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Remains found at Kamloops residential school 'not an isolated incident,' Indigenous experts and leaders warn

The confusion over Remembrance Day may be that it is federally (as in, federal employees) observed, but not required for federally-regulated companies. Some provinces choose to apply it, and some do not.
 
To bad this story didn't break before the election or during it


While Jean Chrétien was minister of Indian affairs, his federal department received several reports — including one addressed directly to him — of mistreatment and physical abuse of children at residential schools, government records show.

Chrétien, Canada's prime minister from 1993 to 2003, told a popular Radio-Canada talk show on Sunday that he never heard about abuse at residential schools while he was minister of what was then called the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development from 1968 to 1974.

Jean Chrétien says he never heard about abuse in residential schools while he was minister
A cursory look at the historical record reveals that while Chrétien was minister, his department received at least four reports outlining allegations of abuse and mistreatment of children at St. Anne's Indian Residential School, which operated in the Fort Albany First Nation, along Ontario's James Bay coast.

The department also received reports of abuse from other residential schools during his tenure, including two from one that sat about 130 kilometres north of his hometown of Shawinigan, Que., records show.
 
To bad this story didn't break before the election or during it


While Jean Chrétien was minister of Indian affairs, his federal department received several reports — including one addressed directly to him — of mistreatment and physical abuse of children at residential schools, government records show.

Chrétien, Canada's prime minister from 1993 to 2003, told a popular Radio-Canada talk show on Sunday that he never heard about abuse at residential schools while he was minister of what was then called the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development from 1968 to 1974.

Jean Chrétien says he never heard about abuse in residential schools while he was minister
A cursory look at the historical record reveals that while Chrétien was minister, his department received at least four reports outlining allegations of abuse and mistreatment of children at St. Anne's Indian Residential School, which operated in the Fort Albany First Nation, along Ontario's James Bay coast.

The department also received reports of abuse from other residential schools during his tenure, including two from one that sat about 130 kilometres north of his hometown of Shawinigan, Que., records show.

witch hunt halloween GIF by W Network
 
The confusion over Remembrance Day may be that it is federally (as in, federal employees) observed, but not required for federally-regulated companies. Some provinces choose to apply it, and some do not.
I'm actually a fan of this model, means the kids are in school and can do the observations there and actually learn something, so probably a good model for the TRC day. Not sure what schools are teaching now, but when I was a kid there was this weird empty potemkin village with a long house and whatnot where we learned about the First Nations like it was a historical thing, as opposed to there being a lot of reservations in the area and active residential schools.

Still blown away the last one close in 1996; the whole system caused generations of trauma.
 
the last one close in 1996

Well, sort of. The last one to be operated, in any capacity, as a school, Marivelle, stopped operating as a residential school in the 70s and became a day school, and was turned over to the band in 1987, who continued using it as a day school until 1996.
 
In similar news:
"Where did they go?" No human remains found on Charles Camsell hospital grounds

Nothing has been found after two more days of searching for unmarked graves at the site of a former “Indian hospital” in central Edmonton.

Crews completed the last of 34 excavations on the Charles Camsell Hospital grounds Friday - after ground-penetrating radar pointed to “anomalies” under the soil.

“We’re happy that nothing has been found here to date,” Papaschase Elder Fernie Marty said.

“No bodies, no bones of any kind, no human remains, so that’s a good thing. Now to find where the bodies did go to. Where did they go?”

Marty said he still believes there are unmarked graves somewhere in or around Edmonton.

He bases that off of stories he’s heard about people disappearing and accounts from former staff members he’s spoken to directly about things that happened in the hospital.

“A lot of evil stuff went on here. This place, in my opinion, should have been burned to the ground or blown up,” he said.

“You couldn’t give me a place to live here. I wouldn’t live here. Too much horror went on.”

The hospital building is now being converted to condos, owned by local architect Gene Dub.

Dub paid more than $200,000 for the search.

“I think we owe it to those families to search these grounds,” Dub said. “To find, truthfully whether they’re here.”

“His heart is in a good place,” Marty said of Dub, adding plans to add a commemorative stone to the property were appreciated by him and other Elders.

Starting in the 1930s, 31 hospitals were built in Canada with the goal of treating tuberculosis in Indigenous people - but according to the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at the University of British Columbia, the hospitals were understaffed and used “experimental treatment” on their patients.

A class-action lawsuit brought forth in 2018 alleges patients suffered sexual and physical abuse, including forced sterilization, at these hospitals.

The Indigenous groups involved in the Camsell search said they will continue to seek answers - and possibly search other sites in the Edmonton area.
 
Interesting take on the half-staff flags from an interesting group ...
Ray Deer answered the phone on a late October day and heard the news that Bo Curotte, a Vietnam War veteran, had succumbed to cancer. Deer is president of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 219 in Kahnawake Mohawk territory, and such phone calls are an ever more regular occurrence.

(...)

... understanding that a tribute needs to be paid to each departed veteran is one of the reasons Deer and the Kahnawake elders resolved that after keeping the flags at half-mast for a 30-day mourning period in the wake of the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, it was time to raise them back up again.

“We didn’t want to have the flags lowered forever,” Deer said. “Quebec and Canada have never told us, as Mohawks, what to do, and so we put the flag back up when we felt it was the right time.”

(...)

Together with poppies, two minutes of silence, the laying of wreaths and the playing of the Last Post, lowering the national flag to half-mast at sunrise and keeping it there until sunset is an integral part of remembering.

“The rituals are crucial,” retired Gen. Rick Hillier said. “They are part of how we learn, and how we remember.”

