Well after reading this I went ahead and bought the book, because strangely enough I intend to read it and make up my own mind. No nanny state intervention needed.
CBC’s closing sentence (as always … grr!) references the 150,000 who were “forced to attend” and the detection of “possible remains” at Kamloops. Geez. Still!
Mayor Ron Paull has stated that he hasn’t read the book (and presumably doesn’t intend to), but Councillor Tony Goulet claimed in a story in the Alberni Valley News that he found out how appalling the book was because he forced himself to read it “cover to cover.”
What I don’t get is why the CBC wouldn’t have had enough curiosity to interview someone (like Goulet) who had actually read the book (or said they had) to get some examples of statements that were untrue, i.e. not just “hurtful.”
In the Lhtako Dene Nation’s March 19 letter to Quesnel council, the Nation makes this statement: “This book makes many harsh comments including “truth has been turned into a casualty,” implying that cultural genocide did not occur, and BASICALLY QUESTIONING THE EXISTENCE of Indian Residential Schools.” [emphasis mine]
Apparently they didn’t read it either, if that’s the best criticism they could come up with. They also say, “The Nation should not have to defend the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the T’Kemlups te Secwepem’c First Nation, and the Williams Lake First Nation (amongst others) that have been so severely castigated by the authors of the book.”
And why should they NOT? Could it be that they believe themselves (and other FN) to be a special, protected class of people who shouldn’t EVER have to defend their claims or statements??
My personal opinion , most issues involving the government and indigenous are clouded in secrecy , neither side wants the truth or the corruption to be uncovered
"The CBC and other media are claiming that our book is 'hurtful.'"
That is cancel culture. A woke inquisitor or mob accuse a person of offending, hurting, harming... Define harm? If people are harmed in a real way by historical truth, then they should seek help. We're all genuinely harmed by those who feign emotional harm and censor ideas.
If we're going to ban books based on people's hurt feelings, well, that's a slippery slope. There have to be some specific reasons to ban a book, not just that I feel disrespected when I read it. That's why they wanted to ban "The Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie, people felt disrespected, or they said it disrespected Islam, so it was hate literature. Of course, the irony is that all of the hate was actually from the ones who wanted to ban that book.
Anyway, maybe this issue will promote debate. My feeling is that the book will be harder and harder to get, and will kind of unofficially be banned, especially when this new federal bill C 63 on online harms comes into law. Anyone distributing the book could be charged, given any complaints, of which I'm sure there will be a lot, just to get the book out of the market and people afraid to distribute it.. kind of a cynical but I believe likely tactic.
The book may continue to be an underground seller, just because people don't like to be told what they can and cannot read, or what opinions are or are not acceptable in a democracy.
As Shannon Lee Mannion pointed out, there are just 206 registered members in the Lhtako Dene Nation. Indigenous Services tells us that fewer than 100 of those live on reserve (the rest may live mostly in the city of Quesnel, or elsewhere). The band has continued to file its FNFTA statements, so we're able to see that the chief and three councillors of the Nation received a total annual remuneration of $345,838 (year ending Mar 31, 2023), with an additional $10,488 being paid to the four in expenses. It's not a huge amount (seems fairly average for the bands that I've looked at that are still filing), but as Mannion says, this is a SMALL band – with a very BIG sense of its own importance (don't be disrespecting us!). And a very emotive band administrator, Maynard Bara, who is quoted in the CBC piece as saying (about Grave Error), "It just rips your stomach out. It's just absolute bigotry and hatred."
I am predicting that the mayor of Quesnel will resign. Even though he says he will stay the course. There's so much political pressure and outright intimidation now. This will be a cautionary tale. You could lose your job, your reputation in the community, you are targeted, though it wasn't even the mayor who dissented. It was his wife! So keep an eye on your relatives' political views! Link to video "Calls Grow For Mayor To Resign," here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfj2HIuixY4
Thanks, I hadn't seen that CBC coverage, although I did watch the entire 2+ hour video of the council meeting, and it was unbelievably uncivil – harrowing, really – and two of the city councillors were worse (for rudeness) than any of the speakers or than the protesters as a collective. At least on this video clip, CBC shows an image of the book so that viewers can see the title (they're careful not to speak its name : ); on CBC radio they go no further than to say "a controversial book."
