Retired Manitoba Judge Brian Giesbrecht discusses what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission neglected in their final report: The tragedy of alcohol abuse on Canadian reserves
I am new to learning about the not “popular” background information. Very well written in language that I can understand. Thank you. Need to keep it simple so I can have a few takeaway talking points. Attention of people is like 20 seconds nowadays. Complicated issues like these are hard to distill into a hashtag but somehow need to try. Is there one out there? Eg. #CdnpoliTRCmistakes
I’m really enjoying the articles here. Trying to have open conversations with friends, colleagues now. They are hot button topics where I realized people are in a sort of group think/Brainwash. One says I am a denier. Shocked that I’m so poorly educated (dumb) and unaware (ignorant) of what’s happening for last several years. They don’t know why we even should/need to ask questions. I’m just asking them questions that I want to know answers to. It appears that everyone has the mainstream idea that the schools were the source of the problems. The church and govt are bad. It’s justifiable to give the Indigenous groups billions, millions since we “stole” their land. That many churches are destroyed is unknown and when told, well it’s justified by the bad things the church is responsible for. These ideas are in the everyday simplistic thoughts of many an average person.
When I try to engage in honest conversations, people are scared to speak their mind. Some privately say that they don’t agree with woke ideas but go along with the narrative to fit in with the group.
One of the best and most important articles I have read in recent memory. It is odd how our general media avoid intelligent, truthful, documented inquiry into what really ails indigenous communities, as opposed to their promotion of a much distorted narrative of residential school trauma.
"the Indigenization did not solve the problem of too many Indigenous children in care – in many ways it made the problem worse."
Do you have any examples of past history/ failure/successes from the indigenization of child welfare agencies that I can read? Or sources for the above quote?
I once had a discussion with a military padre out in Halifax about the deplorable state of affairs regarding the Natives on the Prairies. I grew up in MB, not far from Sandy Bay Reserve, and saw enough of the substance abuse rampant with the Natives here. I also learned from social workers about the conditions on the Reserves or Jails regarding the Natives they've worked with. I also had my Mother's recollections from working as a nurse up in The Pas, MB where she would be treating otherwise healthy babies who had sucked in gas fumes because their mothers wanted to fly in to party for a weekend. The Padre refused to believe the stories. I told her, go look for yourself.
Natives need to look inward and stop the substance abuse. Alcohol of course is just the tip, there's a reason mouthwash is behind the counter now. There is hope though. Native communities are trying to turn their youth around. Powwows are more common so there is some pride coming back. But they still have to acknowledge that the individual is the agent of change, not some constant narrative of victimhood.
Brian, thank you for your very thorough analysis. We have a similar story here in Australia, although the problems are even worse, because the indigenous society found on this continent during first European settlement was much older and less adaption capable than the North American ones.
The point that I would like to put to you is that while your discourse sounds very sensible to me, having a rational and evidence driven discussion in these terms with Woke apparatchiks and acolytes is now almost out of the question, especially as they control most of our social/cultural institutions. .....which is why you cannot get any traction with or sense out of mainstream media on Woke issues of any sort.
I am sure you have been following the Frances Widdowson case, and it is clear that her Woke institutional enemies have no intention to do anything except drive her out of 'their' space by any means, including I think physical attacks, if she does return and resumes her (for them) extremely damaging critical forays into the ideological snake oil and gobbledygook these shameless hucksters are presently peddling.
The Woke feel vulnerable and threatened because they have plenty to be vulnerable about. They cannot counter your or her very cogent arguments, so they will just attack you both, call you lots of very nasty names and accuse you of being in league with 'dark forces'. And voila;. done like a dog's dinner. End of story as far as they're concerned.
I think we have reached the stage where we are no longer talking about any objective sense of truth determination, but rather wrestling with the realities of the totalitarian governance that has now made its Woke Way through our institutions. Trying to have a sensible discussion with Woke about intersectionalist postmodernism is like talking to Nazi sympathizers about 'The Jewish Problem' in the interwar period.
