Oct 26, 2023·edited Oct 26, 2023Liked by Michelle Stirling
Thank you for directing and boldly going after the fable from Kamloops with its juvenile tooth that turned out to be animal, the rib bone that disappeared, dead 3-year-olds and the 6-year-olds who secretly buried them at night, a prime minister with a teddy bear kneeling over a known Catholic cemetery, the underlying moral of good hunter-gatherers and evil white Christians, and me - fired for not transmitting to my students the twisted idea that teachers in just one school murdered 215 of their students.
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
Thank you Michelle for your tireless efforts to expose the truth. We are all in your debt.
Nina Green has done incredible work. I am so grateful that she allowed me to include her work on the Kamloops septic tiles discovery - but it has been available for some time on her own site and the mainstream press are either not looking for answers or specifically avoiding the truth. She is meticulous in her research and commentary. I hope her work gets more recognition and Canadians will finally be freed from this tangled mess.
Mea culpa maxima, Michelle. That was an unforgiveable faux pax on my part. I must of had a seniors moment. My comments were intended for you. I have since made the correction. As Winston Churchill once said:
Ha ha - very cute. No problem, but honestly, it is Nina Green who has done the virtually irrefutable detective work. I would say my role is helping synthesize and provide some plain language history and context for folks. Glad you like it.
Thank you for speaking out. I find myself questioning the msm narrative even though my father had his own story to tell. Unfortunately my father passed away in 2005 but in his drunken rambling he would talk of his time spent in Onion Lake residential school. In the years past I discovered he & his 2 brothers were placed in the school as their Dene mother had died after childbirth. I hope to learn the truth one day.
There may be records that you could access that might offer a clue or two. Many people were orphaned and sent to residential school, effectively these served as orphanages before such provincial services were created. There are some stories and references about epidemics and orphans in this collections of essays that might offer some historical context for you. I do think that Indigenous people ARE suffering ambiguous losses because so many people died and 'disappeared' from their lives - and I do think that unresolved grief has been carried forward, but without the historical context, it is unsettling. https://michellestirling.com/2023/07/28/ambiguous-losses-epidemics-orphans-and-unmarked-graves/ If people think they were dragged off to residential school because their parents didn't love them (which a child might think) is one thing; if they understand that a parent (or both) died, and there was no one else to help them, then the residential school might be seen in a different light. Of course it would still be so difficult for a child to lose a parent then be swept off into a strange new world - but it helps make sense of it all with the context of the time, or that's my view. I hope this might be helpful.
Linda, some time back I came upon a thesis about the Onion Lake schools -- there were two there -- that might interest you (if you haven't already accessed it). Here is what I have in my notes:
https://harvest.usask.ca/handle/10388/etd-06162011-134052 1993 M.A. thesis by Sylvie Marceau-Kozicki. Lots of good details comparing the Roman Catholic St. Anthony’s school and the Anglican St. Barnabas residential school. Excellent bibliography. Well written, 254 typewritten and OCRd pages, so a little difficult to read on screen. Several positive former-student accounts (search on “Ivan” or “Eric”). 1928 fire was purposely set by two male students (didn’t destroy whole building; old buildings of RC school were destroyed in a separate fire that same night, cause unknown). Dec. 1, 1943 fire that destroyed St. Barnabas was not considered arson; apparently started in laundry room).
It's a while since I read (skimmed) this thesis, but I think you'll find it interesting, even if it doesn't lead you to anything concrete about your father's experience there.
Another source you might be interested in is this book (long out of print, but still available through some online second-hand booksellers): *The Doctor Rode Side-saddle* (1974) by Ruth M. Buck, whose parents ran the Anglican (St. Barnabas) IRS in its early years.
I let Hannaford's speech play in the background while I did some other reading. If anyone is wanting to hear his remarks on the graves question in particular, you'll find them at 23:30 to about 29:00.
Thanks for the article and your document, Michelle.
https://irshdc.ubc.ca/files/2021/06/Terminology_2021.pdf This one is dated June 9, 2021, and may be a preliminary version of the one above, which is longer and is dated simply “June 2021”. This June 9 version is 7 pages and was incorporated as an APPENDIX in the later, longer doc. I noticed this paragraph in particular (appears in both docs):
<< While the preference of certain First Nations might be to refer to unmarked burials of their cherished relations, as the lens shifts to the framework for analysis and consideration of next steps, the international standards and protocols should inform terminology and dialogue. In this respect, the emerging international human rights and legal norm is to classify such sites as “mass graves”. >>
I share this only because I found it interesting that, in the early going at least (June 2021), UBC's IRS History and Dialogue Centre, seems to have made the conscious decision to use "mass graves."
