Today Canada apologized to Native Aboriginals in Canada for forcing 150,000 children to attend a state-funded Christian school while assimilating them to Canadian culture. I can only say that the Canadian Government is politically smart in this move. This was publicized internationally, admitting to mistakes of forcing acculturation of different ethnicities with traditions and ethics. Unlike many other administrations such as the United States, the admittance to error is never acknowledged but exacerbated through additional political woes, deceit and deaths, a good example would be the "War in Iraq." However, the political hypocrisies of the U.S. can be discussed at infinite lengths. Canada's acknowledgment and apology of forcing assimilation of cultures to Aboriginals was quite notable. Why? Pierre Elliott Trudeau was believed to be a pioneer in establishing a Canadian policy of multiculturalism known as the 1969 White Paper. This prevented Aboriginal policies and land right claims from further political continuity. In 1970, Aboriginals came up the the policy called the Red Papers, it was a mockery of the White Paper legality by affirming the complete opposite of what Aboriginal delegation was sought by Ottawa.
But today was that milestone between this literal duel-thought of what is politically right and wrong, Mr. Stephen Harper reaffirmed the coherency of multiculturalism and the right under the Canadian Constitution Act of 1982 for the Canadian Government to have Fiduciary Rights to Aboriginals, undeniable in legitimization of wrongful past acts, and that was witnessed by the international community. This can be seen as a step-forward, instead of political denial sought by our southern counter-parts. From now on, any Canadian Governmental malfeasant will be seen with an international address by the P.M. inaugurating an apology to the community inflicted.
Yours Truly,
-Waterloo University: Alex.C, PSCI-260
Canada in the Making,
http://www.canadiana.org/citm/themes/aboriginals/aboriginals12_e.html
BBC News, 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7447811.stm
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22 comments:
Aaniin
Today was difficult to process, it felt as if I were on an emotional roller-coaster. But I have chosen to remain positive. There is much to be optimistic about as there seemed to be sincerity in what was stated today. I hope that we can find a way to live together in harmony. That may seem very hokey to state but what is wrong with wanting good relations with the people who now inhabit this vast country with us. We have 2 beautiful children, is it too much to hope that they will not be looked down upon just because they are "Indian"? I believe there is much promise in the words spoken today. By all that spoke. Red Man and White Man alike. We all have gifts, there are teachings of that. We simply need to embrace these gifts and respect each other for our differences. Name-calling will not result in anything but hurt. And there has already been too much of that. Lets open our minds and hearts and give our children a chance to grow up in a world where they never have to experience anything remotely similar to what the survivors of these schools have had to live through. We owe it to our children and our grandparents. When I was a young man, my father was not greatest at sharing how his feelings and he acknowledged it by saying to me one time "I only want for you to be better than me". I did not understand that until I became a father. Now I tell my son and daughter how much I love them every single day. Because I know my father did not have that from his father, my grandfather was a hard man that grew up in residential schools. I know my father is proud of me as a father, he has taught me well. I love you Dad. So to all my relations out there across Turtle Island, let us be proud today and let us start the healing journey that has been denied us for these many decades. Let us start becoming once again who we were many, many moons ago. Strong, compassionate, loving and wise people. Let us share that so our children and our grandchildren have better chances than we ever had.
Meegwetch, Ekosi.
Little Drum
Peguis First Nation
Turtle Island
Thought all three opposition leaders were much more explicit and sincere.
And yes, I though Harper was quite partisan in his opening remarks. The absence of mention of Gary Merasty and Ralph Goodale was apalling and very noticeable.
The Country of Canada is responsible for the wrongs visited upon the Aboriginal populations form the date it became a country.”
I accept what you stated for the facts paragraph, but your argument doesn’t critically hold all the way, to a thorough extent. It’s simple to understand why, too; and it’s that the Canadian govt was established by the colonialists, etc., who mostly were descendants of the people who genocided the FNP of Canada.
It’s sort of like taking a book and only changing the cover, or that and a little substance. The real substance mostly remains in place.
So the descendants of the Euro-invaders, colonialists, and so on committed much genocide prior to the formation of the official Canada, and the central, federal govt was owing then. Provincial govts owe only when there were injustices committed against the Cdn FNP tribes of these provinces; and Quebec joined the British way around 200 years ago, even of the govt presently known as the Quebec govt was then NOT known as Quebec at all. I’m not sure when it began to be called ‘Quebec’, but I know that Quebecers are owe real reparations of critical kind towards the Cdn FNP of this province’s territory.
