So on either side, the right or the left, there is black-and-white thinking around the issue of Canada's history with the Natives, and no realization that it, like all civilizational development, was the result of the complex interplay of both forces of dark and light, progress and degradation.
So yeah, there is the tragedy of the Residential Schools. But, then there is ALSO the pathological amplification of that tragedy used to lay a guilt trip on the nation - and also to inspire chaos, such as the burning of churches across Canada, which increased after the story dropped that a number of grave sites were found at the Kamloops Residential School. And following along the pathological playbook, even questioning this grave site narrative is akin to holocaust denial, and therefore should be illegal, if they can swing it. Questioning is not allowed.
Even if the Kamloops grave sites were a woke fabrication, which seems to be the case, the fact of the matter is that the Natives in Canada were subjected to a genocide, which is well-documented and beyond question to any serious analyst. And no one knows quite what to do about that, when the easiest thing to do would be, I don't know, treat them like people? Ensure they have basic amenities like clean drinking water? Proper housing? Stuff like garbage pickup? But then there's another bit missing in Canada's history, in particular that of the Residential Schools - the process of cultural ponerization.
Most designs of governments around the world seem to be based on the goal of breaking people and creating a situation of total dependence, and artificially-induced childhood. The Natives had a skill-set that would have allowed them to remain independent and self-sufficient. I've also seen evidence of a culture that was driven (at least in some ways) towards intentional suffering, ancestral connection, Initiation, Soul-growth, and abiding by Cosmic Law. But it's likely that a huge proportion of their genetic potential was wiped out in the early stages of colonization via teh genocide. For instance, they've already been through their own version of an apocalypse, including a real pandemic via smallpox. Then after that, there were the treaties and the reserve system rolled out in BC, and government programs like the Residential Schools were implemented - ostensibly designed to 'kill the Native in the child' and break the line of transmission of that culture of self-sufficiency, initiation, and Soul, and remove them from the the land to make way for development. Anyways, IMO the Residential Schools were a significant milestone wherein Native culture was ponerized due to childhood trauma. The 60's Scoop followed up on that just to be sure they stayed broken, caught victim loops, etc. That's how we landed in the mess we're in today, with pathological Elders and Band Council leaders a product of that system. And I would guess these pathologicals probably act actions being taken that would help their captive populations.
One broad cultural result was that this process made them the perfect mascots for the woke - the victims of Canada's original sin - and therefore a flash point for increasing tensions between the left and right. It's a huge mess.
Excellent, concise summation on a complex subject that gets constantly used by both left and right to further their own grift. The fact that Canada is a legally defined apartheid state due to the Indian Act seems to never enter the mouths of those in Ottawa.
Agree with the statement that it is a "complex subject" and it does get used by the right, left and in-between. It has been my life observations that the problem in Canada (the U.S. has a different experience) with native communities, has been the department of Indian Affairs. On the native side, directly to what iamthatis suggests (some elders, band councils etc.) is in how they can keep the system intact and push their people down, and they do this because it is federally integrated and there is fear to not upset the applecart. They do this also (some) as a form of control. There is also an ACT to maintain and tighten it. It can be also suggested that if natives want to be a Nation, then be a Nation - but how likely is that? What has to take place for that to truly happen (I wish it would)? Native bands are also divided from each other, and in some case despise each other despite what one might hear in the press. This is history.
Discussing these issues in Canada is like discussing hard issues as a gentile with Jews, one can be branded and the denialism card played. It makes discussion impossible.
A couple of things around residential schools and how these matters might look - they will look different to different people and at different times. One may change their views and even have them changed again. That said, it is known what the liberals allowed to happen under Justin's government back when the great mass so-called genocide happened around unmarked graves. Canada became dirt, and colonialism a very dirty word. I said so-called, as there has never been a shred of proof, in fact it is not allowed to be investigated by third party sources, let alone the RCMP etc. This brings up the 60's scoop and residential schools.
The 60's scoop indeed had the bad, it had bad characters and injustices, yet did it also have original intent because children were being harmed by their own families? Of the families I talk to who have been impacted, there are different stories and here are some examples:
Impacted natives attending residential schools near me (now elders) have two competing narratives. Some very much enjoyed their years at school, because life was simply hard at home or, they wanted to be there as did their parents feel comfortable sending them. These people may even say that if it was not for school there lives would have been negatively different. The converse is that there are those that attended the very same school at the same time, and to them they were locked in cells, abused by nuns and beaten or raped by priests. The other side has no memory of this.
Anyone then attending residential schools is now either at the low end of their 60's, or if still alive, they are into their 70's and even 80's. When attending school, they were young children, often from large families. The families were either quite stable all things considered, offering their children the best they could, or they were not good families - their environment; alcohol (extremely prevalent) , drugs (more modern times), abuse, violence, pedophilia by fathers, brother and uncles, or friends and neighbors - and even by pathological female counterparts did this take place. Like today, there were systems to try to identify families of the second kind, and remove their children if exposed to harm - or some of their children. Harm to children is a universal: white, native, black matters not, families are impacted and society has a role and obligation to help abate harm. They may also get it wrong (modern stories point this out well), yet in good social consciousness, children would never be left in pathological conditions in a functioning society.
Trauma and possible screen memories
Rebeca is a 73-year old female elder who attended residential school, although she was allowed to go home on weekends, holidays and during summer. Some of her friends lived closer and came home everyday. She did not mind her situation. Her experiences were related as being generally fun. She learned and tried to enrich herself. She went on to become a teacher, while some of her friends married. Rebeca's neighbors on the reserve is Patricia, she is of the same age and was taken to the same school without her older siblings. She was in residence. She exhibits much post trauma around her school experience. She repeats stories of dark cells and horrible nuns and sexual abuse. For some reason that she does not know why, she was not allowed to go home on weekends, and not in summer either as those around her did. The school became her prison. Repeat this with males at the same school.
