mass grave of indigenous children discovered in BC

[whitecoast]

This has been all over the news here, and on my social media. The residential school system and its legacy is definitely one of the darkest chapters of Canadian history. The very last of these schools was shut down in 1997, in Nunavut.

Canada mourns as remains of 215 children found at indigenous school

The unmarked graves were found during a survey of the former residential school for indigenous people.

www.bbc.com

A mass grave containing the remains of 215 children has been found in Canada at a former residential school set up to assimilate indigenous people.

The children were students at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia that closed in 1978.

The discovery was announced on Thursday by the chief of the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was a "painful reminder" of a "shameful chapter of our country's history".

The First Nation is working with museum specialists and the coroner's office to establish the causes and timings of the deaths, which are not currently known.

Rosanne Casimir, the chief of the community in British Columbia's city of Kamloops, said the preliminary finding represented an unthinkable loss that was never documented by the school's administrators.

Canada's residential schools were compulsory boarding schools run by the government and religious authorities during the 19th and 20th Centuries with the aim of forcibly assimilating indigenous youth.

Kamloops Indian Residential School was the largest in the residential system. Opened under Roman Catholic administration in 1890, the school had as many as 500 students when enrolment peaked in the 1950s.

The central government took over administration of the school in 1969, operating it as a residence for local students until 1978, when it was closed.
What do we know about the remains?

The Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation said the remains were found with the help of a ground-penetrating radar during a survey of the school.

"To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths," Ms Casimir said. "Some were as young as three years old."

"We sought out a way to confirm that knowing out of deepest respect and love for those lost children and their families, understanding that Tk'emlups te Secwepemc is the final resting place of these children."

The main administrative building at the Kamloops Indian Residential School is seen in Kamloops, British Columbia. Analysis of the remains is still going on

The tribe said it had reached out to the home communities whose children attended the school. They expected to have preliminary findings by mid-June.

British Columbia's chief coroner Lisa Lapointe told Canadian broadcaster CBC "we are early in the process of gathering information".

What reaction has there been?

The reaction has been one of shock, grief and contrition.

"The news that remains were found at the former Kamloops residential school breaks my heart," Mr Trudeau wrote in a tweet.

The news that remains were found at the former Kamloops residential school breaks my heart - it is a painful reminder of that dark and shameful chapter of our country’s history. I am thinking about everyone affected by this distressing news. We are here for you. https://t.co/ZUfDRyAfET
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) May 28, 2021

Canada's minister of indigenous relations, Carolyn Bennett, said residential schools were part of a "shameful" colonial policy. The government was committed to "memorialising those lost innocent souls", she said.

Terry Teegee, the regional chief of British Columbia's Assembly of First Nations, called finding such grave sites "urgent work" that "refreshes the grief and loss" of communities in the region.

Those views were echoed by other indigenous groups, including the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA).

"That this situation exists is sadly not a surprise and illustrates the damaging and lasting impacts that the residential school system continues to have on First Nations people, their families and communities,'' its CEO Richard Jock wrote in a statement.
What were residential schools?

From about 1863 to 1998, more than 150,000 indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in these schools.

The children were often not allowed to speak their language or to practise their culture, and many were mistreated and abused.

A commission launched in 2008 to document the impacts of this system found that large numbers of indigenous children never returned to their home communities.

The landmark Truth and Reconciliation report, released in 2015, said the policy amounted to "cultural genocide".

In 2008, the Canadian government formally apologised for the system.

The Missing Children Project documents the deaths and the burial places of children who died while attending the schools. To date, more than 4,100 children who died while attending a residential school have been identified, it says.

Another sobering article about it is here:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-residential-schools-kamloops-faq-1.6051632

 

[Palinurus]

Just FYI - this news has already been covered on SOTT twice:

Remains of more than 200 children found at site of Canadian indigenous school -- Sott.net

Trudeau's regret over children's deaths does nothing to address the issues faced by Canada's indigenous people -- Sott.net

 

[Voyageur]

Another sobering article about it is here:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-residential-schools-kamloops-faq-1.6051632

Have read a number of articles on this school. It is also understandable knowing what has gone in Canada to react, yet does one have the full story - in this particular Kamloops case?