Almost like the Nazis after 1933, they now effectively control the means of social reproduction and administration, which means they get all the 'educational' (grooming) free kicks with the kiddies ('antiracist'/Gender Neutral Woke Kinder) much as the Nazis did through their various child and youth movements and their control of schooling.
There is still an opposition up to a point, which is the Trump and anti vax/lockdown constituency and it has numbers, but little organization worth a crumpet. It can only run something like the modern equivalent of an inchoate peasant's revolt that characterized social turbulence in France in the fourteenth century. And like their medieval predecessors, their present rebellions have this time been crushed by all-out attacks on their civilizational/race and familial/reproductive centers......and the withdrawal of access to their bank accounts....
It is no longer enough to unpick the evidence for the Woke propaganda narratives being hustled out into public awareness, assisted by the good offices of Publicrelationsmarketingthink Inc which is the master template for the main product of Indulgence capitalism, which are not goods, services and ideas per se that have already been reduced to the status of mere imaginative icons (that have been stripped of disciplined needs and wants context) but fantasized consciousness itself as a complete category, as laid out in that late modern fable, 'The Matrix'.
Academic postmodernism is a consciousness analogue of a master template that no longer deals in interactive discourse of ideas, but iconic stereotypes, narratives, tropes and memes that manipulate the world of once autonomous discourse. and objective thinking into 'mass perceptions'. Democratic politics has been reduced to posturing finger pointing, color and movement, imaging and slogans, as you would expect.
We aren't just up against the 'Indigenous Industry', but a whole culture that has been colonized and hijacked by an unrepresentative swill of humanist trained neo clerics who play the modern 'church' as opposite numbers to the heavy industry 'crown'. They quarrel like Tweedle Dee and Dum, but both hold up the system of Indulgence Capitalism in the same way their predecessors held up feudalism.
We have to think about mounting an all-out attack on the legitimacy and authority of the Woke Ascendancy in the same way that Martin Luther did when he challenged the sale of Indulgences by the Church and its many and egregious corrupt practices, eventually, breaking away from its authority and power altogether; i.e., in modern terms, defenestrating the Woke Ascendancy as a class and producing alternative institutions and at least initially staffing them with skilled people from paracolonial societies (ones still deeply indebted to the colonial experience like India and British South-East Asia) and of course China, who all remain unaffected by Woke intellectual degeneracy and cultural decadence.
We have to establish a case that this class is no longer fit for purpose or a legitimate expression of our collective well-being; i.e., not just intellectual deadbeats, poseurs and frauds, but the enemy of the people.
This is so very very true, and indeed is a 'truth that shall not be spoken' particularly by anyone in the Trudeau government. Talk to any RCMP officer who has spent anytime serving in northern reserve areas, they can tell you the horrors they have seen due to alcohol abuse on reserves. But they will only whisper about it, because it is a truth that shall not be told, because as noted in the article, it is considered racist to discuss the 'drunken Indian problem'. Yet this truth is hard to hid if you happen to live in places like Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, or Edmonton, where the drunken Indian problem is staring you right in face. Stumbling around malls, passed out on the streets, etc. etc. It is disgusting that the Truth and Reconcilliation Report chose to purposely ignore this horror, because it did so for political and only political reasons, and is such a diservice to the Indigenous people. As well the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women report has done the same thing. How many woman, do you think, went missing or were murdered during these drinking binges. Again, something we will never know, because it is a 'truth that shall not be spoken'. Such cowardice, on the part of our leaders, and complicity on the part of Indigenous leaders who would rather play the victim card over and over again, to milk more money out of a guilty gutless government.
