Some People Are "Special"

Quite:

Even in a government as imperious as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s, Carolyn Bennett’s cheap-shot attack on former colleague Jody Wilson-Raybould stands out as something special.

There’s such economy to it. So much said with so little. A single word — “pension?” — sent in response to Wilson-Raybould’s reaction to the latest residential schools horror, in seeming mockery of her culture and personal credibility. ...

There’s the arrogance: The idea that Wilson-Raybould might be more interested in cementing a fat Parliamentary pension, when Bennett — safely ensconced on the public payroll since 1997 — had long since stopped having to worry about hers.

 

I will submit that Wilson-Raybould is very much about her pension and her causes but so is that desiccated, racist, old b!#ch  Carolyn Bennett.

Pot and kettle, is my point.

Because Quebec:

Quebec Indigenous Affairs Minister Ian Lafrenière said more reforms to the history courses are underway. “It is an important time to rebuild it and find what is missing and be reassured, in terms of the curriculum and training at school, it will be improved,” he said in a recent interview.

“I would be a liar if I were to say everything is done. On the contrary, it’s a long-term process.”

But Lafrenière provided no detail about the changes or offered a timeline regarding when they would be implemented. The Education Department, meanwhile, didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

 

Or, how does Quebec escape whipping in all of this?

History is invariably ugly and riddled with cruelties and bloodshed.

But it also is filled with accounts that challenge a more mercenary narrative: 

In 2015, Tomson Highway told the now-defunct Huffington Post Canada that he spent nine of the “happiest years” of his life at a residential school. The school, called the Guy Hill Residential School, was run by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Born in northern Manitoba, Highway was sent to the residential school at the age of six, and remained until he was 15, going home for the two-month summer holidays. He then boarded with families of European origin while finishing his high school education in Winnipeg.

“All we hear is the negative stuff; nobody’s interested in the positive, the joy in that school,” Highway told journalist Joshua Ostroff about Guy Hill.

“Nine of the happiest years of my life I spent...at that school,” he continued.

“I learned your language, for God’s sake. Have you learned my language? No, so who’s the privileged one and who is underprivileged.”

** 

A 90-year-old Kamloops residential school survivor said she is “devastated” by the loss of Saint Ann’s Church in a suspicious weekend fire near Hedley, B.C.

Elder Carrie Allison of the Upper Similkameen Indian Band (USIB), who has lived in the Similkameen Valley for more than 70 years, said she attended the Kamloops residential school at the age of 8 for three years.

Allison condemns the destruction of the Catholic church, saying in a statement that it was a historical landmark built before 1908.

“There have been many happy and joyful times with marriages from all over the world in that church, and for the couple that was to marry there next week, I am devastated,” she wrote.

 

(Sidebar: I'm sure the official outrage melodrama over these acts of arson is forthcoming. Or not.) 

Also - shut up, China:

In a provocative speech in the upper house on Monday, Independent Senators Group (ISG) Leader Sen. Yuen Pau Woo said Canada should avoid criticizing China for its human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims because our country has mistreated Indigenous peoples.

 

Yes, about that:

It’s a story so shocking it’s hard to believe. A Canadian politician laundering Asian drug money. A crime boss running Chinese gang wars from his Vancouver home. A local fentanyl super-factory capable of killing scores of Canadians. What they all have in common is their link back to Communist Chinese agents, who use criminal syndicates to corrupt Canadian officials, flood Canada’s streets with dangerous drugs, intimidate local Chinese communities, and buy up vast swaths of Canadian real estate. 

** 

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has come down heavily on independent experts that publicize honestly about the nation’s suspected recent disastrous crop yields and supply shortages. Latest reports suggest numerous industry officials have been detained and their online businesses closed.