Matthew Ehret has an article that is worth a read:

Discovery of Mass Grave of 215 First Nations Children Shines Spotlight Onto Uncomfortable Truths

By Matthew Ehret Ugly truths which some had preferred be kept in the dark have been pulled into the light of day as a mass grave of 215 children was discovered this month in Kamloops BC using groun…

canadianpatriot.org

As for this particular case (the chief coroner made a remark here, along with many corporations, including the Engineers and Geoscientists BC), the find was determined by ground penetrating radar, there have been no bodies exhumed nor forensics undertaken. A mass grave is pointed at (which looks to some kind of a mass event), where there individual graves? It said there were no markers, yet might their have been a wooden marker there 100 years-ago (if it was at that time)?

The school was opened in 1890, was there an event (the media narrative matter-of-factly makes the assumptions only to 'violence' without knowing if that was the case), there was smallpox (1916), influenza (1918) et cetera that may have factored? Where the deaths all there at the same time or were they placed there in stages, and when was that?

Here was Premier John Horgan's initial comment. Here is the governments own 'Residential Schools: Photographic Collections - British Columbia' that has two examples from Kamloops (all the links are now broken).

The school was run by nuns, it might certainly have offered medical assistance back in time, so to speak, and it is possible that natives in the region brought their sick children there when no other medical services were available (this being the pre transportation networks when the population was widely spread out in the region). There are yet to be determined records. Typically, elders also (speaking of a few generations here only) would have a verbal accounting of their missing children (215 in this case), the Catholic church also would have written records, and there has not been an accounting of it in this case that has been presented.

At another res-school in BC (which I've spent time at after the fact), the elders wrote regarding their experiences there, and was surprised to hear them discuss that they actually looked forward to going back each year as life at home was simply horrible. Of each of the elders, not one spoke negatively of the school they attended. There are obviously bad experiences and I know directly of them from people; documented bad experience as is known - and violence and death, and there is no doubt that individuals administrators at some schools were pathological - yet was it across the board at all schools?

In 1863, smallpox in BC took out a massive amount of natives (one third of the population of BC in general). It can be read here. Was there a mass grave then that may have been misinterpreted today as been there after the school opened?

It is very early on in this case to point the finger at violence alone as cause without knowing a lot more. I hope for the native people there that what they will find out, after forensics is done, that it will not be in alignment with malevolence.

Driving around yesterday, many schools had orange T-shirts hanging on fences in commemoration of these 215 buried. The aim is a reminder against white people and their violence.

Edit: fix

 

[Alejo]

It is very early on in this case to point the finger at violence alone as cause without knowing a lot more. I hope for the native people there that what they will find out, after forensics is done, that it will not be in alignment with malevolence.

Driving around yesterday, many schools had orange T-shirts hanging on fences in commemoration of these 215 buried. The aim is a reminder against white people and their violence.

I've seen a few reports around this topic, so many children dying as such absolutely necessitates context, but that's not the direction in which this is being taken. And that is the real tragedy of it all and a sure sing of our times.

I could almost swear that a few political and public figures, starting with Trudeau, felt almost jolly at having a new opportunity to push their ideology onto the public. I do wonder if people realize how their history is being hijacked by individuals and groups who have no intention whatsoever to do any good for them.

 

[Voyageur]

I could almost swear that a few political and public figures, starting with Trudeau...

Yes, back in time there was papa Trudeau, a little different than son. Back then there was the controversial 1969 White Paper. Curiously, and I don't like to cite the CBC these days, however they had this 2017 article up 'Who's sorry now? A tale of 2 Trudeaus and their approach to historical wrongs' wherein they quote papa Pierre saying:

Trudeau told Mulroney {in regards to Japanese Canadian internment camps} "I do not think the purpose of a government is to right the past. It cannot rewrite history. It is our purpose to be just in our time."