This article is very interesting and it certainly makes me worried that nothing will change in terms of the indigenous populations of Canada. I feel that willful ignorance is, as usual, the main reason for the lack of change within indigenous communities, because as the writer indicates, the subject cannot be discussed, even by indigenous peoples, because to do so will label them as racists or collaborators. Alcoholism is a huge issue accross Canada, not just on reserves, and it is why the future of Canadian society as a whole should not be discussed without addressing this issue. It is always easier to blame everyone else for our failings and the TRC is no different. It takes courage for the leaders of these communities to stop being victims and start taking responsiblity for their future. That includes addressing the issue of alcoholism and its fallout.
Incredible article and brave. We hear all too often that the painful truth has to be heard, but then we avoid painful truths.
I wonder if the author isn't somewhat generous as to the causes of recent failures. Hasn't the left parasitized reconciliation as a tool of political transformation?
Born and raised in Winnipeg, I moved abroad for 23 years returning at the height of Covid. I was well aware of the alcohol problems back then as I had friends who were native and witnessed the binge drinking as well as talking a walk to portage and main always told a story. But, upon my return in 2020 I was in complete culture shock for what was happening in Canada than when I first left to a foreign country. Many issues, but the indigenous one stood out in my mind especially since Kamloops hit. Then I began my own unbiased research. What a mess we are in. I would like to thank the writer and all the other brave souls who continue to fight this false narrative. Unfortunately, only when you nothing to lose, like being retired, can you speak these truths without condemnation from institutions.
How is it that this information is not more widely known? We can expect little from the CBC, having been taken over by the Woke, but more objective journalists at Radio Canada and the Globe and Mail should be publishing this information.
"And I will argue finally that no amount of “reconciliation” in the form of money and government programs can solve the problems. Only individual Indigenous people and communities can do that"
Deep down everyone knows that. supporting grivances leads to resentment and resentment as they say in 12 step lore is "the number one killer of addicts"
Alex de Tocqueville wrote about the disaterious effects of alcohol back in the 1800s and in Mimac by the choice the story of an English woman who marries a Mimac and spends the rest of her life on the reserve talks about the devasting effects of welfare.
I am new to learning about the not “popular” background information. Very well written in language that I can understand. Thank you. Need to keep it simple so I can have a few takeaway talking points. Attention of people is like 20 seconds nowadays. Complicated issues like these are hard to distill into a hashtag but somehow need to try. Is there one out there? Eg. #CdnpoliTRCmistakes
I’m really enjoying the articles here. Trying to have open conversations with friends, colleagues now. They are hot button topics where I realized people are in a sort of group think/Brainwash. One says I am a denier. Shocked that I’m so poorly educated (dumb) and unaware (ignorant) of what’s happening for last several years. They don’t know why we even should/need to ask questions. I’m just asking them questions that I want to know answers to. It appears that everyone has the mainstream idea that the schools were the source of the problems. The church and govt are bad. It’s justifiable to give the Indigenous groups billions, millions since we “stole” their land. That many churches are destroyed is unknown and when told, well it’s justified by the bad things the church is responsible for. These ideas are in the everyday simplistic thoughts of many an average person.
When I try to engage in honest conversations, people are scared to speak their mind. Some privately say that they don’t agree with woke ideas but go along with the narrative to fit in with the group.
One of the best and most important articles I have read in recent memory. It is odd how our general media avoid intelligent, truthful, documented inquiry into what really ails indigenous communities, as opposed to their promotion of a much distorted narrative of residential school trauma.
"the Indigenization did not solve the problem of too many Indigenous children in care – in many ways it made the problem worse."
Do you have any examples of past history/ failure/successes from the indigenization of child welfare agencies that I can read? Or sources for the above quote?
Excellent article!
I once had a discussion with a military padre out in Halifax about the deplorable state of affairs regarding the Natives on the Prairies. I grew up in MB, not far from Sandy Bay Reserve, and saw enough of the substance abuse rampant with the Natives here. I also learned from social workers about the conditions on the Reserves or Jails regarding the Natives they've worked with. I also had my Mother's recollections from working as a nurse up in The Pas, MB where she would be treating otherwise healthy babies who had sucked in gas fumes because their mothers wanted to fly in to party for a weekend. The Padre refused to believe the stories. I told her, go look for yourself.