The federal govt owes a lot; and all provinces that chose to join the confederation inherently took on some of the responsibilities of the federal govt.
There’s a lot that is owed to the Cdn FNP, from the Maritime provinces to the west coast, and what can be provided should be. Sovereignty is definitely one treaty that needs to be respected. Ceasing the expropriations of Cdn FNP from their lands today, and ceasing the major crimes aimed at stealing their lands and natural resources only for the rich elite pigs to … become ever richer pigs with; these are examples of things that the Canadian govts MUST see to stopping. MUCH is owed and plenty can be provided.
Seeking escape-route excuses won’t be supported by me; but we know the rich always get their way anyway. Them and their supporters, that is.
Thanks for your signature link on the environment forum, yes you're right.
You are supporting a good cause.
This can be a turning point, I hope it is not just a political strategy, this can be the beginning of giving back some of what was taken, though some things take generations to restore.
we need to move from destruction, exploitation, punishment for difference, to restore some of the rich diverse cultures, and allow ourselves as newcomers to be transformed and learn from the First Nations.
It would be nice if we abolished every trace of the old canadian “Gradual civilizing Act” and learned from our Peacemakers and keepers…
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/index.html
The Six Nations:
the Oldest Living Participatory Democracy on Earth
One has to be realistic in the assessment of the facts and legal responsibilities. As Independent tribes the natives signed treaties with the British crown and not with the non existing Government of Canada prior to 1867. Canada certainly inherited the obligations to those tribes when it became a nation but it did not inherit the responsibiliy for what happened in the Colony of Newfoundland when they joined Canada in 1949.
As example it a fact the Iroquois and Hurons fought a long war against one another.It a fact that the Woodland cree of Quebec pushed into Western canada and drove many Indian tribes out. Just because those tribes are now all part of Canada, it hardly means the Canadian Government now to blame for all that happened before 1867. Haidi Indians used to roam the West Coast on raids to take slaves. This hardly means The Government of Canada responsible.
If we wish to bring justice to the peoples we have wrong we need to have our facts correct. We need to recognize that the Aboriginals of Canada are not a single block of peoples all with the same histories and grievances.
We have duties and obligations as a Country to live up to. These are very different then duties and obligations of an individual and are very different then the duties and obligations ascribed to a people just because they might be descended from “white Settlers”.
The duties and obligations as a country can not be debated. We wronged the Natives and this remains a great stain on our history. That is from 1867 on and including the treaties we undertook as a nation to honor on behalf of the Colonial government before it.
As an Individual i was merely born here. I had no say in the matter. It is what it is..As an individual I am responsible for my own actions and not that of what some person might have did in Newfoundland 200 years ago. For all I know my genetic makeup might be closer to that of the natives of this land then some guy from Scotland. Its makes no sense to ascribe a collective guilt based on the color of ones skin.
As to the rich elite pigs. My basic belief is that resources should never become the property of a Corporation. I am more and more taken by the notion the natives had when the European settlers first came here. That being that one could not “OWN” the land.
Capitalism as structured in the west is based upon the theft and exploitation of anothers resources.
Corporatism and the greed of individuals is our greatest stumbling block towards achieving true justice and fairness.
Governments should always put the needs of the people above that of the Corporation.
The Governments claim they can not “afford” to properly compensate these peoples wronged. That is a lie. The only reason they can not afford to do it is because every dollar or resource transferred to those wronged is one less dollar profit to these multinationals.
Yes, this is long overdue. I had the great opportunity to interview a residential school survival for a first-year university project. She took me and my friends into a private circle, and taught all of us (the children of her oppressors) something true about graciousness and love.
I come from an abusive background. What this woman told me about residential schools shook me to the core. I have made the study of teaching of Canada's 'other' history my life's work...
Mr. Harper, I implore you to follow this public opportunity up with some real change. Respect our founding mothers and fathers, the First Nations. Be true to the word of the Kelowna Accord. Allow the First Nations to BE - an invitation into an urban environment (by way of a thinly veiled exposé on the CBC) is not a solution to poor water, medicine, and education.
To anyone from the First Nations reading this today - Meeg'wetch for sharing the land, meeg'wetch for sharing the truth, and meeg'wetch for your patience - we're getting there, slowly but surely. I hope one day that this kind of thing will not be news - one day, I hope all of my brothers and sisters will have the same respect for your continued friendship that I do.
You, the First Nations, have done all of us a great service giving us somewhere safe to live in the World. I'm sorry my ancestors repaid you with pain and suffering. It is my hope that we can move forward in respect, whilst NEVER forgetting the mistakes that can never be made again...
