Sorry about the haphazard way this post was published. My kids were bugging me and I was rushing (becuase I didn't do my work the night before...but still, blaming the kids at least partially in this case I would say is fair). Anyway, as Kevin Byrne pointed out (Thanks Kevin) I accidentally published the piece without the footnotes!! Terrible. The issue has been corrected , but the version of the article that is in your email inboxes will remain forever without those critical footnotes. A fact I will lose much sleep over but in time will learn to live with. Sorry friends, my bad. - James
James Pew quotes an anonymous teacher: “To be a history teacher in Canada is to understand self-censorship, fear of misstep and revisionism that so many other teachers must have felt behind the iron curtain. It is to see that...truth is dangerous.”
Being a history teacher in many democratic countries is unsafe, and in France Samuel Paty was beheaded in 2020. I am grateful for this article as I lost my livelihood for questioning in class the obvious lie of a mass grave of 215 teacher-murdered students at one Kamloops school. Why Canadians tolerate woke authoritarians and the dark tales they spin about our past is beyond me. They attempt to raise themselves on their own petard under the guise of knowledge-keeper when they are themselves are desperately afraid of great heaps of knowledge.
“Education is not memorizing that Hitler killed 6 million Jews. Education is understanding how millions of ordinary Germans were convinced that it was required. Education is learning how to spot the signs of history repeating itself.”
Education in reality:
“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”
Well, at least we have a coffee shop on every corner and watery beer, oh, and woke Brownshirt mobs roaming Canadian streets threatening others.
Many Westerners assume that AL-QUDS DAY is some sort of Islamic religious holiday. It is not. It is an event first defined by the IRANIAN government in 1979. Iran celebrates the event characteristically by putting on public display poster images of the city of Jerusalem, thematic speeches, art exhibitions reflecting the issue, and folkloric events.
.
AL-QUDS DAY celebrates Islamic World Domination. The following will explain why the entire concept is very problematic.
.
Al-QUDS (aka Jerusalem)
.
When Mohammad an Arabic War Lord, first defined the Islamic religion or cult it was limited to lands surrounding Medina and Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula. There is no mention of Al-Quds in the Qur’an, not even one. Two hundred years later things had changed and there were many more Muslims in the Middle East. Their ambitions increased.
.
The Qur’an never described miracles, and in fact it frequently defines them as the work of the Devil. None-the-less a Hadith was written that described the events of Mohammad’s death 200 years earlier. It described a miracle whereby Mohammad’s body was magically transported over-night hundreds, of miles across the desert to Jerusalem. It then states that he ascended to heaven from the Temple on the Mount, aka Al-Quds where he spoke to Jesus, Abraham, and Moses.
.
OK are you still with me on this ??? This is the basis for Muslim claims on Jerusalem, and the surrounding Judean and Samarian lands. Kinda convenient huh ???
.
The Qur’an is very clear that Islam will someday dominate the World. For the past 1400 years that has meant doubling its population as often, and as quickly as possible. That is a strategy well out of step with the today’s world, however the Word of Allah as recorded in the Qur’an is considered infallible.
.
TORONTO
.
Toronto is home to North America’s largest Muslim community. Since Oct 7th they have been protesting in the Toronto area, in Mississauga and Bampton in particular. For the past few years they have been allowed to hold an Al-Quds Day March in Downtown Toronto. It begins at the Christie Pits park, continues Eastward along Bloor and then South on University to the US Consulate. I’m reasonably certain that the Consulate in no way resembles and structure in Israel, so why it is target is a mystery. … Maybe.
.
Toronto recently elected Olivia Chow as its new Mayor, so it is not clear how she will deal with this matter. There are nearly as many Muslims living in Toronto, as those who voted for her, so this will be a ‘delicate’ issue for her to deal with.
.
EXTRACT
.
In Iran, the day's parades are sponsored and organized by the government. Events include mass marches and rallies. Senior Iranian leaders give fiery speeches condemning Israel, as well as the U.S. government. The crowds respond with chants of "Death to Istael", and "Death to America". According to Roger Howard, many Iranians under the age of 30 continue to participate in Quds Day events, though proportionately less than those on the streets. He adds that many Iranian students on campus say in private that the Arab-Israeli conflict has "nothing to do with us."
.
Quds Day protests have been held in parts of the Middle East and in London and Berlin and the United States. Marches in London have drawn up to 3,000 people, while Berlin saw 1,600 protestors in 2018. Rallies were held in at least 18 cities across the United States in 2017.
Granatstein's book has been at arms reach ever since it came out 25 years ago and is still a source of solace when confronted with what passes for history instruction today. My children went to school in the 1980's and when I found out what was masquerading as history I immediately began to compensate with home instruction supplemented by summer vacations to various historically significant destinations across Canada. It was clear as day that, like pigs in mud, we were living in a fools paradise teaching our children nothing but hog wash. Perhaps, in retrospect, this might explain Parliament's condemnation of Canada as a genocidal state and their confusion of who were the bad guys in WWII.
