I taught at a Residential school and was never told to suppress language or culture in any form. I expressed in public these facts and at the appropriate time was let go from my position of Town Crier of Duncan BC ,based on the discovery of the alleged 200 plus graves found at Kamloops IRS. Under Murrays proposal I should be prosecuted. I will not be quiet. I had a unique experience in the community and when we left Grouard Mission the Indigenous trustee of our school board, Ellona Willier and her husband ,John ,asked us to board their daughter when she attended nursing school at the U. of Alberta. What an honour! We are indeed in Orwellian society of 1984. I do not need this stress at my age but I will go down fighting for the truth. Shortly I will be taking on a retired Anglican Bishop who is fomenting a Decolonization movement in our church. Its going to get messy but articles like this are a great help, Onwards and upwards!
This article couldn't be better. It takes on all the lies and shibboleths of the aboriginal industry. My favourite passage: "It is deeply offensive to suggest there is anything in common in the Canadian history of Indian Residential Schools with the genocide of the Jews in the Holocaust of World War II. My rejection of this myth and provision of factual information is not a criminal offense. It is an act of truth and honesty in keeping with the Elders’ wisdom."
You mean the "Elders' Wisdom" of Kimberly Murray, or Murray Sinclair!!! Get me a reply to your interview at Frances Widdowson's website and how you plan to fight your arbitration.
Keep up the fight. Facts are facts. This increasing trend in Canada towards conflating disagreement with hate has to be stopped.
Also, whenever this subject comes up I feel obliged to point out that George Orwell himself died from TB. The irony appears to be lost on many ahistorical ideologues.
Notice the title of their website: "teach the genocide." If that's not an unabashed attempt to indoctrinate, I don't know what is. But we know that the distorted Chanie Wenjack story made it into the school system unimpeded (and uncorrected), so it's not improbable that this "guide" will also. This is getting more than a little scary.
I hope a copy of Michelle's article has been sent to David Lametti. And there should be a test afterwards, to make sure he's read it. Ask him point by point to rebut any of the facts presented.
The "Teach the Genocide" website says that In Canada, "Indigenous people, a protected group, were systematically murdered, harmed, assimilated, sterilized, and stolen with the intent to destroy the group." They give no evidence for their hypothesis, only two quotes from Duncan Campbell Scott and Sir John A. MacDonald, who said he wanted to "take the Indian out of the child." This would be assimilation. He didn't say anything about systematically murdering anyone. This intent for genocide is something that will be hard to prove, especially the "Systematically murdered and stolen" part.
Yeah, well, they’re clearly grasping at straws. They created the booklet as a “comic,” ostensibly to make it more accessible to teens (READ: more appealing, kind of like flavoured vapes). But the punchy, bullet-point format also relieves the authors of having to fill out any of their statements with facts: Just trust us; this is the true truth! Acknowledge the truth! There is a genocide in Canada. You are getting s-l-e-e-p-y … There is a genocide in Canada …
They don’t even attribute their quotations correctly. “Kill the Indian in the child” (they misquote it as “Take the Indian out of the child”) is usually mis-attributed to Duncan Campbell Scott; NWAC’s booklet mis-attributes it to Macdonald. The quote originated with neither Scott nor Macdonald.
If you’re interested in its history, Mark Abley provided this background in his 2013 book Conversations with a Dead Man:
< But the offending phrase is not Scott’s. He never used those words. Neither did any other Canadian official. The quotation can be traced back to a somewhat different statement uttered by a high-ranking officer in the U.S. Army, Richard Henry Pratt, the nineteenth-century superintendent of a residential school in Pennsylvania: “All the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” The sentiment is an alarming one, though in his day Pratt was known as a friend of the Indians. In 1996 the final report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples accurately quoted the first of Pratt’s sentences, and paraphrased the second with “child” replacing “man.” After the report’s publication, the revised phrase began to circulate on the Internet. It soon became notorious and was widely attributed to Scott.>
A truly timely, factual and greatly appreciated article. This story should be printed in all of the national newspapers so people can understand and appreciate the truth. It astounds me that a federally funded project like this could be allowed to propagate lies, dissension and hate all on the tab of the taxpayer. I really have to wonder whether people like Murray and our feckless politicians have any real understanding about genocide or the holocaust or how the crime of genocide was derived.