As opposed to what Justin said in 2017 "We are here today to acknowledge a historic wrong".

That indeed was a wrong against Japanese Canadians (the US had camps too). BC is littered with the old camps in the valley's from Alberta to the coast, especially the West Kootenay's .

With this new alleged case of violence - and judging by news articles on this (with voices at the G7 too), the UN, China et cetera, recriminations are going to get ratcheted up and channeled into more anger and guilt.

 

[Jtucker]

I can add a bit of context to the residential school tragedies.

My sister is Lake Manitoba Treaty #2. My parents adopted her from a program that came to be known as the "60's scoop". Basically reserve kids were just taken from their families and put up for adoption to white families. Many times the original household was very loving and not dysfunctional, but the child welfare authorities deemed that the family would not be economically able to care for the child in the future, so they pre-emptively removed them. The photos and information my parents received with my sister, showed a nice house and happy kids from what we could tell. My sister has never visited the reserve or made contact with her birth family. I went to school with a number kids that were "scooped".

In terms of residential schools, a friend's grandfather is an elder at the Norway House Cree Nation. His story is clear. The RCMP would show up with the priests and the kids were rounded up and taken to the residential schools. Most of them (but not all) are in remote locations to avoid prying eyes. In his second year, him and his friend witnessed a nun drown another kid in the creek. Him and his buddy ran and hid in the woods for two days. They were found and when they returned, the nun was gone. They never said a word until they got home. He later went on to be and advocate for reconciliation and he's a remarkably positive person.

The Canadian government has a Eugenics policy towards First Nations, Inuit and Metis. They did in 1865 and they do now. No, not every residential school was as bad as Kamloops, but there many that are worse. I would bet that more and more discoveries of bodies will come out.

There's already digging in Brandon going on:

Brandon investigation underway on unmarked residential school graves

Forensic and archival research is underway to identify the names of children buried in unmarked graves at the former Brandon Residential School.

winnipeg.ctvnews.ca

I have a friend whose Dad attended Macintosh Residential School in Northern Ontario. I visited there many times and it was very creepy before someone burned it down in the 90's. He knows where all the unmarked graves are too. Nobody I know who has family experience with residential school doubts that there are thousands of murdered kids involved. Maybe all the forensic information gleaned will clear the churches and the Canadian government of intentional murder. I would expect the opposite.

In regards to small pox - etc. Definitely a large death toll was related to infectious disease. But remember the "pox" vaccines given to those kids probably weren't the same given to non-residential kids. It is Eugenics after all.

A well-researched, evidence-based book looking at the Canadian government's policies and actions towards its people is James Daschuk's, "Clearing the Plains". It's tragic and harrowing, but if you want to understand the depth of collusion in this matter, it's a good start.

Clearing the Plains

Revealing how Canada's first Prime Minister used a policy of starvation against Indigenous people to clear the way for settlement, the multiple award-winning Clearing the Plains sparked widespread debate ...

uofrpress.ca

 

[Alejo]

The trouble I see with this case is that it attempts to take a historical event and twist it around to fit a narrative of today. I do know that the policy of the English and French when entering America was more like displacement and takeover the land, but that was in the 1500s and so trying to apply my current morality to the acts of people who lived hundreds of years ago is mistaken and won't lead me to understand the event in itself.

That is not to deny the presence of criminal elements in positions of power for whom natives were a problem better dealt with by extermination, but to attribute to that behavior today's notion of racism is misguided at best. See what I mean below, from the article you posted above:

“Missing children and unmarked graves at residential schools are a forgotten human rights issue in Canada. Investigations at the Brandon Residential School seek to remove the anonymity of children’s deaths and provide answers to affected communities. By acknowledging and acting on important matters of social justice, we begin the work towards reconciliation in my home town,” said Nichols.

