06.24.2021 09:22 PM

I have a suggestion

6 Comments

  1. irreversible road map to freedom says:

    Prisoners in the 19th century at least had due process.

    I honestly don’t know what the hell we call these institutions.

    As a white settler, I think we all need to learn how to STFU and do an awful lot of listening / reading. During the lockdown I took two Indigenous Studies courses online. Major eye opener. I’ll never think about Canadian history the same again.

    • Phil in London says:

      That is the best advice for all. Shut the fuck up and more importantly LISTEN. I’m a fourth generation Canadian, this is my home but that in no way diminishes the need to listen, than knowing we can’t change the past, ask a simple question “what do we need to do to atone, and of course help now that you’ve got our attention?”

      It should be a huge priority for our next parliament to advance to the reconciliation part of T&R.

      Our collective paternalistic and judgemental tendencies mean we have a lot to learn. Just look at JWR’s dust up with a former colleague it shows how easy it is for us to slip into our “white man know best” routine.

      I have attended a number of native pow-wow. The ceremony, the pride, it enters your soul and you leave with a certain feeling of being cleansed. Maybe we all need to be dragged to more than one.

      • Phil in London says:

        I missed a comment on Warren’s original theme. He is right these were NOT schools but prison isn’t the right word either they were more like death camps. A big difference between the Holocaust in Germany and the one in Canada is the 40 or so years longer that ours preceded the Nazis and the 40 or so years it outlasts them.

        Germany on the whole accepts its blame and shame. Canada is only now sensing an awareness of what has been told to us for years.

        I watched a clip last night where they noted graves that had headstones removed BY THE CHURCH, it was current footage that shows one of the nuns headstones kept in pretty good state of repair. That’s as much proof as I need of church wrongs. Catholics need to exert pressure on their church to STFU and produce records. You can do this by withholding tithes – send them elsewhere and be sure to send your pastor a note explaining your disgust.
        Or you can do as some of us have, my church has been independent and virtual for 25 years. I try to live my life without going into a dark box to confess my sins to an old man behind a curtain.

        The royal family also need do the same atonement and frankly as heads of state this heretical line deserves a ton more criticism for what has happened on their watch. There is plenty of blame for us all.

        Is there any word on Trudeau dressing up in red face?

        • Wes W says:

          Not even close to death camps don’t be ridiculous. Atrocious things happened. But don’t be using those words they aren’t accurate.

  2. Pipes says:

    The Vatican has to take their share of the responsibility for these crimes against humanity. They need to reconcile their participation in these prisons in a tangible way. If not, why cant they be dragged into the International Court of Justice for an ass whooping. I have two first hand stories to recall about the Christian Brothers and one about a school in Alberta.

  3. Glen says:

    I’m not a believer in revisionist history and/or toppling of statues, not matter what I may think of the person said statue is of.

    That said, I am curious as to what the reaction would be to the statue of P.E.T. begging toppled & beheaded from many that celebrated the same happening to the MacDonald statue.

    Also, had it been a Conservative Indian Affairs Minister in power when the government took over the running of residential schools from the churches & the atrocities continued, and said person was still around – somehow I think the media would be very interested in getting his take on it to today.

    Why does the media still give the Laurentian Elites such a wide berth?

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