The question is, why did Rebeca experience something so vastly different from Patricia at the same school, at the same time? It can happen, does happen.
Cliff never went to residential school, but his uncle did and he was told stories. Cliff has children of his own, and together they repeat the horrible stories of their uncle or great uncle. The uncles parents had been very harsh, the uncle was often beaten and went hungry, and was later sent to his grandparents who were also mean. These are also the stories that now have been relegated to unsaid matters, because the uncle's trauma at residential school overshadows. Later at residential school, the uncle was beaten, locked away, and never feed, he claimed. On the other hand, Paul's father had been at the same residential school at the same time. Paul's father said that he had played hockey with Cliff's uncle at school, and even slept in the same dorm and ate at the same table - they were friends, although he knew of Cliff's uncles hard family past - well everyone did in the community. Cliff's uncle had long ago been taken away to residential school in the 60's scoop, while Paul's father had gone on his own with his parents blessing, because there was no school in their area.
Names have changed, yet these are the realities in the community from different families. Again, what is going on that each of these men (young boys then) had seen things from such a different perspective? What causes their memories to be so different?
Going back to Patricia, when she was finally out of school she was given over and raised by her aunt. She would never talk about her parents who had both died of alcoholism when she was away, and she would never discuss her older brother and would have nothing to do with the uncle. Her two in-between older siblings, she had learned, had had hard lives and moved away. There is no contact. Patricia, as an elder, then entered the Truth & Reconciliation process with the results known. Cliff's uncle also spoke in the T&R hearings. Rebeca did not speak, and Cliff's dad had died. Neither Patricia nor Cliff's uncle ever said anything about their own childhood history at home during the hearings. No trauma associated. It has either been blocked out or remembered differently, in fact, some who were in horrible positions as children at home, then tell their grandchildren how good it was at home and how bad residential schools were, and the story repeats. It ripples down in families through generations.
A good friend of mine grew up in a rural area on a farm. They were poor, work was hard. Her neighbors were a native family in the same position. The families were both joyous, helping each other always. Their kids were interchangeable to the other parents - meals, sleep overs, school trips, holidays, camping and sports, it was like they were one. When T&R came along no one paid much attention to it, and then suddenly the accusations of mass grave genocide filled the news and it was like an axe was dropped between the two families. Lifelong friends were cut off from each other - the cut direct. Incredibly sad, and this is what they have done to all of us; this thing, that covid thing, matters not.
Recently, not sure if anyone saw it, a documentary film was taken up by the so-called prestigious National Geographic. The film that came out is called
Sugarcane -
here is the broadsheet and trailer:
In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada. After years of silence, the forced separation, assimilation and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools was brought to light, sparking a national outcry against a system designed to destroy Indigenous communities. Set amidst a groundbreaking investigation, SUGARCANE illuminates the beauty of a community breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding the strength to persevere.
.
The local and international press reviews went wild, and in the link above one can meet the filmmakers and see the trailer. The film will bring up stories of Ed, then a baby who was put into an incinerator at a residential school after a priest had rapped his mother and she gave birth. Horrible. However, is this what really happened? Was this cultural propaganda?
The
South Asian Post had something different to say:
The Canadian documentary
Sugarcane, now streaming on Hulu and shortlisted for an Academy Award, has captured widespread acclaim. Former U.S. President Barack Obama included it on his list of favourite movies, cementing its status as a cultural touchstone. With two Critics Choice Awards to its name and a private White House screening praised by U.S. President Joe Biden,
Sugarcane appears poised to leave a lasting impact.
[...]
At the heart of
Sugarcane is the story of
Ed Archie NoiseCat, a man whose life began in tragedy. As a newborn, Ed was abandoned by his mother and found crying in the school’s garbage burner.
While this event is true, the film implies it was part of a systemic pattern of abuse. In reality,
Ed’s abandonment was a desperate act by his mother, not evidence of institutional wrongdoing. His father, Ray Peters, was not a priest but a man who fathered 17 children with multiple women.
One can read further, and should. If not that, have a look at a counter film called
The Bitter Roots of "Sugarcane" that juxtaposes facts from fiction.
National Geographic needed a fact check on "Sugarcane." Here it is.
The Bitter Roots of "Sugarcane" How a Shock-u-mentary Blood Libels the Catholic Church and Canadian History National Geographic needed a fact check on…
vimeo.com
Canadian Law professor, Bruce Pardy, had also featured
this background and film in 13 parts (the questions are not nothing - osit):
The
Indian Act, originally enacted in 1876, is widely acknowledged to be anachronistic and paternalistic, but no consensus can ever be found for its repeal. Meanwhile, the bulk of the TRC’s recommendations
seek to reinforce dependency rather than end it, by calling upon government to fix this, build that, or pay lots of money. “We call on the federal government to…” appears repeatedly in the TRC report. Many Aboriginal claims are exercises in rent-seeking that essentially amount to an insistence to be paid for nothing other than their presence.
It may sound harsh, and as said, I would welcome their aim to be a Nation.
Indeed, natives have had a hard one, they have been and are in some difficult situations. There has been generations of bigotry and injustices done by outsiders, deep divisions imposed by government, and crimes against by insiders. No matter who, each needs to look in the mirror and reconcile the self. Maybe then, together, we can grow again as one and be good neighbors to each other.
josephsansone.substack.com
shares two colors with Russia 
. We just have to figure out how to get the blue color! Maybe we can get it through the USA 
?
globalnews.ca
irsrg.ca