Oh, the 'humanity' of our Prime Minister apologizing for a 100-year wrong! Yet, imagine the infamy! The mother who, for money, ignores the abuse of her child at the hands of strange men. The father who turns a deaf ear to cries of his child being tortured to advance his career. There are many odious ways and motivations at work when people sell their children for profit. Yet within the chambers of our government, not an eyebrow is raised, not a murmur of objection, as Canada plays the very same and sole role upon the international stage as it too, for profit, plays deaf, dumb and blind to the torture and imprisonment of one of its own citizen children. How utterly despicable the cowardice of Stephen Harper and his Cabinet, how craven and depraved is their personal corruption. Whereas we with hearts, who do more than shake hands with our children, have spent many a sleepless night when they are in peril or pain, must envy the sleep of Stephen Harper. We truly resent how he can snore away, for years, in silk pyjamas on silk sheets, a teddy bear held tight, a fat thumb to suck, while a thousand miles away in a black jail cell with no windows, a prison guard's face for a moon, upon a steel bed lies, for years, so painfully alone in this world, terrorized, a citizen child of Canada, to rot, to die, perchance, if the Conservative Party is lucky, a quiet death, before the next election. It is the sleep of a psychopath, as it is with all of our politicians who ignore the plight of Omar Khadr.
Who cares you spammer, we don't care about your blog, you want my opinion there it is, stop spamming your link on our website!
Thanks for your post on our forum, yes Canada is multicultural and I love the Canadian Government! I am not overly fond of your criticism on your other Cap-And-Trade post but I will comment later. You see, I only came here in 1998, so there is no thinking I am not involved, there is certainty. Lets see, I arrive with $300 to my name in 1998. Never taken the pogie or handout, high school education only. And after 10 years I have a job, 2 cars and a house. And they want more money from me because the billions they get and the benefits they recieve means they can't fix their water!? Give me a break!
So Canada has been pretty good for you I see, you were not forced to lose your identity, You are a good immigrate I see, Well MY friend My blood been running on this Continent for eons. I can only see that you do not anything about the history of Canada, and be thank you that you came here in 1998 instead of in the past, bc may have been treat like crap this by some of the other canadians.
I have no problem with Harper apologizing on behalf of all Canadians as long as Mr. Fontaine and the other leaders understand that this is a huge olive branch extended by people like me who were not involved. In return , these leaders should encourage their people to accept the challenge to move forward by accepting the apology. I have had the opportunity to work with several aborginal groups and they is a wide disparity between them. Not all the problems are the fault of the white man and not all aborginal groups are mired in the past. Good luck.
The government's act of apology is symbolically significant yet it will only have real meaning if the leadership of Canada's First Nations reshape the context within which that group view the country and its governing body. This is an opportunity to empower our fellow First Nations citizens. It is an opportunity to define a future of possibility for this group of Canadians. It is an opportunity for all Canadians to reshape their acceptance of First Nation's people into a fair and just Canadian society. The Prime Minister's act of apology will only hold meaning if real change follows it. It is time those who felt victimized seek reconciliation and move forward within the context of being fully empowered. Absent real and measurable contextual change for aboriginal Canadians this apology will quickly ring hollow.
The parallell between the still continuing child abuse of our native citizens a hundred years ago and the child abuse of Omar Khadr today is precisely the point. How different the rank racism of then to the racist cowardice of politicans of today? Do both hold to the perceived prejudices of their colonialist masters, be it England then or the United States today? Do both fear being tarred with the brush of 'sympathy for the enemy' if one dared extend their hand in to a helpless child? Do not both see no profit for their political careers or business interests in doing what our common humanity demands? Are not the politicians today repeating the very behavior which only now, after a 100-year's, feel 'comfortable' apologizing for then? The grotesque hypocrisy is astounding. They all resemble the millions of craven Nazi functionaries who, surrendering their duty to humanity, stood silent in the face of brutality and in the face of mass murder.
I live in northern Ontario where there are many reserves. The only people I know who attended a residential school in Spanish talked about it as a positive experience in their life. They were very grateful they had attended. They discussed this positive aspect briefly last night on CBC. It is important to note that not all experiences were negative.
Another point I would like to make is that physical abuse was quite commonplace in all schools in the fifties and sixties. I witnessed incidents as a child in school that would bring lawsuits today, but were considered normal discipline back then.
This is not to condone what happened. I can imagine what young children went through being pulled from their homes and a lifestyle that was familiar and comforting and placed in the tough, regimental schools that was the norm back then. I wonder how any child that is packed off to boarding school today feels?