"Most people don’t really want the truth. They just want constant reassurance that what they believe is the truth." – Augustine of Hippo
You've got a false dilemma here: you can care about BOTH the feelings of... well, let's just go with people in general, instead of singling out so-called 'Indigenous' Canadians (why? -- because that's the right thing to do); AND the truth, including the truth about feelings, which is that they are important, but also potentially dangerous, and must be treated with caution, because they don't happen in a vacuum. And in the right (wrong) context, as Flannery O'Connor put it, "tenderness leads to the gas chamber." Or to delusional 'satanic panics,' or malicious acts of arson, or perpetuation of debilitating false narratives of victimhood, or the totalitarian triumph of lies, etc.
It doesn't matter what he says. He's toast. He can get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness, they will still want his head. And yes, there's the other question re: his wife......
Absolutely, you can never apologize to a braying mob of extremists. The only option to is stand your ground. He made a whole series of really bad decisions in 30 seconds.
The book is available on Amazon.ca. It is interesting to note that there are hundreds of positive reviews and the vast majority of those are verified purchasers of the book.
On the other hand, there are a couple of dozen negative views, none of which are verified purchasers and none of which state anything that is incorrect in the book. Almost all of them accuse the book of being untrue without a single example.
What many people fail to understand is that DEI and Colonialism are the tools of left-wing racism used against White people in a manner that doesn't appear to be racist but reality is ever so present! Blaming all white people after 300 years of unaccountability for their own travesties against themselves! It’s been stated that “ there will never true real conciliation without Truth”! Which the book “Grave Error” tries to make!
Well after reading this I went ahead and bought the book, because strangely enough I intend to read it and make up my own mind. No nanny state intervention needed.
Thank you. Let me know your thoughts after you read it.
Take heart James. If *Grave Error* gets banned, it could be a great promotion for the book!
You mentioned the CBC’s coverage, but didn’t provide a link. For anyone who may want to see it, this is the one that I found (on msn, but it says “story by CBC/Radio Canada”): https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/quesnel-city-council-condemns-controversial-residential-school-book-distributed-by-mayors-wife/ar-BB1kjUBH
CBC’s closing sentence (as always … grr!) references the 150,000 who were “forced to attend” and the detection of “possible remains” at Kamloops. Geez. Still!
Mayor Ron Paull has stated that he hasn’t read the book (and presumably doesn’t intend to), but Councillor Tony Goulet claimed in a story in the Alberni Valley News that he found out how appalling the book was because he forced himself to read it “cover to cover.”
What I don’t get is why the CBC wouldn’t have had enough curiosity to interview someone (like Goulet) who had actually read the book (or said they had) to get some examples of statements that were untrue, i.e. not just “hurtful.”
In the Lhtako Dene Nation’s March 19 letter to Quesnel council, the Nation makes this statement: “This book makes many harsh comments including “truth has been turned into a casualty,” implying that cultural genocide did not occur, and BASICALLY QUESTIONING THE EXISTENCE of Indian Residential Schools.” [emphasis mine]
Apparently they didn’t read it either, if that’s the best criticism they could come up with. They also say, “The Nation should not have to defend the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the T’Kemlups te Secwepem’c First Nation, and the Williams Lake First Nation (amongst others) that have been so severely castigated by the authors of the book.”
And why should they NOT? Could it be that they believe themselves (and other FN) to be a special, protected class of people who shouldn’t EVER have to defend their claims or statements??
My personal opinion , most issues involving the government and indigenous are clouded in secrecy , neither side wants the truth or the corruption to be uncovered
"The CBC and other media are claiming that our book is 'hurtful.'"
That is cancel culture. A woke inquisitor or mob accuse a person of offending, hurting, harming... Define harm? If people are harmed in a real way by historical truth, then they should seek help. We're all genuinely harmed by those who feign emotional harm and censor ideas.