Wow. Many thanks, Joan!!! Had not seen these. Seems that these reports manifested themselves rather quickly. Guess this also debunks the Gerbrandt-Carleton thesis that using 'mass graves' was just a little oopsie by media. Will read with interest.
I read those two docs a while back. I wondered what whoever the "emerging international human rights and legal norm" purveyors are had in mind when classifying such sites as "mass graves." I mean, clearly they are not by the conventional standard of the term. What's the purpose behind inventing a new meaning for a word that heretofore had a much different and more sinister (well, completely sinister) meaning?
Most people will not accept the TRC Report at full face value until it has been dissected page by page under the guidance of a person or group of people who are totally removed and have no predisposition as to what the facts truly represent (televised). So that every Canadian may understand why we were labelled genocidal by our own Prime Minister without a legal defence.
What i’d really like to see is an op-ed or letter to the editor of the Globe asking why I should believe them about the Uyghurs, or atrocities in Ukraine or Gaza, etc., when they can’t even get this story in their own backyard straight.
I’m not a writer or an editor, but I hope you can refine your work into a more concise and shareable format. I’m over half way through but am finding it reads like a series of interconnecting and repetitive thoughts that doesn’t hammer home your position. Authorities need to go out there and excavate a few of those spots!
Thank you, Mark. You are correct. The first 30 pages or so are 'the report' but I tacked on several existing articles and my rebuttal to Sean Carleton going after Senator Lynn Beyak as some historical insights that people might not have. I felt there was need for an immediate response, as Sean Carleton is all over the media now with his report. Many things repeat because I have used them in various articles. But there are things that lots of people don't know, so... everyone has had the 'mass graves' pounded in their heads. Thought I would do some pounding of my own in one report. :) Your point is noted.
Ah Nigel, an ex boss and good man and... a Christian fascist? I was called a Christian fascist myself in print back in the say just for saying that free enterprise was consistent with Christianity.
Thank you for directing and boldly going after the fable from Kamloops with its juvenile tooth that turned out to be animal, the rib bone that disappeared, dead 3-year-olds and the 6-year-olds who secretly buried them at night, a prime minister with a teddy bear kneeling over a known Catholic cemetery, the underlying moral of good hunter-gatherers and evil white Christians, and me - fired for not transmitting to my students the twisted idea that teachers in just one school murdered 215 of their students.
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
Thank you Michelle for your tireless efforts to expose the truth. We are all in your debt.
Nina Green has done incredible work. I am so grateful that she allowed me to include her work on the Kamloops septic tiles discovery - but it has been available for some time on her own site and the mainstream press are either not looking for answers or specifically avoiding the truth. She is meticulous in her research and commentary. I hope her work gets more recognition and Canadians will finally be freed from this tangled mess.
Mea culpa maxima, Michelle. That was an unforgiveable faux pax on my part. I must of had a seniors moment. My comments were intended for you. I have since made the correction. As Winston Churchill once said:
"Never have so many, owed so much, to so few"
Ha ha - very cute. No problem, but honestly, it is Nina Green who has done the virtually irrefutable detective work. I would say my role is helping synthesize and provide some plain language history and context for folks. Glad you like it.
Thank you for speaking out. I find myself questioning the msm narrative even though my father had his own story to tell. Unfortunately my father passed away in 2005 but in his drunken rambling he would talk of his time spent in Onion Lake residential school. In the years past I discovered he & his 2 brothers were placed in the school as their Dene mother had died after childbirth. I hope to learn the truth one day.
There may be records that you could access that might offer a clue or two. Many people were orphaned and sent to residential school, effectively these served as orphanages before such provincial services were created. There are some stories and references about epidemics and orphans in this collections of essays that might offer some historical context for you. I do think that Indigenous people ARE suffering ambiguous losses because so many people died and 'disappeared' from their lives - and I do think that unresolved grief has been carried forward, but without the historical context, it is unsettling. https://michellestirling.com/2023/07/28/ambiguous-losses-epidemics-orphans-and-unmarked-graves/ If people think they were dragged off to residential school because their parents didn't love them (which a child might think) is one thing; if they understand that a parent (or both) died, and there was no one else to help them, then the residential school might be seen in a different light. Of course it would still be so difficult for a child to lose a parent then be swept off into a strange new world - but it helps make sense of it all with the context of the time, or that's my view. I hope this might be helpful.
These are some Onion Lake files. I don't think they are the ones you want, but it may be of interest to see what was happening historically. https://indiandayschools.org/files/RG10_607-1_PART_1.pdf
Thank-you so much.
No problem. My pleasure. All the best.
