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Canada’s Shame

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So Canada, friendly, open country right? Think again.

In the news this week the remains of 215 indigenous children found on the site of a “residential school” in British Columbia, some as young as 3. Absolutely appalling.

The residential schools for indigenous children were set up around the time of the birth of Canada as a nation and continued well into the last century. They were mostly run by the catholic church, the main policy being that indigenous children should be forcibly removed from their parents and schooled in a way so that they could better assimilate into the mainly white population of European origin. They were then subjected in many cases to physical and sexual assault and the finding of so many bodies possibly indicated that genocide was also carried out, or at least they were kept in such desperate conditions that allowed the uncontrollable spreading of deadly diseases.

This may be the tip of the iceberg and there are now calls to have digs at all the former school sites across Canada to see if there are more bodies buried.

I can hardly think of anything more appalling, even today the treatment of indigenous people here leaves a lot to be desired. So sad. Various prime ministers including the current one have ‘apologised” but that is the absolute least that should be done. The Pope has typically refused to apologise on behalf of the catholic church. I am not a Canadian by birth but I am one now and I feel so ashamed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system

2

Comments

  1. Institutional Catholicism is a source of great evil, in my view. Thankfully, all the evil priest/nuns scandals in Ireland have decimated the numbers training as priests and the church has less sway over society. The sooner it withers into oblivion the better.

  4. I was going to say it says more about the Catholic Church than Canada doesn’t it? Is there evidence that the wider population supported this? Having seen the movies Amen and Spotlight nothing much would surprise me, building on regular exposé in the media. Henry VIII was right! 😉

    • Damn right, Twang. Spotlight is excellent Script, acting, direction..

      And all so wonderfully understated and nuanced.

      It captures the dawning realisation among the Chicago Tribune journalists of the extent of the paedophilia among the RC priesthood so very well.

    • As stated above not just the Catholic Church, it was government policy, instigated by first PM Sir John A McDonald (who was born in Scotland)

    • I also think that this reflects more on the Catholic Church than Canada. There are horrifying stories here in Australia as well. If a motorcycle club had the back-history of the Catholic Church (even just the recent back-history!) they would have been outlawed long ago and their assets repossessed.

      • Once more, they were certainly running a large number of the schools but the policy to “assimilate” the chldren involving taking them from their parents was from the government. Basically instututional racism from top to bottom in society. And it is still there, often shown in police attitude today towards first nations people. the catholic church is/was just one tool in the box @Podicle

        There are occasional protests even now, just before the pandemic started barricades on train tracks shut down the whole of Canada’s rail network in the country for several weeks.

  5. Kevin Rudd said sorry to Indigenous Australians eight years ago, and the question now is ‘okay you’ve said sorry, why is it still happening?’. There are some great people out there trying to lift indigenous communities and protect their lore, but systemically not much has been done since.

    Watched this on TV last night, a history from another perspective

    Unfortunately it was followed by this vacuous piece of bilge

    I felt a bit sorry for Karydas having to follow that. In the interview Ramo talked about the album he released last year that was written five years ago while we contemplating suicide, and he thought the album would be his epitath. She talked about her ‘journey’.

    • Governmental strategy, at both Federal and Local levels, is absolutley batshit wrong and does nothing to address the problems, especially in the remote bush areas.

      The closer I get to it, the more ridiculous it becomes.

    • I have to disagree with much of this. There is a huge amount being done by many people across many sectors (and across the political spectrum) to help indigenous Australians, with large amounts of money pumped into the system, often with no measurable effect apart from creating battle lines within the communities themselves.

      The problem is that many of these communities are fundamentally broken after years of neglect, abuse, addiction etc. Each successive generation becomes normalised to these behaviours. When you are in these communities, your natural instinct is to grab the small kids and get them the hell out of there, but of course that isn’t possible.

      Repeatedly beating up non-indigenous Australians over how crap/racist we are and how little we care does absolutely nothing except alienate people like me who are desperate for a solution. Where communities have turned themselves around to an extent (like Lockhart River, my namesake) the change has come from leadership within the community itself, and it’s this leadership that no amount of funding can spontaneously create.

      • Thanks Podicle, happy to be stood corrected, no offence intended. My view of this world has been largely limited to what I read/hear in the news, the lack of genuine empathy from the upper echelons of our political system, along with some very angry indigenous speakers we’ve had at work recently.

        You’re absolutely right about leadership within the community being key.

      • I agree with some of that but if we take one particular aspect of Australian society – the criminal justice system – in which Indigenous Australians are massively over represented, only a governmental policy shift will effect change.
        Specifically, this includes justice reinvestment and education programs which simply don’t fund themselves.
        (PS, at the risk of sounding overly snippy, Indigenous Australians is always capitalised).

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