Rare Earth Minerals War Without Rules in Canada

Rescind the Indian Residential Schools Motion on Genocide

Photo by Jonny Caspari on Unsplash

By Michelle Stirling

Canada has expelled a Chinese diplomat in relation to accusations of foreign interference in Canadian affairs, stemming from various CSIS reports.  China has issued a statement that threatens a resolute and powerful response if Canada does not ‘pull back from the cliff immediately.’

It is clear that the first thing Canada must do is to cancel the Oct. 27, 2022, unanimously-carried motion to describe Indian Residential Schools as genocide. That is because China has accused Canada of genocide at the UN, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples has visited in March of this year to hear testimony.  With China now leading the BRICS nations, Canada is likely to be charged with actual genocide, especially since there is a motion in the House of Commons that basically states we are guilty of same before we are ever charged.

Something barely mentioned in the press, there is a global war on for access to rare or critical minerals and energy reserves.  Canada is rich in both.  Canadian Indigenous populations and reserves just happen to be geographically adjacent to most of these resources.

Economic trade wars can be fought in many ways. It is clear that Canada has been in a green trade war now for close to 30 years via the Tar Sands Campaign.  It is also clear that many foreign-funded environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) have co-opted Indigenous causes for their own climate action ends.  Likewise, people should wake up and realize that most climate policies decimate Canada’s economy and benefit China’s economy.  Compelling testimony on May 11, 2023, from Michel Juneau-Katsuya, former CSIS officer, indicates that Canada is compromised by interference from China.

Many of the Laurentian elite are deeply invested in China.

Canadians should be asking to what extent Chinese interference in political affairs may have led to unanimous approval of this flawed motion describing residential schools as genocide, put forward by Leah Gazan of the NDP.  Canadians are a compassionate people. The horrific claims reported by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission represent a small number of people who were students. The statements were not subject to any requirement for evidence nor was there any form of cross-examination. The vast majority of students did not suffer in this way as is well documented by historians like Dr. Hugh Dempsey and Robert Carney.

But such matters are a handy bandwagon issue for politicians, especially as Indigenous youth are the fastest growing demographic. Even former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair has been trumpeting the cry of genocide in the press and urging the government to censor dissenting historical views which are based on decades of documented evidence.

Strangely, Mulcair is a law professor. Advocating for government censorship of free inquiry. I guess even he can be led astray by populist causes.

The actual evidentiary standards for mass murder are extremely high.  Claims of unmarked graves ‘discovered’ by Ground Penetrating Radar are only proof of some kind of subsurface disturbance.  There seems to be highly coordinated sequences of events of such discoveries, often timed to other public policy issues around pipelines like Trans Mountain Expansion or northern resource development of critical minerals. China’s “Made-in-China” industrial policy means it strives to be the world leader in most hi-tech and clean-tech industries by 2025, for which it will need all the rare metals it can get. As other commentators have noted, there is a war without rules in progress.

China has exploited the claims of unmarked and mass graves to accuse Canada of genocide, deflecting a call in the UN by Canada and allies to investigate China’s genocidal treatment of the Uyghur people.

Let’s get one thing off the table right now. Parliament must rescind the motion describing Indian Residential Schools as genocide.  MPs acted out of a sense of compassion or political correctness in an effort to reconcile with those former students who had a painful life at residential schools. The motion has only inflamed the Indigenous youth and defamed the hundreds of dedicated men and women who devoted their lives in service to Christ, to help educate over 150,000 children.

As eminent Canadian historian, Robert Carney wrote: "… it must be said that much of what the missionaries did with respect to aboriginal schooling was intended to help native people to adjust to a changing environment, and that the missionaries and their sponsoring churches were foremost among newcomers to the country in attempting to do this."

Today, Indigenous people in Canada number 1.8 million with some 800,000 living in urban settings, not on reserve. Many Indigenous people are gainfully employed in everything from skilled trades, service sector, energy, environment, management, the arts, and health care.

Rescind the Indian Residential Schools genocide motion. Or face the grim consequences when it is used against us by powerful geopolitical forces.

Michelle Stirling is a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists. She researched, wrote, and co-produced historical shows about Southern Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Hugh Dempsey, then curator of the Glenbow Museum.  

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Thanks for reading. For more from this author read, Canada’s Indigenous People Must Stand Up Against China’s Uyghur Genocide

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