Natives need to look inward and stop the substance abuse. Alcohol of course is just the tip, there's a reason mouthwash is behind the counter now. There is hope though. Native communities are trying to turn their youth around. Powwows are more common so there is some pride coming back. But they still have to acknowledge that the individual is the agent of change, not some constant narrative of victimhood.
Brian, thank you for your very thorough analysis. We have a similar story here in Australia, although the problems are even worse, because the indigenous society found on this continent during first European settlement was much older and less adaption capable than the North American ones.
The point that I would like to put to you is that while your discourse sounds very sensible to me, having a rational and evidence driven discussion in these terms with Woke apparatchiks and acolytes is now almost out of the question, especially as they control most of our social/cultural institutions. .....which is why you cannot get any traction with or sense out of mainstream media on Woke issues of any sort.
I am sure you have been following the Frances Widdowson case, and it is clear that her Woke institutional enemies have no intention to do anything except drive her out of 'their' space by any means, including I think physical attacks, if she does return and resumes her (for them) extremely damaging critical forays into the ideological snake oil and gobbledygook these shameless hucksters are presently peddling.
The Woke feel vulnerable and threatened because they have plenty to be vulnerable about. They cannot counter your or her very cogent arguments, so they will just attack you both, call you lots of very nasty names and accuse you of being in league with 'dark forces'. And voila;. done like a dog's dinner. End of story as far as they're concerned.
I think we have reached the stage where we are no longer talking about any objective sense of truth determination, but rather wrestling with the realities of the totalitarian governance that has now made its Woke Way through our institutions. Trying to have a sensible discussion with Woke about intersectionalist postmodernism is like talking to Nazi sympathizers about 'The Jewish Problem' in the interwar period.
Almost like the Nazis after 1933, they now effectively control the means of social reproduction and administration, which means they get all the 'educational' (grooming) free kicks with the kiddies ('antiracist'/Gender Neutral Woke Kinder) much as the Nazis did through their various child and youth movements and their control of schooling.
There is still an opposition up to a point, which is the Trump and anti vax/lockdown constituency and it has numbers, but little organization worth a crumpet. It can only run something like the modern equivalent of an inchoate peasant's revolt that characterized social turbulence in France in the fourteenth century. And like their medieval predecessors, their present rebellions have this time been crushed by all-out attacks on their civilizational/race and familial/reproductive centers......and the withdrawal of access to their bank accounts....
It is no longer enough to unpick the evidence for the Woke propaganda narratives being hustled out into public awareness, assisted by the good offices of Publicrelationsmarketingthink Inc which is the master template for the main product of Indulgence capitalism, which are not goods, services and ideas per se that have already been reduced to the status of mere imaginative icons (that have been stripped of disciplined needs and wants context) but fantasized consciousness itself as a complete category, as laid out in that late modern fable, 'The Matrix'.
Academic postmodernism is a consciousness analogue of a master template that no longer deals in interactive discourse of ideas, but iconic stereotypes, narratives, tropes and memes that manipulate the world of once autonomous discourse. and objective thinking into 'mass perceptions'. Democratic politics has been reduced to posturing finger pointing, color and movement, imaging and slogans, as you would expect.
We aren't just up against the 'Indigenous Industry', but a whole culture that has been colonized and hijacked by an unrepresentative swill of humanist trained neo clerics who play the modern 'church' as opposite numbers to the heavy industry 'crown'. They quarrel like Tweedle Dee and Dum, but both hold up the system of Indulgence Capitalism in the same way their predecessors held up feudalism.
