— Musings —07.12.2021 09:34 AM
Dear deniers
To those posting here that the bodies of children at residential schools is in doubt, or debated, or not true: you will be blocked by me. Doubting, debating or denying the historical reality of the Shoah is Holocaust denial. You are engaged in the modern Canadian equivalent.
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) July 12, 2021
Of course there are bodies of children at graveyards (some graveyards are lost/forgotten) near residential schools. History told us that and the TRC told us that in 2015. What we do not know is if the children had TB/influenza when they arrived there, if the death statistics are worse than other Canadians during that era, etc.
The residential schools were a terrible thing but let’s do a proper study.
Fred, respectively yes, let’s get the truth and “do it right”
However, the outrage is not how these HUMAN BEINGS died or if they mirrored other statistics. The outrage is the unmarked graves without a snip of a record of what happened. The outrage is that in the case of Cowessess for example there were markers removed by the church but not the markers of the nuns who died there – those survive.
I can access Ontario Archives of vital statistics for the 1850s to the 1950s, after 1870s very few gaps exist in these records. The failure of churches to make their records public to these people is part of the outrage. Churches have been making these sorts of records for 100s of years. Some are lost, most lost are older records, rarely are ALL records lost they are largely being withheld. One must wonder why?
People died in places like Auschwitz because of disease as well as abuse. Some had medical experimentation done. They were assigned numbers to replace names. They had their hair shorn and were issued nondescript uniforms and tossed in unmarked graves when they passed.
My question, while we are “doing this right”, is it necessary to gather statistics that lessen our collective guilt?
If our forefathers had tattooed a number on these poor souls or killed more, would it be easier to call this a Holocaust? Or do we need to find a less terrifying word than Genocide to protect our Canadian reputation?
I have no doubt that some of the name shaming going on today is over the top. That is not today’s argument. The argument is for governments to stop impeding the native efforts to locate graves, stop holding up issues in the courts and for church groups to come clean with records and outright and unconditionally apologize for what their organizations did and did WRONG.
OUR Truth and Reconciliation commission called for these things to be done. Natives are only asking us to fulfill our promises.
So please let’s quietly gather statistics for another time and place. A proper study? I think TRC WAS our study.
My shame is that it took the “smoking gun” of 215 unmarked graves for me to be outraged. Why do any of us need even one more grave, or one piece of statistical evidence to simply acknowledge wrong was done?
Thank you Phil in London.
Fulfilling our promises would be a great first step. The link below draws out a road map if we want to walk the full distance to reconciliation.
It was suggested more than 5 yrs ago yet because of Premier Pallister and his ilk clinging to the discovery doctrine and the PM, who talks a big game but won’t commit to several TRC recommendations – most recently # 94 , we haven’t even laced up our travelling shoes.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/the-roadblock-to-reconciliation-canadas-origin-story-is-false/article29951998/
Please read the press release:
https://www.aqam.net/sites/default/files/20210630%20-%20aqam%20media%20Release%20-%20Statement%20on%20discovery%20of%20unmarked%20graves.pdf
This is from the band who discovered the graves at the St. Eugene Mission site.
Their account is much calmer and factual than most. I know nothing about the other instances. This is the one where I live.
There has certainly been misinformation circulating.
To my knowledge there are no “mass “ graves and most probably were marked with crosses at the time. It was religious orders who ran them so everyone likely got a Christian burial ( an indignity -btw -if you weren’t born or voluntarily converted in that tradition)
Even if mortality rates were statistically equal to other Canadians ( probably unlikely as we now know that ACE’s cause poor health outcomes and increased death) that wouldn’t absolve us of the real outrage.
When the schools closed and any markers once there fell into disrepair hundreds and hundreds of aboriginal children went missing and NOBODY CARED about them but their families and communities! When they asked about them they were told nothing. When they told us there were lost children who needed to be found and remembered NOBODY BELIEVED them. When they asked for help finding them NOBODY HELPED . Even today TRC # 71 -76 have remained mostly unfulfilled and many record keepers seem to be actively resisting reconciliation.
The horror is not just the indignity those children suffered from the time they were snatched away to the time of their burial – it’s compounded by the message we’ve been sending to the aboriginal nations about their missing children : We don’t care about you . We don’t believe you. We will not help you. We will not treat you or recognize you as equal founding nations of our country !
( ACE = adverse childhood experiences)
* – most recently #45
And since I’m back- here’s a link to the call to action because it should be all over social media (and musings)
every day .
https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Calls_to_Action_English2.PDF
Canada has a problem with identity theft, propaganda, surveillance – it;’s a police state that enables bottom rung human garbage in entitlement networks =- not worth being alive in this country, I need for the minister of justice to intervene because right now this feels way too much like a police state.