures. I could cite examples, but they didn’t come from Ricochet and I doubt anyone on Ricochet tends in that direction.
Their culture was primitive and dysfunctional, and our culture which takes things from other people just because it can, is primitive and dysfunctional. Indian folks have adopted much of our culture, though. Forcing them to do it, even when it was not necessary for the defense of our own culture, is a denial of what is good about our culture.
That’s a gross oversimplification of the alternatives.
And they have integrated. They have not assimilated, though, and it would be a rejection of what is good about our culture to force them to do so. In cases where the reservation system was set up by treaty, I think we are obligated to honor those treaties, just as the progs should feel obligated to honor the treaty that originally established our country, which includes things like the 2nd amendment. Progs think it’s outdated and that they can just renounce it or ignore it, and I don’t want to set a bad example for them to follow.
Because its never enough.
Not only did PM Stephan Harper apologize but there was a $3 Billion fund established to compensate the survivors of the residential school system. … That was back in 2008. It sounds like the Native activist groups are coming for another bite at the compensation apple.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/iap-final-report-residential-schools-1.5946103
As cynical as I am – I find that its difficult to keep up with reality.
Correction. I don’t think he ever subjected his wife to a winter in that country, and in fact, spent only one winter himself. It was really dangerous to be living largely outdoors in those temperatures–dangerous even for the Eveni people, which most of them don’t do any more. Going out in a double reindeer-skin suit was like putting on a space suit for a space walk, and burning a hole in your suit from an accident with your tent stove could be fatal for a lone person. It happened, even to experienced men.
Among honest and generous people, apologies and amends are quick because complaints are trusted. Among opportunists, apologies are slow because demands often do not follow from truth. These days, accusations abound and many people prefer vengeance to peace.
In the United States, child mortality rates (< 5 years of age) were between 314 per 1,000 in 1870 and 31 per 1000 in 1960. The 1940’s were the first period where the rate dropped below 100 per 1000. Youth (5 to 15) mortality rates were ~50% (42.6% average for the last two thousand years) only dropping to 27% in 1950. The poor regardless of race always die at a higher rate because of malnutrition and other mitigating health problems.
This is a story of applying 21st perceptions to 19th/20th Century realities. It is posturing for effect.
How many times do you have to say it? According to the video, Stephen Harper apologized for the entire nation in 2008.
Perfect. Ricochet comment of the week?
If you want to sea trained seals perform, there used to be places in San Diego that had such shows. But some of them have been shut down due to pressure from animal rights people who have argued that it’s demeaning for animals to be made to perform tricks on cue.
I researched how Native Americans/First Nation cultures buried their deceased Children in the 19th Century according to their cultural norms and found it mostly unpleasant and barbaric. One example of a common theme is detailed here: (Short answer they didn’t bury their dead children)
What exactly is the issue with the unmarked graves? Not enough recycling or too much respect for the dead?
I think the only thing we can do with history is learn from it. It has taken civilization thousands of years to develop a system of crime and punishment that is even in the ballpark of fair to the victim and the perpetrator. That system focuses on the individual because that’s the best we can do in a criminal court. Human beings run the risk of creating more injustice, more crime, when they try to function in groups–in fact, that’s what always leads to war. I do not like to see emotions stirred up to this extent in Canada because I know injustice will result from it. Innocent people will be hurt.
It implies to researchers that there was a criminal cause for the death and that the criminal was hiding it.
With good reason–throughout history murderers have tried to avoid being caught and prosecuted by simply getting rid of the body.
Possibly, but I’m not convinced that’s all there is to it; like I alluded to earlier, the Florida School for Boys was both infamous and existed for many of those same years, yet did not produce nearly as many dead children as those four sites from the OP. I have no idea how much the first three preceding decades as well as age differences might have impacted those numbers. Its an important caveat to keep in mind, but its not enough on its own to fully discredit the narrative, IMO.
Native Americans in the
You make a good case for doubt, but I suspect the differences in the health and early childhood development of the two demographics in the populations are stark. One was school system for a normalized general population and the other a prison for active, moderately healthy but socially difficult youth. The more interesting statistic would be the mortality rate for children in the general population of the Indigenous people outside of the institutions. Even today it remains high.
My comment was directed at the Native American cultural norm of disposing of the corpses of Native Women and Children for wild animal to devour not the need to conceal a murder.
https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/police-hate-crime-unit-investigating-after-10-calgary-churches-vandalized-1.5493497
Jason Kenny added:
Ok. I thought you were wondering why the fact in and of itself that they weren’t marked had aroused suspicion and accusation. :-)
That’s about 2.5 deaths per year for each of 134 schools. Do we know what the average enrollment was?
The hype to cancel Canada Day & Independence Day:
An attack on nationalism by proxy of BBQ.
If Biden cancels the 4th, does that mean we go directly from the 3rd to the 5th? Did someone die and make him god? He can cancel anything he wants. He ain’t my boss.
it’s not clear what happened. What’s clear is that some want to use it to enhance central power, which, as far as I can tell is the often the problem and almost always deteriorates. These were small places but removed from families, immediate communities, people with non institutional interests, that’s just always raises risks.
Absolute agreement. They also ate people, which is kind of a red line for me.
This is fantastic perspective. We may well discover that the actual death rate tracked child mortality in general….
Yeah, so then it’s ok!
Garbage.
Not sure why everyone’s looking so hard for an out here. It’s not about reparations, although Canada has chosen that path, which seems to be a default for some governments. It’s just letting the history be known (which has been happening for years, but it’s more visible now than ever before), and if possible, give families whose children were taken from them, and died while in the “care” of these schools, some idea of what happened to their loved ones.
I am generally completely into breaking my knees backwards in response to reparations discussions – meaning I do not like them. I’m not advocating for them here, either. But the full history should be known or discovered, and disseminated. That’s not too high a bar to clear, is it? Particularly for folks on Ricochet, who seem to have a bit more than the average level of “love thy neighbor” as a critical component of who they are?
I’m not looking for an out. I’m just trying to determine if abuse actually occurred. Taking kids from their families is horrible enough, without adding in abuse, if it occurred.
I should have been a little more careful about the word “they.” I knew one woman who I had not guessed had a family background of indigenous heritage, but it came out once several years after I first knew her. It may have been in connection with a workplace talk I gave about some local history that involved Indians. She said she had a brother who was, “into all that stuff,” about modern indigenous culture, but she was not interested in identifying with it.
So it depends on the person. Some people have assimilated, and some haven’t gone that far.
Fancy that. People in a group don’t all think alike, no matter how we think they should be grouped.
I agree that an investigation, a complete investigation should be conducted. As painful as it is a look back should be a reminder for future policy makers that their decisions should be made with a historical perspective on what was right, and what went horribly wrong.
Lest we forget this is not just a problem for Canadians. This is a problem that knows no borders.
“They?”
Every documented pagan society in history has, at one time or another, engaged in cannibalism. North American natives did it more than most.