It is not 'the lack of understanding many Canadians have of aboriginal history.', It is the lack of political will by our politicans. Many Canadians want to learn and understand more about Aboriginal history. The sad really is that many Canadians do understand, but our learned have tried to hide both the good and bad of the dynamic history of Aboriginals. We hope that this is the start of a new trend to include Aboriginal history and culture into Canadian history and culture.
Canada seems to be finally truly coming to terms with native and aboriginal issues. I would have hoped that our first nations people would have established a strong middle class, reached more educational milestones and quite possibly be leading the world in expertise on climate change and in environmental science by now. It hasn't happened - yet. I remain hopeful that Canada and the provinces will finally do their part, and perhaps in 40 years, that point would finally have been reached. But more than just apologizing, I think government must review all of its actions even where they have technically defeated the legal actions of first nations, to determine what is moral and what needs to be done. Every Canadian child has the same basic moral right to health, education and social services, whether the law says so or not. An apology and examination of the entire residential schools issue is a good step. However, Canada needs to open its eyes and look further into just how the churches fell into such abusive patterns. They should not be excused or let off lightly now. I suspect the churches took into many battered children, inlcuding sexually abused young women, who grew up in the church to be nuns and teachers to become desperate battering caregivers. It likely was only kind of life they had ever known, at a time when Canada had precious little understanding or standards of care. We need to know. We should examine how the church went wrong as the same kind of victimization is no doubt occurring elsewhere, probably in poor countries, right now. Finally, I hopeCanada wakes up and takes a stand against all human irghts abusers, including organized religions. Although Ottawa will not contract with human rights abusers, it turns a blind eye to the provinces when they provide property tax relief to churches who practise enshrined discrimination against women, etc. Let them pay their own taxes!! Tax credits are not for bigots. We need one moral outlook, not hypocrisy.
Great. Another useless apology for unforgivable sins that have absolutely nothing to do with the current political regime, much less the people of Canada. Should we ask each incoming German Chancellor to apologize for his grandparents atrocities? However senseless, this would make far more sense than apologizing for the sins of our great-great grandfathers based on proximity in time.
True apologies come in the form of modifying behavior. Behavior has been modified and then some int his case, to the point that our failed paternalistic policies have created a far worse problem for the Aboriginal Canadian people than anything caused by the tragedy of Residential Schools. Waste of breath.
Step forward, more like a step back?
It's great to see an official apology from the head of the Canadian government. That said, the last thing the natives need is a "pity party" and to be reminded how badly their ancestors were treated. Let this apology close this chapter and have the natives focus on the present and the future and let the past live where it belongs. Time to focus on prosperity instead of victimhood.
Thank you Stephen Harper for doing what needed to be done a long time ago. I've never been a fan of the Conservatives, but this touching apology is making me look at your party in a different light. Just for the record I am not native, but I have long observed their deep pain over past events. This apology is a great step in the right direction to healing that great hurt. This is indeed something to celebrate. Stepping Forward!!!!
I don't mind sharing my personal opinion, but seriously change the signature on the env. forum. I agree with you for the basis of this. I grew up in Atlantic Canada. I am English. My Father was a bigit but taught me to think for myself and make my own decisions. I thank him for breaking the mold. I have not understood and do not understand the atrocities that have taken place every where. I grew up very nieve thinking how great Canada was but have read between many lines. I have been religious but am apaled at the atrocities of religions. Canada is no better or worse. To be proud we need to choose a direction and follow it.
Sorry Alex, I have never went to residential school but my Mom, uncles, aunts , cousins, all did. I grew up not knowing who i was because i never learned to speak my language. To this day people will not speak their language because they remember what happened to them in residential school if they did. I can't imagine what went on there but have heard many awful stories. One elder told me he never knew a word of english when he was a 6 year old boy. When he first went there he was beaten for speaking indian.
To all the First Nations people reading: I am so very sorry for all that you and your ancestors suffered. I remember reading about the residential schools a few years ago and being absolutely shocked by what I was learning and embarassed by my own ignorance. My prayers and heartfelt love to you. There are white Canadians who despise what was done in the past and strive to do well by you in the present and future.
Stop spamming on the environment news network, it's really annoying, as for my thoughts, Canada publicly denounces a mistake, that's a good thing, comparing it with the U.S. was funny, they are RIDDLED with political errors.
-Peace,
Eagle of Flames
Canada was all talks and bureaucratic dogs until now, they finally address their malfeasance. About time if you ask me, throughout history it's been taking over their lands, abusing their children and resources, a little apology does it all ;)
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