I did this video hoping to offer some healing for the great trauma this whole issue of unmarked graves has created. https://youtu.be/7FswF3_v440
Linda, some time back I came upon a thesis about the Onion Lake schools -- there were two there -- that might interest you (if you haven't already accessed it). Here is what I have in my notes:
https://harvest.usask.ca/handle/10388/etd-06162011-134052 1993 M.A. thesis by Sylvie Marceau-Kozicki. Lots of good details comparing the Roman Catholic St. Anthony’s school and the Anglican St. Barnabas residential school. Excellent bibliography. Well written, 254 typewritten and OCRd pages, so a little difficult to read on screen. Several positive former-student accounts (search on “Ivan” or “Eric”). 1928 fire was purposely set by two male students (didn’t destroy whole building; old buildings of RC school were destroyed in a separate fire that same night, cause unknown). Dec. 1, 1943 fire that destroyed St. Barnabas was not considered arson; apparently started in laundry room).
It's a while since I read (skimmed) this thesis, but I think you'll find it interesting, even if it doesn't lead you to anything concrete about your father's experience there.
Another source you might be interested in is this book (long out of print, but still available through some online second-hand booksellers): *The Doctor Rode Side-saddle* (1974) by Ruth M. Buck, whose parents ran the Anglican (St. Barnabas) IRS in its early years.
Thank you! I definitely will check this out.
I let Hannaford's speech play in the background while I did some other reading. If anyone is wanting to hear his remarks on the graves question in particular, you'll find them at 23:30 to about 29:00.
Thanks for the article and your document, Michelle.
I'm working my way through your longer document, Michelle, and wondering if you ever saw these UBC documents:
https://si-rshdc-2020.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2021/06/MassGravesFramework-TerminologyPaper-June-2021.pdf A document published by the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at UBC (IRSHDC) in June 2021, titled “Considering the Legal and Human Rights Framework for Addressing Mass Graves Connected to Indian Residential Schools”.
And:
https://irshdc.ubc.ca/files/2021/06/Terminology_2021.pdf This one is dated June 9, 2021, and may be a preliminary version of the one above, which is longer and is dated simply “June 2021”. This June 9 version is 7 pages and was incorporated as an APPENDIX in the later, longer doc. I noticed this paragraph in particular (appears in both docs):
<< While the preference of certain First Nations might be to refer to unmarked burials of their cherished relations, as the lens shifts to the framework for analysis and consideration of next steps, the international standards and protocols should inform terminology and dialogue. In this respect, the emerging international human rights and legal norm is to classify such sites as “mass graves”. >>
I share this only because I found it interesting that, in the early going at least (June 2021), UBC's IRS History and Dialogue Centre, seems to have made the conscious decision to use "mass graves."
Wow. Many thanks, Joan!!! Had not seen these. Seems that these reports manifested themselves rather quickly. Guess this also debunks the Gerbrandt-Carleton thesis that using 'mass graves' was just a little oopsie by media. Will read with interest.
I read those two docs a while back. I wondered what whoever the "emerging international human rights and legal norm" purveyors are had in mind when classifying such sites as "mass graves." I mean, clearly they are not by the conventional standard of the term. What's the purpose behind inventing a new meaning for a word that heretofore had a much different and more sinister (well, completely sinister) meaning?
Most people will not accept the TRC Report at full face value until it has been dissected page by page under the guidance of a person or group of people who are totally removed and have no predisposition as to what the facts truly represent (televised). So that every Canadian may understand why we were labelled genocidal by our own Prime Minister without a legal defence.
What i’d really like to see is an op-ed or letter to the editor of the Globe asking why I should believe them about the Uyghurs, or atrocities in Ukraine or Gaza, etc., when they can’t even get this story in their own backyard straight.
Good point. This is in the backyard.
I’m not a writer or an editor, but I hope you can refine your work into a more concise and shareable format. I’m over half way through but am finding it reads like a series of interconnecting and repetitive thoughts that doesn’t hammer home your position. Authorities need to go out there and excavate a few of those spots!
Thank you, Mark. You are correct. The first 30 pages or so are 'the report' but I tacked on several existing articles and my rebuttal to Sean Carleton going after Senator Lynn Beyak as some historical insights that people might not have. I felt there was need for an immediate response, as Sean Carleton is all over the media now with his report. Many things repeat because I have used them in various articles. But there are things that lots of people don't know, so... everyone has had the 'mass graves' pounded in their heads. Thought I would do some pounding of my own in one report. :) Your point is noted.
Ah Nigel, an ex boss and good man and... a Christian fascist? I was called a Christian fascist myself in print back in the say just for saying that free enterprise was consistent with Christianity.