"The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about." ~ Wayne Dyer
In the near future, if there's a law against "residential school denialism" the author could be arrested for writing this article. What this denialism is exactly, I am not sure, since we all know that residential schools existed and that there were some very bad things that happened there. In this article, the author denies that there was a genocide at the schools, and provides evidence to support her position. I wonder if arguments with evidence will also be off limits under the proposed new law. I'm not sure what would happen in court, but considering the politicalization of the justice system, all bets are off.
This is certainly a better article than Ms. Stirling's previous "Unmarked or Mass Graves? Epidemic or Genocide?" of May 13th, 2023. But, once again, she gets it all wrong in her title. Only the 3 truth and reconciliation commissioners and members of the AFN "forgot" the tuberculosis plague. [No they did not "forget"! They intentionally suppressed that well known EVIDENCE of T.B. deaths. KB]
Nobody else, other than 3 truth and reconciliation commissioners and the first nations chiefs with whom they have colluded, "forgot" T.B. deaths. Least of all "forgetful people" were Dr. Peter Bryce in public reports of 1906, 1909 and 1920 on deaths of both first nation's people (adults and children) and, by contrast, "settlers" and, secondly, Dr. Scott Hamilton, Ph.D., of Lakehead University.
Hamilton did not "forget" that plague in his 2015 Report to the 3 "Truth" and "Reconciliation" Commissioners (Sinclair, Littlechild and Wilson) and to their, then, Exeutive Director of The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, named Kimberly Murray, who was their Executive Director from 2010 - 2015 [https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/interlocutor-interlocuteur/bio.html ].
Kimberly Murray is, of course, the person who has called for "denialists" to be prosecuted, which is simply attempted self-preservation on her part, for she is as guilty of colluding with AFN fraud artists, as are Sinclair, Littlechild and Wilson, given Scott Hamilton's Report of 2015. On page 4 of that Report, Hamilton mentions deaths (from all causes) of 8,000 per 100,000 for First Nations Children and 430 deaths per 100,000 for European descent children. All 3 Truth and Reconciliation Commissioners received his Report in 2015.
From page 2 through page 5 of his Report, Hamilton goes over, quote, "School Mortality" for 4 pages [Pages 2 through 5]. On page 3, 3rd paragraph, Dr. Hamilton cites Dr. Peter Bryce's public report of 1906 that, quote: "Tuberculosis was the prevalent cause of death." So the only people who have conveniently "forgotten" that passage are the 3 Truth and Reconciliation Commissioners and their Executive Director of 2015, Ms. Kimberly Murray. She is a lawyer, who knows, that the best defence is a good offence.
Ms. Murray wants to make it a "crime" to reveal the crimes of herself and her 3 colluding colleagues [Sinclair, Littlechild and Wilson] and their friends of the AFN. Unfortunately for Ms. Murray, the onus is on Ms. Murray, Sinclair, Littlechild and Wilson to prove that they have not colluded in fabricating bogus "evidence" of genocide and have not colluded in suppressing evidence of natural deaths from disease, as well as PROOFS that the "unmarked graves" are unmarked because of neglect.
The legal maxim that "Fraud unravels all." is utterly appropriate in the cases of Kimberly Murray, Murray Sinclair, Wilton Littlechild and Marie Wilson --- plus their AFN colleagues in the defraud "settlers" aboriginal industry.
I taught at a Residential school and was never told to suppress language or culture in any form. I expressed in public these facts and at the appropriate time was let go from my position of Town Crier of Duncan BC ,based on the discovery of the alleged 200 plus graves found at Kamloops IRS. Under Murrays proposal I should be prosecuted. I will not be quiet. I had a unique experience in the community and when we left Grouard Mission the Indigenous trustee of our school board, Ellona Willier and her husband ,John ,asked us to board their daughter when she attended nursing school at the U. of Alberta. What an honour! We are indeed in Orwellian society of 1984. I do not need this stress at my age but I will go down fighting for the truth. Shortly I will be taking on a retired Anglican Bishop who is fomenting a Decolonization movement in our church. Its going to get messy but articles like this are a great help, Onwards and upwards!