We have to think about mounting an all-out attack on the legitimacy and authority of the Woke Ascendancy in the same way that Martin Luther did when he challenged the sale of Indulgences by the Church and its many and egregious corrupt practices, eventually, breaking away from its authority and power altogether; i.e., in modern terms, defenestrating the Woke Ascendancy as a class and producing alternative institutions and at least initially staffing them with skilled people from paracolonial societies (ones still deeply indebted to the colonial experience like India and British South-East Asia) and of course China, who all remain unaffected by Woke intellectual degeneracy and cultural decadence.
We have to establish a case that this class is no longer fit for purpose or a legitimate expression of our collective well-being; i.e., not just intellectual deadbeats, poseurs and frauds, but the enemy of the people.
This is so very very true, and indeed is a 'truth that shall not be spoken' particularly by anyone in the Trudeau government. Talk to any RCMP officer who has spent anytime serving in northern reserve areas, they can tell you the horrors they have seen due to alcohol abuse on reserves. But they will only whisper about it, because it is a truth that shall not be told, because as noted in the article, it is considered racist to discuss the 'drunken Indian problem'. Yet this truth is hard to hid if you happen to live in places like Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, or Edmonton, where the drunken Indian problem is staring you right in face. Stumbling around malls, passed out on the streets, etc. etc. It is disgusting that the Truth and Reconcilliation Report chose to purposely ignore this horror, because it did so for political and only political reasons, and is such a diservice to the Indigenous people. As well the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women report has done the same thing. How many woman, do you think, went missing or were murdered during these drinking binges. Again, something we will never know, because it is a 'truth that shall not be spoken'. Such cowardice, on the part of our leaders, and complicity on the part of Indigenous leaders who would rather play the victim card over and over again, to milk more money out of a guilty gutless government.
This article is very interesting and it certainly makes me worried that nothing will change in terms of the indigenous populations of Canada. I feel that willful ignorance is, as usual, the main reason for the lack of change within indigenous communities, because as the writer indicates, the subject cannot be discussed, even by indigenous peoples, because to do so will label them as racists or collaborators. Alcoholism is a huge issue accross Canada, not just on reserves, and it is why the future of Canadian society as a whole should not be discussed without addressing this issue. It is always easier to blame everyone else for our failings and the TRC is no different. It takes courage for the leaders of these communities to stop being victims and start taking responsiblity for their future. That includes addressing the issue of alcoholism and its fallout.
Incredible article and brave. We hear all too often that the painful truth has to be heard, but then we avoid painful truths.
I wonder if the author isn't somewhat generous as to the causes of recent failures. Hasn't the left parasitized reconciliation as a tool of political transformation?
Born and raised in Winnipeg, I moved abroad for 23 years returning at the height of Covid. I was well aware of the alcohol problems back then as I had friends who were native and witnessed the binge drinking as well as talking a walk to portage and main always told a story. But, upon my return in 2020 I was in complete culture shock for what was happening in Canada than when I first left to a foreign country. Many issues, but the indigenous one stood out in my mind especially since Kamloops hit. Then I began my own unbiased research. What a mess we are in. I would like to thank the writer and all the other brave souls who continue to fight this false narrative. Unfortunately, only when you nothing to lose, like being retired, can you speak these truths without condemnation from institutions.
How is it that this information is not more widely known? We can expect little from the CBC, having been taken over by the Woke, but more objective journalists at Radio Canada and the Globe and Mail should be publishing this information.
Thanks. I learned so much.
"And I will argue finally that no amount of “reconciliation” in the form of money and government programs can solve the problems. Only individual Indigenous people and communities can do that"
Deep down everyone knows that. supporting grivances leads to resentment and resentment as they say in 12 step lore is "the number one killer of addicts"
Alex de Tocqueville wrote about the disaterious effects of alcohol back in the 1800s and in Mimac by the choice the story of an English woman who marries a Mimac and spends the rest of her life on the reserve talks about the devasting effects of welfare.
I by chance visited kinkedz
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Wow - powerful!