I could be wrong here, but the language used to describe the goal of the investigation of a possible crime, has an impact on how the crime is perceived. This happens a lot in South America where the idea of a "feminicide" has taken over the headlines to describe any murder of a female, so it takes a crime and it turns it into a statistic that validates the notion that there exists a systemic evil that seeks to perpetuate violence on women just because they're women.

And the same could be said for the case in question, it takes the acts of a criminal mind perhaps and turns them into part of systemic racism, or the inevitable features of a white man, period. No further investigation is needed because the goal is to validate the narrative. All the while, turning the actual tragedy into a profitable source of public relations gain, way before the investigation takes place and way ahead of the results being made public.

I don't know enough about a eugenics program in Canada, but given the population and how it is divided demographically I'd say a program of such a reach would need to extend beyond the small Native American population in the country.

 

[Voyageur]

My parents adopted her from a program that came to be known as the "60's scoop".

Yes, there is a detailed history of this 'scoop' - across the country. It is a sad one.

In terms of residential schools, a friend's grandfather is an elder at the Norway House Cree Nation. His story is clear. The RCMP would show up with the priests and the kids were rounded up and taken to the residential schools. Most of them (but not all) are in remote locations to avoid prying eyes. In his second year, him and his friend witnessed a nun drown another kid in the creek. Him and his buddy ran and hid in the woods for two days. They were found and when they returned, the nun was gone. They never said a word until they got home. He later went on to be and advocate for reconciliation and he's a remarkably positive person.

Thanks for that. I've come to know a great many sad stories, and some people have remained, as you said, positive. Other's, though - for want of good mental treatment under reserve conditions that never were, ensured that many below them suffered every bit they did, and more. A continuous cycle. The reserve system needs discussion and called for what it is, imo.

I could be wrong here, but the language used to describe the goal of the investigation of a possible crime, has an impact on how the crime is perceived.

Yes, perception is key (which does not discount old historical wrongs).

Here is a recent article - read it carefully (remember it is from CBC (State news) and much, but not all, is focused on Kamloops). They bring up disease, yet it is usually associated with one person here or there.

Mass graves?, not exactly, yet it is discussed.

https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/kamloops-residential-school-children-dead

Lost children​

The threat of death was part of life at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. So why is it so hard to determine how many children died there?
[...]
The federal government purged three volumes of funeral records from Kamloops residential school, according to listings of destroyed files held by the National Archives of Canada. The Indian Affairs department also destroyed three volumes of Indian agent reports, along with quarterly "returns" for 1956 to 1961 — student lists that would include deaths.
[...]
The Indian agent concluded the memo by commenting on the overcrowded conditions at Kamloops residential school, where five dormitories accommodated 285 students.

"During an epidemic it is impossible to properly isolate the patients and contacts," typed the Indian agent. "The need for separate quarters to house sick children is evident."
[...]
Some survivors talked about infants who were born to young girls at the residential schools, infants who had been fathered by priests, were taken away from them and deliberately killed — sometimes thrown into furnaces, we were told," said Sinclair. {this is a recurring statement placed in many articles }
[...]
Despite all this evidence of death at the school, no record has yet surfaced of a graveyard at the institution — no shred of paper, cross or stone marks conveying who might lie beneath the earth.
[...]
She said that students from Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc who died at the school were buried in the community's cemetery. There are hints of another, now-forgotten graveyard in the records, she said, but couldn't confirm any aspect of this.

"I actually don't know if that reference comes from that school or from another school," she said.
[...]
The Oblates of Mary Immaculata, which ran Kamloops residential school, turned over what it deemed to be relevant records to the TRC, according to the internal TRC document.
[...]
Numerous schools came back with no records of cemeteries, including Kamloops residential school, according to a preliminary report.
But those who went to the institution knew differently. They heard children were buried in an apple orchard.
[...]
The use of the schools to neutralize Indigenous resistance was put bluntly by school inspector J. A. Mcrea in a 1886 letter to the Indian commissioner: "It is unlikely that any Tribe or tribes would give trouble of a serious nature to the Government whose members had children completely under Government control."

continued...