As for children being taught about the Jewish refugee ship, the SS St. Louis, it might be more appropriate, in contemporary times, in the context of the present genocide in Gaza, to teach about the American spy ship, the USS Liberty, which was attacked in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula on June 8th, 1967, by Israeli Air Force jet fighters and Navy torpedo boats resulting in the death of 34 crew members and wounding of 171 others. Supplemental reference might also be extended to the six civilian ships of the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" which were attacked on May 31st, 2010 in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, by the Israeli military, resulting in nine fatalities and 30 wounded.
"Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future." ~ Euripides
When you quote someone, James, you ought to provide a link, so we can get the guy's context. e.g. You thanked Thomas Peace for advertising a book where one Chapter was written by yourself, despite being "dismissive" of your IRSRG [Indian Residential School Research Group]. But you didn't give a link to the full article, which is below:
One of the points you made in your essay was, quote:
PEW: "In the postmodern era, the priority of vast areas of history teaching and historiography, and Granatstein is far from the only academic who noticed this, transitioned from evidence and facts, to morals and emotions. Western oppression became the source of historiographical obsession."
So I looked up your Thomas Peace guy and read around until he did a bit on the cancellation of Dundas and renaming previous "Dundas" places. Here is one of his gems, quote
PEACE: "In Toronto, rather than commemorating Henry Dundas, perhaps the city could use this moment as an opportunity to recognize Chloe Cooley, the woman whose resistance to her enslavement sparked the 1793 Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada. ... (snip; He talks about another slave named Small to replace Dundas Street in London Ontario) ... Cooley and Small demonstrate a different narrative of Canadian history that is opened by rethinking Dundas and the places named after him. Cooley demonstrates the reality that many early White-Canadians were enslavers and built their wealth on stolen lives. "
Right! A great change. Our White ancestors "built their wealth on stolen lives". The 30 to 40 thousand slave escapees via the underground railroad must have been so disappointed to come to Canada only to have their lives "stolen" again! Still a great example of moralizing by Mr. Peace a post-modern historical moralist of an exemplary sort.
Sorry about the haphazard way this post was published. My kids were bugging me and I was rushing (becuase I didn't do my work the night before...but still, blaming the kids at least partially in this case I would say is fair). Anyway, as Kevin Byrne pointed out (Thanks Kevin) I accidentally published the piece without the footnotes!! Terrible. The issue has been corrected , but the version of the article that is in your email inboxes will remain forever without those critical footnotes. A fact I will lose much sleep over but in time will learn to live with. Sorry friends, my bad. - James
James Pew quotes an anonymous teacher: “To be a history teacher in Canada is to understand self-censorship, fear of misstep and revisionism that so many other teachers must have felt behind the iron curtain. It is to see that...truth is dangerous.”
Being a history teacher in many democratic countries is unsafe, and in France Samuel Paty was beheaded in 2020. I am grateful for this article as I lost my livelihood for questioning in class the obvious lie of a mass grave of 215 teacher-murdered students at one Kamloops school. Why Canadians tolerate woke authoritarians and the dark tales they spin about our past is beyond me. They attempt to raise themselves on their own petard under the guise of knowledge-keeper when they are themselves are desperately afraid of great heaps of knowledge.
Education in my heart:
“Education is not memorizing that Hitler killed 6 million Jews. Education is understanding how millions of ordinary Germans were convinced that it was required. Education is learning how to spot the signs of history repeating itself.”
Education in reality:
“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”
Well, at least we have a coffee shop on every corner and watery beer, oh, and woke Brownshirt mobs roaming Canadian streets threatening others.
Many Westerners assume that AL-QUDS DAY is some sort of Islamic religious holiday. It is not. It is an event first defined by the IRANIAN government in 1979. Iran celebrates the event characteristically by putting on public display poster images of the city of Jerusalem, thematic speeches, art exhibitions reflecting the issue, and folkloric events.
.
AL-QUDS DAY celebrates Islamic World Domination. The following will explain why the entire concept is very problematic.
.
Al-QUDS (aka Jerusalem)
.
When Mohammad an Arabic War Lord, first defined the Islamic religion or cult it was limited to lands surrounding Medina and Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula. There is no mention of Al-Quds in the Qur’an, not even one. Two hundred years later things had changed and there were many more Muslims in the Middle East. Their ambitions increased.
.
The Qur’an never described miracles, and in fact it frequently defines them as the work of the Devil. None-the-less a Hadith was written that described the events of Mohammad’s death 200 years earlier. It described a miracle whereby Mohammad’s body was magically transported over-night hundreds, of miles across the desert to Jerusalem. It then states that he ascended to heaven from the Temple on the Mount, aka Al-Quds where he spoke to Jesus, Abraham, and Moses.
.
OK are you still with me on this ??? This is the basis for Muslim claims on Jerusalem, and the surrounding Judean and Samarian lands. Kinda convenient huh ???
.