This article couldn't be better. It takes on all the lies and shibboleths of the aboriginal industry. My favourite passage: "It is deeply offensive to suggest there is anything in common in the Canadian history of Indian Residential Schools with the genocide of the Jews in the Holocaust of World War II. My rejection of this myth and provision of factual information is not a criminal offense. It is an act of truth and honesty in keeping with the Elders’ wisdom."
You mean the "Elders' Wisdom" of Kimberly Murray, or Murray Sinclair!!! Get me a reply to your interview at Frances Widdowson's website and how you plan to fight your arbitration.
Keep up the fight. Facts are facts. This increasing trend in Canada towards conflating disagreement with hate has to be stopped.
Also, whenever this subject comes up I feel obliged to point out that George Orwell himself died from TB. The irony appears to be lost on many ahistorical ideologues.
Excellent article.
Excellent article, Michelle. I hope everyone here is aware of a publication that the Native Women's Association of Canada has just released, which they want to see on the curriculum of every high school. In their booklet "Genocide in Canada" they apparently attempt to explain how our Canadian genocide is "different" from genocides like the Holocaust. https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/native-womens-association-says-high-school-students-should-be-taught-about-genocide/ar-AA1cL52H
You can get your free copy here, and see examples of their "reasoning": https://teachthegenocide.ca/?fbclid=IwAR0lbLbulF2te080r5s5dYe4JHZGyctBNnDs-c2HK9nmOetAjhfEdaRBw6A
Notice the title of their website: "teach the genocide." If that's not an unabashed attempt to indoctrinate, I don't know what is. But we know that the distorted Chanie Wenjack story made it into the school system unimpeded (and uncorrected), so it's not improbable that this "guide" will also. This is getting more than a little scary.
I hope a copy of Michelle's article has been sent to David Lametti. And there should be a test afterwards, to make sure he's read it. Ask him point by point to rebut any of the facts presented.
The "Teach the Genocide" website says that In Canada, "Indigenous people, a protected group, were systematically murdered, harmed, assimilated, sterilized, and stolen with the intent to destroy the group." They give no evidence for their hypothesis, only two quotes from Duncan Campbell Scott and Sir John A. MacDonald, who said he wanted to "take the Indian out of the child." This would be assimilation. He didn't say anything about systematically murdering anyone. This intent for genocide is something that will be hard to prove, especially the "Systematically murdered and stolen" part.
Yeah, well, they’re clearly grasping at straws. They created the booklet as a “comic,” ostensibly to make it more accessible to teens (READ: more appealing, kind of like flavoured vapes). But the punchy, bullet-point format also relieves the authors of having to fill out any of their statements with facts: Just trust us; this is the true truth! Acknowledge the truth! There is a genocide in Canada. You are getting s-l-e-e-p-y … There is a genocide in Canada …
They don’t even attribute their quotations correctly. “Kill the Indian in the child” (they misquote it as “Take the Indian out of the child”) is usually mis-attributed to Duncan Campbell Scott; NWAC’s booklet mis-attributes it to Macdonald. The quote originated with neither Scott nor Macdonald.
If you’re interested in its history, Mark Abley provided this background in his 2013 book Conversations with a Dead Man:
< But the offending phrase is not Scott’s. He never used those words. Neither did any other Canadian official. The quotation can be traced back to a somewhat different statement uttered by a high-ranking officer in the U.S. Army, Richard Henry Pratt, the nineteenth-century superintendent of a residential school in Pennsylvania: “All the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” The sentiment is an alarming one, though in his day Pratt was known as a friend of the Indians. In 1996 the final report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples accurately quoted the first of Pratt’s sentences, and paraphrased the second with “child” replacing “man.” After the report’s publication, the revised phrase began to circulate on the Internet. It soon became notorious and was widely attributed to Scott.>
A truly timely, factual and greatly appreciated article. This story should be printed in all of the national newspapers so people can understand and appreciate the truth. It astounds me that a federally funded project like this could be allowed to propagate lies, dissension and hate all on the tab of the taxpayer. I really have to wonder whether people like Murray and our feckless politicians have any real understanding about genocide or the holocaust or how the crime of genocide was derived.