There is no doubt that many of the stories from elders (not all elders speak truthfully though) are told with good and honest memories, and as said, have heard many first hand. However, the initial news cycle here with Kamloops was loaded with irresponsible journalist statements without really knowing anything of substance, in this case. Assumptions that are turned to truth before rigorous validation. So, there are missing accounts that perhaps the spade will reveal or not...

The timing was interesting, as was the corporate response. Here is Pfizer's, one of hundreds:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1399485848454901761

As long as you are not taking All-LM with BLM on Twitter, I guess (Pfizer would fail horribly on that one).

Pfizer's covid-vaccine's were particularly well represented on reserves, with 'mass' inoculations under the full backing of Health Canada, with compliance being peddled under fear for native acceptance; usually stated as you must protect the native elders (and some smart elders have refused).

 

[Ant22]

The trouble I see with this case is that it attempts to take a historical event and twist it around to fit a narrative of today. I do know that the policy of the English and French when entering America was more like displacement and takeover the land, but that was in the 1500s and so trying to apply my current morality to the acts of people who lived hundreds of years ago is mistaken and won't lead me to understand the event in itself.

I agree with the overall point of not applying current day morality to past circumstances but note that the last of those schools were closed in 1996. I started high school in 1998, which means there are people of my age and younger who attended them. Those were modern times so modern morality still applies to them. The school where the bodies were discovered closed in 1978. It's a bit earlier but not long ago enough for modern values to not apply.

And the same could be said for the case in question, it takes the acts of a criminal mind perhaps and turns them into part of systemic racism, or the inevitable features of a white man, period. No further investigation is needed because the goal is to validate the narrative. All the while, turning the actual tragedy into a profitable source of public relations gain, way before the investigation takes place and way ahead of the results being made public.

If the article posted on SOTT about it anything to go by there is in fact a certain systemic aspect to this topic, one that is being milked to this very day in a manner that continues to harm those communities (my emphasis in red):

The separation of indigenous children from their parents is still happening at an alarming rate. Despite comprising 7% of the population of Canadian children, indigenous children make up 52% of children in care. Yet, when news broke of the gruesome discovery at the Kamloops school, a predictable narrative began to emerge: however indirectly, all indigenous people are essentially traumatised by experiences in these schools. What is more, this trauma ultimately explains the many problems faced by indigenous communities. As one respondent put it, indigenous people have "ongoing issues in our communities that are a direct result of these schools," and the failure to recognise this ensures "that new generations are continuing to suffer."

Yet it is exactly this narrative that is perpetuating the problem, inviting ever-greater surveillance of indigenous families and increasing the number of children who are removed from their homes. It is so common a story that it has come to acquire an air of common sense, even among indigenous people themselves. It goes like this: Because of the legacy of colonialism, residential schools, and later child welfare removals from the 1960s to 1980s, indigenous mothers, who were not mothered themselves, have become unable to mother their own children.

In this way, the wicked issues faced by indigenous people have come to be understood through pop psychological theories of emotional trauma and outdated 'cyclic' theories of social problems. As one young indigenous woman put it, "We're still experiencing the effects of the residential school from our parents and grandparents. We're all damaged, and we'll pass it on to our children, so it will never end."

So engrained is the belief that the emotional wellbeing of indigenous parents presents a risk to the next generation that the Canadian province of British Columbia recently came under fire for issuing 'birth alerts' to child welfare authorities as soon as an 'at-risk' child was born - a large proportion of which were indigenous children. Just being indigenous has come to be thought of as a 'risk' to the next generation.

