Seems the authors of the “Truth” and “Reconciliation” Report did not want to find the Truth and has no desire for Reconciliation - just a basis for unending grievance and resentment.
“This is not to say that past experiences were all negative, or that the staff of these schools – some of whom were former students themselves, were all bad. Such is not the case. Many good and dedicated people worked in the system. Indeed, their willingness to work long hours in an atmosphere of stress and for meagre wages was exploited by an administration determined to minimize costs. As RCAP noted, the staff not only taught; they also supervised the children’s work, play and personal care. Their hours were long, the remuneration below that of other educational institutions, and the working conditions irksome. The residential school system is not alone responsible for the current conditions of Aboriginal communities, but it did play a role.” If the link I've pasted here doesn't work, just go to ahf.ca and search out publications, speeches. I suspect Erasmus is somewhat less candid in his remarks nowadays (I believe he had a role in the TRC), so it's worth preserving statements like this for the record.
The resources expended for Indians in both education and medical (Indian Hospitals) need to be juxtaposed with the those same resources available to non-natives in the same locals at the time to provide context.
For example my grandfather attended school in a mud chinked log shack, one bedroom of which was a school room by day and a bedroom at night.
My dads uncle Dr Jack Finlayson (brother of my grandfather above) practiced medcine at St Walberg Saskatchewan where he charged for his services which were more often than not paid for in kind with chickens, produce or labor in that pioneer community. 30 miles away Indians at Onion Lake received free education and medical treatment from Dr Elizabeth Matheson and her husband who were Anglican missionaries who provided a school, hospital and church to that community.
Excellent article. Nightmarish accounts of residential schools serve the genocide-envy of woke, virtue-signalling, messiah-wannabes like Trudeau. Charges of physical, biological, and cultural genocide are not only fanciful but an insult to real victims or survivors of genocide.
I can’t help but wonder what practices & policies that were responsible for the negative outcomes of residential schools are used today in public schools? Without a comprehensive and bluntly honest report we risk overlooking the very cause of so much suffering & harm caused to Indigenous people. I fear that this lack of honesty of recognizing & differentiating the good and bad done in residential schools has left us open for unnecessary harms caused in public schools today.
Where government partnered with Christian belief systems in the past they are today partnering with woke belief systems that are more religious than not in their fervour & faith. The public schools are being mandated to assimilate all children into the now government approved belief systems of gender ideology & intersectionality. In all this parental rights are being subverted by shifting from a shareholder model of influence to a stakeholder model of influence leaving parents removed and special interest groups added as “experts” never to be questioned.
I'm delighted to learn that "From Truth ..." is now available as a download, so I can direct others to it (or search it digitally -- woo hoo!). I have the 2020 print copy, which is bristling with bookmarks and sticky notes, but I can't always remember where in the book I read a certain thing. I've already noticed a couple of updates, like the Foreword by Leighton Grey. BTW, a minor correction respecting the subtitle: it's "An Assessment of the ..." (not Assessing the ...). Picky picky, I know -- but it makes the subsequent substitution of "the Assessment" throughout the piece make a little more sense. Maybe also mention that the page numbers cited are from the online edition. Thanks and much respect to D. Barry Kirkham for this article.
The book "Truth and Indignation" by Ronald Niezen makes many of the same points as Clifton and DeWolf, although Niezen focusses mainly on the process of the TRC, rather than the conclusions. Interesting review. A number of indigenous groups are moving on, like the Sto Lo and the Haisla, entering the modern business world, taking advantage of current opportunities. The radicals who blame everything on the past are mainly academics and young political activists, many of them non-indigenous. In time, the entire truth of residential schools will come out, though it may take decades.
Seems the authors of the “Truth” and “Reconciliation” Report did not want to find the Truth and has no desire for Reconciliation - just a basis for unending grievance and resentment.
Brilliant eye-opening essay - thank you!
At an AFN conference in Calgary in 2004, George Erasmus (then president of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation) made the following remarks https://www.ahf.ca/downloads/is-reconciliation-posible.pdf :
“This is not to say that past experiences were all negative, or that the staff of these schools – some of whom were former students themselves, were all bad. Such is not the case. Many good and dedicated people worked in the system. Indeed, their willingness to work long hours in an atmosphere of stress and for meagre wages was exploited by an administration determined to minimize costs. As RCAP noted, the staff not only taught; they also supervised the children’s work, play and personal care. Their hours were long, the remuneration below that of other educational institutions, and the working conditions irksome. The residential school system is not alone responsible for the current conditions of Aboriginal communities, but it did play a role.” If the link I've pasted here doesn't work, just go to ahf.ca and search out publications, speeches. I suspect Erasmus is somewhat less candid in his remarks nowadays (I believe he had a role in the TRC), so it's worth preserving statements like this for the record.
"Context of the times" matters!
The resources expended for Indians in both education and medical (Indian Hospitals) need to be juxtaposed with the those same resources available to non-natives in the same locals at the time to provide context.
For example my grandfather attended school in a mud chinked log shack, one bedroom of which was a school room by day and a bedroom at night.
My dads uncle Dr Jack Finlayson (brother of my grandfather above) practiced medcine at St Walberg Saskatchewan where he charged for his services which were more often than not paid for in kind with chickens, produce or labor in that pioneer community. 30 miles away Indians at Onion Lake received free education and medical treatment from Dr Elizabeth Matheson and her husband who were Anglican missionaries who provided a school, hospital and church to that community.
Context matters.
Excellent article. Nightmarish accounts of residential schools serve the genocide-envy of woke, virtue-signalling, messiah-wannabes like Trudeau. Charges of physical, biological, and cultural genocide are not only fanciful but an insult to real victims or survivors of genocide.
I can’t help but wonder what practices & policies that were responsible for the negative outcomes of residential schools are used today in public schools? Without a comprehensive and bluntly honest report we risk overlooking the very cause of so much suffering & harm caused to Indigenous people. I fear that this lack of honesty of recognizing & differentiating the good and bad done in residential schools has left us open for unnecessary harms caused in public schools today.
Where government partnered with Christian belief systems in the past they are today partnering with woke belief systems that are more religious than not in their fervour & faith. The public schools are being mandated to assimilate all children into the now government approved belief systems of gender ideology & intersectionality. In all this parental rights are being subverted by shifting from a shareholder model of influence to a stakeholder model of influence leaving parents removed and special interest groups added as “experts” never to be questioned.
The Truth and Reconciliation Con Mission.
I'm delighted to learn that "From Truth ..." is now available as a download, so I can direct others to it (or search it digitally -- woo hoo!). I have the 2020 print copy, which is bristling with bookmarks and sticky notes, but I can't always remember where in the book I read a certain thing. I've already noticed a couple of updates, like the Foreword by Leighton Grey. BTW, a minor correction respecting the subtitle: it's "An Assessment of the ..." (not Assessing the ...). Picky picky, I know -- but it makes the subsequent substitution of "the Assessment" throughout the piece make a little more sense. Maybe also mention that the page numbers cited are from the online edition. Thanks and much respect to D. Barry Kirkham for this article.
The book "Truth and Indignation" by Ronald Niezen makes many of the same points as Clifton and DeWolf, although Niezen focusses mainly on the process of the TRC, rather than the conclusions. Interesting review. A number of indigenous groups are moving on, like the Sto Lo and the Haisla, entering the modern business world, taking advantage of current opportunities. The radicals who blame everything on the past are mainly academics and young political activists, many of them non-indigenous. In time, the entire truth of residential schools will come out, though it may take decades.
Outstanding piece to elucidate the facts for "deniers" of truth and disciples of pathos.
What is the citation for footnote 5?