Responding to Ann Diamond’s Comment

as posted in response to "When Even the Most Rational Man is Fooled by Empathy"

Ann’s comments are in bold. My response is not.

There was a “cultural genocide” in Canada that resulted in apartheid-like separation.

Some of the European explorers who arrived in Canada in the early days either died of exposure in the extreme conditions here (See: A Cold Welcome) or were killed by native tribes (or in the case of Hudson, by a mutiny of his own men).

Others were welcomed. The Indigenous tribes were in awe of these strange men in unusual attire, arriving on massive ships, and carrying all kinds of useful items like iron kettles and pans, portable food like tinned biscuits, flour and sugar, refreshing tea, flints that quickly started fires, knives, guns, and lovely shiny things like glass beads and pretty fabric. All the strangers wanted was furs, meat and some local information in return. Seemed a good deal.

This was a cultural exchange.

Jacques Cartier first claimed the land of Canada for the King of France on July 24, 1534 (per Wikipedia). He planted a 10-metre cross on the shore of Gaspe Bay inscribed with “Long live the King of France” (in French, of course). He also took two Iroquois hostage and reportedly gained agreement from their chief to take these men back to France, on condition that he return with goods for trade.

At the time of contact, Indigenous people could have easily wiped out all of the European traders; instead, they chose to do business.

There was a colonial occupation of the original people’s territory the resulted in the death of their pre-existing civilization.

By and large, in Canada the native people and European traders had common interests in trade. The “original people’s territory” and their “pre-existing civilization” as Ann puts it, had been changed by the Indians own adoption of the horse, which the Spanish Conquistadores brought to North America. In 1680, the Pueblo Revolt had the Pueblo people driving off the Spanish and acquiring many of their horses. Once astride the horse, tribes could and did move far and wide and take over the territory of other tribes.

Indigenous people also rapidly adopted the rifle. With this weapon, they could have wiped out the European traders, but in Canada, that was not the case. Trading went on and Hudson Bay posts were established across the country.

Thus, while Europeans like the Spaniards, French and English traders, and Pilgrims did change society by their very appearance on the shores of the “New World”, it was the Amer-Indians who willingly adopted their tools and technologies, changing their own pre-colonial civilizations themselves.

Likewise, in Canada, the Christian interlopers did no forceful conversions – they led by example. In the earliest cases, it seems that chiefs and bands converted in the hope of acquiring the same ‘cargo cult’ skills and magical tools that the Europeans had. “The earliest recorded and most significant mass conversion to Christianity in historic Canada occurred on June 24, 1610. The Miꞌkmaq Grand Chief Membertou (also spelled Membertou Henri) was baptized by Jesuit priests at Port-Royal, in present-day Nova Scotia. He took the baptismal name Henri in honor of King Henry IV of France. Within a month, about 140 members of his tribe were also baptized.”

As for the alleged ‘occupation’, Indigenous people often say that in their culture they had no concept of land ownership. Thus, how would they have argued for or against a transfer of land rights? And why do they do so today?

There was war between white settlers and native tribes who resisted occupation and expulsion.

Don’t conflate the US and Canada and their respective approaches to Native American Indians. There was no such war in Canada, largely because the Crown went to great lengths to negotiate treaties, and these only came after hundreds years of trusted trade deals, and then the arrival of the North West Mounted Police, who ran off the American whisky traders who were shamelessly conducting a rapacious genocide against the Plains people.

The Americans (and their pioneers prior to formation of their country) were conducting Indian Wars from 1644 to 1924. By 1924, we in Canada had been providing education and a home for orphans at Indian Residential Schools for ~50 years.

The Indians knew the border between the USA and Canada was the ‘Medicine Line’ – Good Medicine to the north, and Bad Medicine to the south. The Mounties were intentionally dressed in red to differentiate themselves from the US Cavalry, the ‘Long Knives’, as the Indians called them. Why did Sitting Bull and his people head to Canada for asylum after the massacre of Lt. Col. Custer and the 7^th Cavalry? They found refuge here. In fact when Assistant Commissioner Irvine arrived at Sitting Bull’s camp in southern Alberta, after a long two day ride, he slept there that night!

Superintendent Walsh had already met with Sitting Bull and his people and had explained that they could stay, as long as they did no raids back over the border, and they observed the law.

After Irvine (and his handful of men) had a long formal meeting with Sitting Bull and his people, Irvine was tired and was offered two lodges where he could sleep. “…and by eleven o’clock I turned into my blanket. How singular it seemed! Here we were, a few white men, sleeping calmly in the dreaded camp of Sitting Bull.” (pg. 329, The North West Mounted Police, Vol. 1, JP Turner)

Indeed, when Superintendent Walsh had first met with the asylum seekers, after outlining the laws and gaining agreement that the tribes would not engage in cross-border raids, nor incite the Canadian Indians living regionally, he issued ammunition to them so that they could hunt for food.

As recorded on pg. 321 “Sitting Bull told his listeners that this was the most wonderful experience of his life. A great change had come over him. He felt he was in another world among white men different from any he had ever seen – bold and fearless.

In effect, he said: “Yesterday I was fleeing from white men, cursing them as I went. Today they erect their lodges by the side of mine and defy me. The White Forehead Chief (Walsh) walks to my lodge alone and unarmed. He gives me the hand of peace. Have I fallen? Am I at the end?”

There is a system of reserves where the RCMP committed state-sanctioned terrorism that included kidnapping children and bringing them to military bases and hospitals.