But the belief that indigenous women were incapable of taking care of children and could not possibly raise the next generation of good, well-mannered, liberal citizens was precisely the rationale that led to their removal to residential schools in the first place. Now, all that has changed - through the language of 'trauma' - is that the notion that indigenous parents are bad parents has acquired a therapeutic edge. What is more, it has been placed at the heart of a wide network of social problems.

It is worthwhile to remember that while large numbers of children were taken to residential schools, not everyone was. And not everyone views themselves as irreparably scarred from the experience. Yet this narrative of the 'traumatised' indigenous victim has become so prevalent that one school's homework assignment to find 'positive stories' of residential schools was met with uproar. As a Canadian indigenous person myself, who grew up hearing stories of the horrors of residential schools, I too was outraged when I first heard about the misguided school assignment. But I've since come to realise that the constant invitation to expound atrocity tales, the constant expansion of victimhood, the tendency to see every single indigenous person as traumatised, has a darker edge.

Only one narrative is allowed, and indeed widely invited - the atrocity tale, that lives and indeed whole successive generations are forever marked, and even utterly ruined, at the hands of the colonising state. Yet, this narrative is not the only one that indigenous people would like to articulate. But it's the only one most people want to hear.

This is a case of victim mentality being forced upon indigenous people to continuously perpetuate systemic abuse on them under the cover of helping victims of trauma. This makes me wonder if the situation in the Canadian care system is similar to that of the British one, where children are forcibly removed from good but in some way vulnerable families and placed in care or put up for adoption. The narrative is exactly the same: reasons are found (or 'manufactured') to take a child away from the parents. Those reasons include precaution, i.e. the parents may not be able to care for their children in the future so the child is taken away from them as a preemptive measure.

The care system in the UK is a money making scheme. Each week of a child's stay within the care system makes brings £1,500 into the system. Interestingly enough, abused and neglected children aren't taken away from the parents becuase people don't want to adopt traumatised children with issues. That's why such stories as Baby P and Daniel Pełka continue to happen. RT made a documentary about the issue of forced adoptions in the UK in 2015 and the similarities between the narrative pushed in the UK to perpetuate the stealing of children from families for profit and the way the narrative is milked in Canada are quite striking. Here's an interview with Ian Josephs who helps families targeted by the system. In many cases the only solution for them is to escape the UK.

I suspect a similar tragedy happens in Canada and the narrative of victims of abuse is very handy to keep it going. I think this may be partially the reason why the Canadian government is beating their chest in such a public manner.

Whether there are other ways in which this victimhood of indigenous people is taken advantage of in Canada I cannot tell as I haven't investigated the issues sufficiently. But I suspect there is, ensuring profits for the care system wouldn't be enough of a reason on its own I think. But come to think of it, black people in the US are told they're victims too and that narrative has been milked by the Democrats to win their votes. So it wouldn't be the first time in the western history when a social group has been made to believe they are victims (and no other narrative has been allowed) so someone else can use that victimhood for their own gain. So the part where @Alejo said that this tragedy "takes the acts of a criminal mind perhaps and turns them into part of systemic racism, or the inevitable features of a white man" is very accurate I think.

Edit: clarity of thought and grammar

 

[Alejo]

I agree with the overall point of not applying current day morality to past circumstances but note that the last of those schools were closed in 1996. I started high school in 1998, which means there are people of my age and younger who attended them. Those were modern times so modern morality still applies to them. The school where the bodies were discovered closed in 1978. It's a bit earlier but not long ago enough for modern values to not apply.

oh, very good annotation! thanks! I realize I should've done a bit more digging.

And yes, I concur with you Ant22, there's a profit to all the "compassion" flying around the western world, I think there's a similar case of profitable exchange within the US and their own Child Protective Services, not to mention the horror stories that sometimes come from these centers and the further implications that it has, like parents having their children removed because they won't vaccinate and so on. This is not to say either that in some cases intervention is the right approach, as there are cases where kids do live in horrible situations, but that's perhaps the point, instead of judging case by case, the system seems to be now turning into an ideological PR machine.

