It's like Kwanzaa but in Canada!
Let us reflect on the undercurrents that drive this made-up holiday:
On Thursday, NDP MP Leah Gazan tabled a bill that would send the whole spectrum of residential school “denialists” — and downplayers — to jail for up to two years. Anyone who is caught publicly “misrepresenting facts” about residential schools, or “condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying” them, in the course of wilfully promoting hatred against Indigenous peoples, could be found guilty if Bill C-413 passes.
There are, of course, limits that the bill’s proponents will be especially keen to point out. The draft crime comes with a set of draft defences: truth, good-faith religious discourse, public interest and communication of hateful materials. Beyond that, courts have established (albeit foggy) limits to hate-promotion crimes as well — “Only the most intense forms of dislike” are in scope, and considerations must be made for the circumstances, tone and audience of the speech in question.
But it’s hard to feel much confidence that these limits will hold, considering how fast we’re headed down the slippery slope, which is more of an inevitability than a fallacy.
Under this silly MP's proposed law, statements like these ... :
Around the time of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, social media users re-shared posts which falsely claim that in 1964 Queen Elizabeth took 10 children from Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia, Canada on a picnic and the children were never seen again. The monarch did not visit Kamloops in 1964 and Reuters found no credible reports relating to these claims, which seemingly stem from a conspiracy theorist.**
The documentary’s premise is that the Williams Lake community on the Sugarcane Reserve secretly knew, for decades, that Catholic priests at St. Joseph’s impregnated their female students and then disposed of unwanted babies in the school incinerator.
**
The Cowessess people noted from the outset that they didn’t discover any graves; the crosses and headstones had gone missing under disputed circumstances decades earlier, and ground-penetrating radar had been brought in to enumerate and pinpoint the location of each burial. Cowesses Chief Cadmus Delorme told CBC News: “This is a Roman Catholic grave site. It’s not a residential school grave site.”
**
Three years after the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced the discovery of 215 potential unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, no human remains have been recovered, and there is no public accounting for the $7.9 million allocated for the investigation, according to a report by Blacklock's Reporter.
**
Casimir described the same “unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented,” only this time it was that “the stark truth of the preliminary findings came to light — the confirmation of 215 anomalies were detected.” (emphasis mine).
Anomalies, not “the remains of 215 children.”
... will never questioned.
One cannot get anything for nothing:
Ontario's only First Nation representative at Queen's Park plans to soon table proposed legislation, in his own Indigenous language, to have the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation declared a paid provincial holiday.
Mine cause is holier than thine cause:
Hundreds of students from 15 schools within the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) attended a field trip on Sept. 18. The goal of the trip was to raise students’ awareness about the Indigenous community’s “efforts to address mercury contamination and advocate for their rights regarding mining and logging activities within their territory.” Parents were assured that their children would not participate in the “rally” but would “observe and learn from the presentations and discussions.”
This all became unhinged when the Grassy Narrows River Run Rally was hijacked by anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian demonstrators, and students were co-opted into their ideologically driven demonstration.
The demonstrators hijacked the tragedy of Grassy Narrows to promote their own political agenda. Since when do we allow this? This is not education; it’s an attempt at indoctrination. Indigenous suffering was trivialized and used in the service of someone else’s false dogma. It was as galling as it was evil.
But students shouldn't be dragged into an issue they know nothing of.
School is for learning the rudiments of academics and ultimately how to think for one's self.
That's the going theory anyway.
One should not be surprised at this hijacking.
When a wheel squeaks loudly enough, it will get the grease.
Then there is this:
Let's declare #SophiaPooleyDay every year just before Canada's 'National Day for Truth and Reconciliation'
— DonaldBest.CA * DO NOT COMPLY (@DonaldBestCA) September 28, 2024
This will remind all that there must be truth before reconciliation is possible - and that many of the indigenous tribes of Canada practiced slavery, cannibalism, human… pic.twitter.com/ox9yhbMU0W
Let's not forget:
Justin Trudeau has done lip service, photo opportunities with First Nations for political gains or for a seat on some United Nations council (not to mention the millions wasted for this failed bid) — either to embarrass Canada and Canadians for being racist, bigoted, prejudice or out right genocidal.
Does the PM not remember the White Paper that his father wrote upon the Residential Schools in the early 70s? Or the fact that Pierre Elliott Trudeau was Prime Minister during the time of the Residential schools? Or is that forgotten because he wants to portray his father as a great Quebec separatist as he is himself?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to Tofino, B.C., with his family Thursday, as Canadians marked the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, his office has confirmed.
Though Trudeau's daily itinerary initially stated he was in "private meetings" in Ottawa, it was later updated to note he was in Tofino.
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