The reserves were established to prevent the kind of tribe-on-pioneer family violence that came from an incoming pioneer family staking claim to land and a tribe fighting back in the USA. That’s also why the Western Canadian land was surveyed first back in 1869 and why treaties were made, why a common law was established by the RCMP. It was self evident that mixing people who had no common language, had different views of property, had different understandings of fair trade and doing business, it made sense to have such separation until enough native people acquired reading, writing and simple math skills, and an understanding of what the modern world would mean.

An incoming American pioneer to Southern Alberta had a cow stolen and asked the Mounties if he could shoot the next Indian who tried that. The Mountie told he would be charged with murder, and if convicted, sent to jail. The man was in shock – this was not how things were done in the Wild West of the US.

Canada did not want to end up immersed in Indian Wars. That was not how Canadian politicians wanted to treat trade partners. The Indians were made wards of the state to protect them also from threats of the US Cavalry, and from unscrupulous traders (like the whisky traders the Mounties had already driven out of Canada).

The reserve system later served to isolate the higher rate of infected Tuberculosis sufferers amongst the Indian populations from the off reserve populations where the rate was dropping rapidly due to improved public health and sanitation, and new medicines.

Ann, you would have to provide evidence for your claims of kidnapping etc.

There was an Indian Act.

Yes, there was! The way of life of the Indian people was vanishing; they would be a people without food and without the skills to participate in the now advanced agro-industrial society the Indians had encountered ~300 years prior. There had to be legislation to both support the people in the interim and provide a means for education and participation in the broader society over the longer term. Otherwise, things would have been Helter Skelter. As it was, Canadians took on a tremendous tax burden for a small population, most of whom were desperately poor as newcomers trying to build up a life, to support the Indian people and arrange for free education for the Status Indian children as a treaty right, an educational right that taxpaying Canadians were denied until decades later.

There are mass graves.

Sure. Yes. There are mass graves from Spanish Flu, for instance. There is a sort of mass grave at a residential school from a massive fire. And across Canada there are mass graves of all kinds of people due to epidemics like typhoid, cholera, Spanish Flu, Scarlet Fever, Tuberculosis…these were made in haste when an infectious disease decimated a community and there was no extra manpower to dig individual graves. In such a crisis, a mass grave is essential for public health and sanitation. Nothing nefarious to be inferred from a mass grave.

You can try to whitewash it because the British are more polite and legalistic than the Spanish who just slaughtered everything in their path.

Historical context is what I provide. That’s what is missing in today’s conversations about Indian Residential Schools. I may not be polite for much longer. I’m annoyed.

But that doesn’t exonerate Canada or give this country a clean bill of health or make it a model for the world.

Canada does not have to be exonerated for any reason. Until very recently, say 2015, Canada was a model for the world of peace, order and good government. Now it is a mess, largely because of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission failing to include the 7,000 positive stories (like those of Tomson Highway) and intentional omitting interviews with the former staff and administrators, clergy, priests and nuns, who would have provided the adult perspective. This is unconscionable. This skewed the results of the report, and the TRC cannot be said to be objective. From the time of the report to today, which includes the period of the unproven Kamloops Indian Band’s claim of finding the ‘215’ human remains of children, over 400 churches and religious facilities have been burned or vandalized and two people died in one fire. The intentionally skewed ‘truth’ and ‘reconciliation’ commission reports sparked vigilante vandalism, domestic terrorism, rage on both sides and have increased resentment and mistrust. Canada used to be a very high trust society. That is gone.

We have a lot to apologize for but apologies are cheap and so are Truth and Reconciliation Commiasions that fund elites and neglect the real, systemic injustices.

We Canadians have made our apologies, provided billions compensation to settle all IRS claims in the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) and that should be a wrap. I have nothing to apologize for.

This will take centuries to fix and you are just a little cleanup crew with tiny brooms trying to sweep a tragic history under the rug.

It is disgraceful that UNDRIP was rammed through the Senate on the unproven claims of the Kamloops Indian Band finding the human remains of ‘215’ children in the old apple orchard by the Kamloops Indian Residential School. This area just happens to overlay some 2,000 feet of septic system trenches dug in the 1920’s for the school. No one did any due diligence on previous land use before making this announcement, nor did the federal government do any additional due diligence before jumping on the “graves of children” mass graves bandwagon.

And rather like the coincidences I point out in my article above, on the day of the Kamloops ‘215’ announcement, the BC Law Society issued its report and sanctions on a lawyer who had employed a paroled, convicted murderer to help Independent Assessment Process claimants fill out their compensation forms. Here is the BC Law Society report. There were rumours of threats and extortion by this individual who had been assigned to work the Williams Lake area, and thus he was reincarcerated (no such claims were proven in court). Those claimants, on average, received $21,000 more than the average payout across Canada; likewise, the lawyer also benefitted, receiving some $10 million+ in fees (which he was entitled to by law, the question being, was the compensation higher due to the claimants being cajoled or threatened into making more exotic claims).

I am disgusted by all of this. Mock my little broom all you want; I will continue to provide historical context and question the narrative with facts and evidence.

To repair the situation should not take longer than to decide to look to the future as a nation of people with a shared history, rather than remaining mired in the past. My motto is: Every living child matters most of all.

If you wish to continue to wear a hair shirt over things long past that you did not do, go ahead. For myself, I am Sorry No More.