And scenarios like the one in Canada right now, and I mean the way everyone has jumped to take a piece of the pie and condemn the tragedy, are very common in the entire continent. In South America that very ideological mindset has been used for decades (if not centuries) and has been used to blame everything on Spain or Portugal. And while there surely existed tragedy brought over by some europeans, the history of it all is actually not that cut and dried, and it's misguided and irresponsible to apply such a simple answer to a very complex situation, yet entire governments have risen based on that very premise, and it seems like a very similar scenario is taking place up on the north end of the continent.

 

[Jtucker]

All the points above that Alejo, Voyageur and Ant22 make are excellent and are key to understanding the context in which the news stories and the spin are being revealed now.

However, this is living history in my neighbourhood - it is not about "racism" or revisionism. No one is blaming "whitey" for it. Possibly because we have such a mixed community to begin with this is more about "kids were killed and no one listened to us for decades". The Canadian government undertook specific policies after the Red River Resistance of 1870 that are responsible for this. The British and the French previously before confederation had not. When I mention Eugenics - this isn't an aside. It is a parliamentary policy that exists to this day.

I know I live in an obscure place where the local history and body count are not "historically large" for most countries. The history of the Red River Valley/Rupertsland can get lost in a much bigger geopolitical milieu. Every record I can find shows that First Nations, Metis (mixed blood from both ancestries), French, Irish, Orcadian and Highland Scots worked together in an extremely harsh environment for two centuries. A new nation that combined all of their traditions arose after our great plague of the 1778-81 years (which was Pox from Western NY being cleared to get rid of the Iroquois - as a weapon). They had their own language (Michef), music (Red River Reels) and laws based upon Anglo/Scots common law and Cree/Ojibwa traditional values.

They pledged loyalty to both Christ and Queen Victoria. Just the Metis and the Civilized Indians. The "Wild Indians" continued to live outside of it. But it was a very fluid society.

Yet extermination was set for anyone who didn't have the right land "title" upon Canadian Confederation, as laid out in the letters of John A Macdonald at that time. I could start another thread that outlines the Royal Procalmation of 1763, the American Revolution, the formation of Canada, Small Pox warfare, the Red River Resistance and the Northwest Rebellion that can show through the British North America Act, George Washington's personal letters in the Library of Congress as well as communications between John A Macdonald and our local Priests in St Boniface, that the PTB have had a eugenics plan in place a long time. I doubt it's of value to the forum to go through all of it as it would be very foreign to most members - and probably not relevant to anyone's future needs.

I might add, as I'm reading Laura's book, I am more inspired by people who try to defend the downtrodden. Riel did that and he was hung. John A Mac Donald's personal correspondence said what he felt about justice before the trial even started, "Though every dog in Quebec will bark, Riel will hang."

If anyone is interested in an excellent evidence based book on Riel, Joseph Kinsey, a Montana newspaper writer captured it better than any Canadian has, "Strange Empire".

Riel is both a martyr and prophet to us here.

Strange Empire of Louis Riel the by Howard Joseph - AbeBooks

The Strange empire of Louis Riel by Howard, Joseph Kinsey and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at AbeBooks.com.

www.abebooks.com

To get back to the main thread. I don't like to post things that are disturbing to others, but images like this one are coming out in our community.

Little kids were shackled in residential schools. This is an article from the U.S. but we have images from here too. Please try and keep in mind this isn't a revisionist social media campaign when it comes to people on the ground. There are much worse pictures about to come out. The Canadian government will do everything it can to make sure forensics aren't done.

Tiny Handcuffs: A Sad History

The Vault is Slate's new history blog. Like us on Facebook; follow us on Twitter @slatevault; find us on Tumblr. Find out more about what this space is...

slate.com

 

[Alejo]

I doubt it's of value to the forum to go through all of it as it would be very foreign to most members - and probably not relevant to anyone's future needs.