"The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about." ~ Wayne Dyer
In the near future, if there's a law against "residential school denialism" the author could be arrested for writing this article. What this denialism is exactly, I am not sure, since we all know that residential schools existed and that there were some very bad things that happened there. In this article, the author denies that there was a genocide at the schools, and provides evidence to support her position. I wonder if arguments with evidence will also be off limits under the proposed new law. I'm not sure what would happen in court, but considering the politicalization of the justice system, all bets are off.
Thank you for an excellent article.
This is certainly a better article than Ms. Stirling's previous "Unmarked or Mass Graves? Epidemic or Genocide?" of May 13th, 2023. But, once again, she gets it all wrong in her title. Only the 3 truth and reconciliation commissioners and members of the AFN "forgot" the tuberculosis plague. [No they did not "forget"! They intentionally suppressed that well known EVIDENCE of T.B. deaths. KB]
Nobody else, other than 3 truth and reconciliation commissioners and the first nations chiefs with whom they have colluded, "forgot" T.B. deaths. Least of all "forgetful people" were Dr. Peter Bryce in public reports of 1906, 1909 and 1920 on deaths of both first nation's people (adults and children) and, by contrast, "settlers" and, secondly, Dr. Scott Hamilton, Ph.D., of Lakehead University.
Hamilton did not "forget" that plague in his 2015 Report to the 3 "Truth" and "Reconciliation" Commissioners (Sinclair, Littlechild and Wilson) and to their, then, Exeutive Director of The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, named Kimberly Murray, who was their Executive Director from 2010 - 2015 [https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/interlocutor-interlocuteur/bio.html ].
Kimberly Murray is, of course, the person who has called for "denialists" to be prosecuted, which is simply attempted self-preservation on her part, for she is as guilty of colluding with AFN fraud artists, as are Sinclair, Littlechild and Wilson, given Scott Hamilton's Report of 2015. On page 4 of that Report, Hamilton mentions deaths (from all causes) of 8,000 per 100,000 for First Nations Children and 430 deaths per 100,000 for European descent children. All 3 Truth and Reconciliation Commissioners received his Report in 2015.
From page 2 through page 5 of his Report, Hamilton goes over, quote, "School Mortality" for 4 pages [Pages 2 through 5]. On page 3, 3rd paragraph, Dr. Hamilton cites Dr. Peter Bryce's public report of 1906 that, quote: "Tuberculosis was the prevalent cause of death." So the only people who have conveniently "forgotten" that passage are the 3 Truth and Reconciliation Commissioners and their Executive Director of 2015, Ms. Kimberly Murray. She is a lawyer, who knows, that the best defence is a good offence.
Ms. Murray wants to make it a "crime" to reveal the crimes of herself and her 3 colluding colleagues [Sinclair, Littlechild and Wilson] and their friends of the AFN. Unfortunately for Ms. Murray, the onus is on Ms. Murray, Sinclair, Littlechild and Wilson to prove that they have not colluded in fabricating bogus "evidence" of genocide and have not colluded in suppressing evidence of natural deaths from disease, as well as PROOFS that the "unmarked graves" are unmarked because of neglect.
The legal maxim that "Fraud unravels all." is utterly appropriate in the cases of Kimberly Murray, Murray Sinclair, Wilton Littlechild and Marie Wilson --- plus their AFN colleagues in the defraud "settlers" aboriginal industry.
Kevin James "Joseph" Byrne
It is so sad that our society can no longer question anything that goes against the political agenda!
Great article!