The Qur’an is very clear that Islam will someday dominate the World. For the past 1400 years that has meant doubling its population as often, and as quickly as possible. That is a strategy well out of step with the today’s world, however the Word of Allah as recorded in the Qur’an is considered infallible.
.
TORONTO
.
Toronto is home to North America’s largest Muslim community. Since Oct 7th they have been protesting in the Toronto area, in Mississauga and Bampton in particular. For the past few years they have been allowed to hold an Al-Quds Day March in Downtown Toronto. It begins at the Christie Pits park, continues Eastward along Bloor and then South on University to the US Consulate. I’m reasonably certain that the Consulate in no way resembles and structure in Israel, so why it is target is a mystery. … Maybe.
.
Toronto recently elected Olivia Chow as its new Mayor, so it is not clear how she will deal with this matter. There are nearly as many Muslims living in Toronto, as those who voted for her, so this will be a ‘delicate’ issue for her to deal with.
.
EXTRACT
.
In Iran, the day's parades are sponsored and organized by the government. Events include mass marches and rallies. Senior Iranian leaders give fiery speeches condemning Israel, as well as the U.S. government. The crowds respond with chants of "Death to Istael", and "Death to America". According to Roger Howard, many Iranians under the age of 30 continue to participate in Quds Day events, though proportionately less than those on the streets. He adds that many Iranian students on campus say in private that the Arab-Israeli conflict has "nothing to do with us."
.
Quds Day protests have been held in parts of the Middle East and in London and Berlin and the United States. Marches in London have drawn up to 3,000 people, while Berlin saw 1,600 protestors in 2018. Rallies were held in at least 18 cities across the United States in 2017.
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quds_Day
.
Granatstein's book has been at arms reach ever since it came out 25 years ago and is still a source of solace when confronted with what passes for history instruction today. My children went to school in the 1980's and when I found out what was masquerading as history I immediately began to compensate with home instruction supplemented by summer vacations to various historically significant destinations across Canada. It was clear as day that, like pigs in mud, we were living in a fools paradise teaching our children nothing but hog wash. Perhaps, in retrospect, this might explain Parliament's condemnation of Canada as a genocidal state and their confusion of who were the bad guys in WWII.
As for children being taught about the Jewish refugee ship, the SS St. Louis, it might be more appropriate, in contemporary times, in the context of the present genocide in Gaza, to teach about the American spy ship, the USS Liberty, which was attacked in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula on June 8th, 1967, by Israeli Air Force jet fighters and Navy torpedo boats resulting in the death of 34 crew members and wounding of 171 others. Supplemental reference might also be extended to the six civilian ships of the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" which were attacked on May 31st, 2010 in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, by the Israeli military, resulting in nine fatalities and 30 wounded.
"Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future." ~ Euripides
The emperor fiddles while Rome is burning, fast forward to Canada 2024.
Well, lookie here..... Read the Toronto District School Board’s “Challenging Oppression” guide for yourself—and our critique
https://aristotlefoundation.org/reality-check/read-the-toronto-district-school-boards-challenging-oppression-guide-for-yourself-and-our-critique/
What a train wreck. So dangerous for Canada.
You know who kills history? Marxists. Take the time to listen to Xi Van Fleet's interview with Tucker Carlson. She knows a Cultural Revolution when she sees one. https://tuckercarlson.com/the-tucker-carlson-encounter-xi-van-fleet-2/
When you quote someone, James, you ought to provide a link, so we can get the guy's context. e.g. You thanked Thomas Peace for advertising a book where one Chapter was written by yourself, despite being "dismissive" of your IRSRG [Indian Residential School Research Group]. But you didn't give a link to the full article, which is below:
https://activehistory.ca/blog/2024/01/02/no-one-killed-canadian-history-it-is-time-to-move-on/
One of the points you made in your essay was, quote:
PEW: "In the postmodern era, the priority of vast areas of history teaching and historiography, and Granatstein is far from the only academic who noticed this, transitioned from evidence and facts, to morals and emotions. Western oppression became the source of historiographical obsession."
So I looked up your Thomas Peace guy and read around until he did a bit on the cancellation of Dundas and renaming previous "Dundas" places. Here is one of his gems, quote
PEACE: "In Toronto, rather than commemorating Henry Dundas, perhaps the city could use this moment as an opportunity to recognize Chloe Cooley, the woman whose resistance to her enslavement sparked the 1793 Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada. ... (snip; He talks about another slave named Small to replace Dundas Street in London Ontario) ... Cooley and Small demonstrate a different narrative of Canadian history that is opened by rethinking Dundas and the places named after him. Cooley demonstrates the reality that many early White-Canadians were enslavers and built their wealth on stolen lives. "
https://activehistory.ca/blog/2020/06/17/so-long-dundas-a-colonization-to-decolonization-road/
Right! A great change. Our White ancestors "built their wealth on stolen lives". The 30 to 40 thousand slave escapees via the underground railroad must have been so disappointed to come to Canada only to have their lives "stolen" again! Still a great example of moralizing by Mr. Peace a post-modern historical moralist of an exemplary sort.
Kevin