If we're going to ban books based on people's hurt feelings, well, that's a slippery slope. There have to be some specific reasons to ban a book, not just that I feel disrespected when I read it. That's why they wanted to ban "The Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie, people felt disrespected, or they said it disrespected Islam, so it was hate literature. Of course, the irony is that all of the hate was actually from the ones who wanted to ban that book.
Anyway, maybe this issue will promote debate. My feeling is that the book will be harder and harder to get, and will kind of unofficially be banned, especially when this new federal bill C 63 on online harms comes into law. Anyone distributing the book could be charged, given any complaints, of which I'm sure there will be a lot, just to get the book out of the market and people afraid to distribute it.. kind of a cynical but I believe likely tactic.
The book may continue to be an underground seller, just because people don't like to be told what they can and cannot read, or what opinions are or are not acceptable in a democracy.
As Shannon Lee Mannion pointed out, there are just 206 registered members in the Lhtako Dene Nation. Indigenous Services tells us that fewer than 100 of those live on reserve (the rest may live mostly in the city of Quesnel, or elsewhere). The band has continued to file its FNFTA statements, so we're able to see that the chief and three councillors of the Nation received a total annual remuneration of $345,838 (year ending Mar 31, 2023), with an additional $10,488 being paid to the four in expenses. It's not a huge amount (seems fairly average for the bands that I've looked at that are still filing), but as Mannion says, this is a SMALL band – with a very BIG sense of its own importance (don't be disrespecting us!). And a very emotive band administrator, Maynard Bara, who is quoted in the CBC piece as saying (about Grave Error), "It just rips your stomach out. It's just absolute bigotry and hatred."
Gee, I hope Bara is going to be okay.
I am predicting that the mayor of Quesnel will resign. Even though he says he will stay the course. There's so much political pressure and outright intimidation now. This will be a cautionary tale. You could lose your job, your reputation in the community, you are targeted, though it wasn't even the mayor who dissented. It was his wife! So keep an eye on your relatives' political views! Link to video "Calls Grow For Mayor To Resign," here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfj2HIuixY4
Thanks, I hadn't seen that CBC coverage, although I did watch the entire 2+ hour video of the council meeting, and it was unbelievably uncivil – harrowing, really – and two of the city councillors were worse (for rudeness) than any of the speakers or than the protesters as a collective. At least on this video clip, CBC shows an image of the book so that viewers can see the title (they're careful not to speak its name : ); on CBC radio they go no further than to say "a controversial book."
"Most people don’t really want the truth. They just want constant reassurance that what they believe is the truth." – Augustine of Hippo
You've got a false dilemma here: you can care about BOTH the feelings of... well, let's just go with people in general, instead of singling out so-called 'Indigenous' Canadians (why? -- because that's the right thing to do); AND the truth, including the truth about feelings, which is that they are important, but also potentially dangerous, and must be treated with caution, because they don't happen in a vacuum. And in the right (wrong) context, as Flannery O'Connor put it, "tenderness leads to the gas chamber." Or to delusional 'satanic panics,' or malicious acts of arson, or perpetuation of debilitating false narratives of victimhood, or the totalitarian triumph of lies, etc.
Sometimes the truth hurts.
Ouf. That Mayor denouncing his wife. That ain't gonna end well.
It doesn't matter what he says. He's toast. He can get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness, they will still want his head. And yes, there's the other question re: his wife......
Absolutely, you can never apologize to a braying mob of extremists. The only option to is stand your ground. He made a whole series of really bad decisions in 30 seconds.
"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups." ~ George Carlin
"The narrative is trash, as is her husband.”
Ain't that the truth.
The book is available on Amazon.ca. It is interesting to note that there are hundreds of positive reviews and the vast majority of those are verified purchasers of the book.
On the other hand, there are a couple of dozen negative views, none of which are verified purchasers and none of which state anything that is incorrect in the book. Almost all of them accuse the book of being untrue without a single example.
What many people fail to understand is that DEI and Colonialism are the tools of left-wing racism used against White people in a manner that doesn't appear to be racist but reality is ever so present! Blaming all white people after 300 years of unaccountability for their own travesties against themselves! It’s been stated that “ there will never true real conciliation without Truth”! Which the book “Grave Error” tries to make!