On the contrary, I think if there's a part of history that you feel would be worth sharing and discussing with those interested, I would say share it with an open mind, it might be the best thing one can do, I and can think of no other place better for that purpose than this forum.

I am not well versed in Canadian history but it would surely be interesting to fill in those gaps. I am probably better acquainted with the story of the Spanish presence in America than the one of the English, French and Dutch, so what I can say is limited. I do remember reading stories of slaves fleeing the English colonies for the spanish viceroyalties due to the treatment they would receive under a catholic system being better, also at that time Spain was a way wealthier place to live in. And that could paint a picture, but then I also read A Very cold Welcome by Sam White which spoke of the climate conditions of the time and how that dictated the priorities of the travelers from Europe.

 

[Voyageur]

Here was Rebel New's initial questioning - some of it around radar imaging, and TB cases from records wherein there was a sanatorium, apparently, and how the local chief has locked down communication, while the RCMP and coroner (who the latter would usually take the lead) are deferring to the band.

Ground penetrating radar, although useful, is far from accurate in making determinations, so I hope there will be some better dialogue on this subject to help let communities understand, one way or the other.

Had not also realized that in BC, Canada Day has been canceled, apparently (at least in Victoria) unless that has changed.

Questions remain after discovery of remains of 215 children at Kamloops residential school

The fearless source of news, opinion, and activism that you won't find anywhere else.

www.rebelnews.com

 

[unkl brws]

Here was Rebel New's initial questioning - some of it around radar imaging, and TB cases from records wherein there was a sanatorium, apparently, and how the local chief has locked down communication, while the RCMP and coroner (who the latter would usually take the lead) are deferring to the band.

Ground penetrating radar, although useful, is far from accurate in making determinations, so I hope there will be some better dialogue on this subject to help let communities understand, one way or the other.

Had not also realized that in BC, Canada Day has been canceled, apparently (at least in Victoria) unless that has changed.

Questions remain after discovery of remains of 215 children at Kamloops residential school

The fearless source of news, opinion, and activism that you won't find anywhere else.

www.rebelnews.com

As of today there isn't a general cancelling of Canada Day across the country. It seems that some celebrations may go ahead, some cancelled, and some will be subdued. It creates more confusion and stress in people especially during this "pandemic" as to whether they should celebrate or not (osit). Maybe that is one of the goals; further tearing of the fabric of society and culture. One quote of one of the reports below stood out for me - "Public sentiment is torn on the issue".

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/cancel-canada-day-canadian-voices-1.6076022

Movement calls for cancellation of Canada Day celebrations in Manitoba

 

[Alejo]

And to add a bit to the story on how the event is being managed, Just came across this:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Pope Francis should come to Canada and apologize on behalf of the Catholic Church for its role in running residential schools for Indigenous children, after hundreds of bodies were located in two unmarked graves.

It reminded me of this news item from two years ago, from the mexican president:

López Obrador today published a video in which he advised that he had written both the king of Spain and Pope Francis asking that they apologize for the indignities suffered by the native peoples during the period of the Spanish conquest.

It becomes a story of public posturing for political points, despite the results of research and even forensic evidence, the story is already established and they will exploit it. Which is adding insult to injury, a real tragedy with real consequences is being exploited by political figures for public relations.

Then as a result, what begins as posing as compassionate for the suffering of others, turns into a blame game where it must always be placed outside. Funny how in both cases it landed at the catholic church's feet, and with the way Pope Francis has been behaving, we can expect little resistance.

Back in 2019 the joke was that it was rather rich for someone named Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (4 hispanic names), to ask Spain to apologize for the crimes that took place during the conquest, as if he wasn't the descendant of the spaniards that perpetrated the supposed crimes he complained about, and the ones currently living Spain would be the descendants of those who did not participate in them. I believe a similar case could be made for a guy with an english and french name asking Pope Francis to apologize.