But if the flag’s already at half-mast, the ritual can’t be performed, which would be unforgivable, Hillier said. Such was the former chief of the defence staff and Afghanistan veteran’s dismay that he pulled his car over to the side of the road while en route from the capital region to Montebello, Que., to say his soldier’s piece about what is shaping up to be a Remembrance Day fight over the flag.

“You can’t lower the flag on Nov. 11 unless you raise it,” he said. “We are past our best-sell-by date on this, and it is time to put the flags back to full-mast.” ...
 
With Pope Francis visit and forthcoming apology, we can finally close this dark chapter of the Canadian residential school system and "reconciliation" with the FN.
 
With Pope Francis visit and forthcoming apology ...
For the record, apology given April, so now it's being "re-news'ed" here
Heck, even the Canadian Bishops, who have said in the past that they couldn't really apologize themselves*, liked it
... we can finally close this dark chapter of the Canadian residential school system and "reconciliation" with the FN.
One hopes, but we'll see.

* - Linking to the text originally posted to the site, given the link now brings you to the newest version of the organization's postion
 
For the record, apology given April, so now it's being "re-news'ed" here
Heck, even the Canadian Bishops, who have said in the past that they couldn't really apologize themselves*, liked it

One hopes, but we'll see.

* - Linking to the text originally posted to the site, given the link now brings you to the newest version of the organization's postion

Well, apart from the formal apology, it seems that one of the key issues is that the Pope's is the only church that hasn't coughed up any cash yet. I haven't heard anything about money yet in the recent coverage:


Residential school compensation must be paid before any papal visit, say survivors, advocates​

Say​

Public costs of previous papal visits have ranged from $50 million to $100 million​


Jason Warick · CBC News · Posted: Nov 05, 2021 2:00 AM CT | Last Updated: November 5, 2021


Demands for Catholic Church to pay residential school settlement before any papal visit​


Residential school survivors and advocates say they want the Catholic Church to pay the remaining amount of how much it owes to survivors under a 2005 settlement deal. It’s estimated at about $60 million, which is also how much a possible visit by the Pope could cost Canada.

The potential $50 million to $100 million cost of a Canadian papal visit isn't far off the amount the Catholic Church still owes residential school survivors, say advocates.

They say that bill — estimated at slightly more than $60 million — must be paid and all documents about the schools disclosed before one dollar is committed to bringing Pope Francis to Canada for an expected apology. One Vatican expert says that's highly unlikely, but survivors say they'll keep pressing.

"That money should go to survivors first. The Vatican is rich. They owe us for what they did," Cote First Nation survivor Madeleine Whitehawk said.
"They have not been honourable. Saying sorry is not enough."

 
... the Pope's is the only church that hasn't coughed up any cash yet ...
To be fair, Team Papist did throw some cash into the plate. They were supposed to raise $25M to help support survivors, but, well, uh, here's what they managed to scrape together....
... Canada's 12 million Catholics donated less than $4 million of the promised $25 million — roughly 30 cents per person ...
... and let's not forget the "in kind" help Team Papist DID provided, too (highlights mine)...
... CBC News has obtained the log detailing the in-kind claims for dozens of Canadian Catholic entities party to the landmark 2005 Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (IRSSA). Survivors and advocates interviewed say they're shocked, as many of the listed services are nothing more than attempts to evangelize and convert Indigenous people. The list includes bible-study programs, placement of priests and nuns in remote northern communities, services under the frequently used label of "religiosity" and religious-document translation ...
 
To be fair, Team Papist did throw some cash into the plate. They were supposed to raise $25M to help support survivors, but, well, uh, here's what they managed to scrape together....

... and let's not forget the "in kind" help Team Papist DID provided, too (highlights mine)...
Wow.

There really is a moral disconnect between the average everyday person, and a large organization that can afford expensive lawyers.

It’s always hard for me to wrap my head around an organization spending it’s money on legal fees, so it doesn’t have to do the right thing…

it’s like they are completely blind to how that comes across to people outside their little circle of decision makers.
 
With Pope Francis visit and forthcoming apology, we can finally close this dark chapter of the Canadian residential school system and "reconciliation" with the FN.
I'm not an expert on the RC Church, but I was under the impression that the Pope was incapable of apologizing because he was considered to be infallible? Won't this apology compromise his position?
 
I'm not an expert on the RC Church, but I was under the impression that the Pope was incapable of apologizing because he was considered to be infallible? Won't this apology compromise his position?
Happened in Ireland in 2018 and (from a different, more conservative Pope) in 2010, and one out to the Pacific nations (from yet another Pope) in 2001, so if infallibility is the issue, Team Vatican seems to be able to be ... selective in what's a "must do" versus a "could do." Then again, this wouldn't be the only big organization of any kind in the world that does that - same with this ...
... It’s always hard for me to wrap my head around an organization spending it’s money on legal fees, so it doesn’t have to do the right thing…
In the words of the DM and the Minister in "Yes Minister"
... DM: ... you might create a dangerous precedent.

Minister: You mean that if we do the right thing this time, we might have to do the right thing again next time ...
 
Not sure that apologies for misdeeds of others falls under the doctrine of "papal infallibility".
 
Wow.

There really is a moral disconnect between the average everyday person, and a large organization that can afford expensive lawyers.

It’s always hard for me to wrap my head around an organization spending it’s money on legal fees, so it doesn’t have to do the right thing…

it’s like they are completely blind to how that comes across to people outside their little circle of decision makers.
How many times have a large corp or government entity fight tooth and nail and fatten the bank accounts of legal firms over something they have to know they'll lose eventually. Its actually disgusting.
 
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