When reading the book 'Hidden from History', I came across one of its most salient points: that although Canadians acknowledge "mistakes" were made in the process of dealing with Aboriginals, they don't apologize for the acts of colonization, genocide and cultural destruction themselves.
"... what Indian Affairs Superintendent Duncan Scott referred to as "The Final Solution of our Indian Problem" in 1910 --the legal eradication of Aboriginals and their culture-- had to occur under a mask of legitimacy; namely, the so-called "educating and civilizing" of a "lesser people". Surprisingly few Canadians, including critics of the residential school system, have been able to penetrate this fog of apparent "benevolent concern" that hid a murderous system." (p 15)
Canadians are "sorry" for the "excesses and abuses" of the institutions which harmed and killed Aboriginals, but not once have they apologized for their very existence in the first place.
"Accordingly, within the mindset and legal regime of this dominant culture there exists no basis to expose or prosecute the system who killed and tortured native children in the residential schools, since that murder originated precisely within these present-day institutions ...
... As in post-war Europe, therefore, any justice for aboriginal victims of the residential schools must ultimately originate from outside Canada, and be based on international legal principles. For no institution is capable of condemning and prosecuting itself, let alone its leaders." (p 16)
Here's an example: Ottawa spent a million and a half dollars locating over 5,000 abusers of children (identified by aboriginals) but did nothing. From CBC:
"Investigators hired by the federal government have located thousands of people accused of physically and sexually abusing students at Canada's Indian residential schools — though they may never face criminal charges.
As part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement agreement, the government located 5,315 alleged abusers, both former employees and students. Seventeen private investigation firms were contracted, at a cost of $1,576,380, beginning in 2005, according to information provided by Indigenous and North Affairs Canada (INAC).
The alleged perpetrators, however, weren't tracked down to face criminal charges — it was to see if they would be willing to participate in hearings to determine compensation for residential school survivors. The Independent Assessment Process (IAP), not involving the courts, was set up to resolve the most severe abuse claims."
So the government has evidence of over 5,000 abusers, yet sits on it and does nothing. Why? Because to take action would open a can of worms for the caker government and they can't have that in the middle of the 'settlement process'!
Instead, the government asked politely for the abusers to come forward and participate in the hearings, which of course 4,450 so far have declined to do. Furthermore:
"The identity and names of alleged perpetrators who want to participate in the IAP are kept on a secure server with other data related to IAP claims. They are not disclosed to anyone, other than the adjudicator in each specific claim, and to the Department of Indigenous Affairs.
... Through the history of residential schools — which lasted over a century, with tens of thousands having suffered abuse — fewer than 50 people have been convicted for crimes related to the schools."
Let's take another look, this from the Toronto Star:
"...St. Anne’s is probably most infamous, however, for having a homemade electric chair that was used to punish children. Edmund Metatawabin, today an author, unfortunately experienced the chair. In a 2013 affidavit to Ontario Superior Court, he wrote, “I cannot describe how intense the pain was. I could not scream. At St. Anne’s, if you were being beaten, you could not scream or cry or the punishment would keep up.”
These were not isolated incidents: Children of the Broken Treaty reports that an OPP investigation nearly a half-century after the abuses took place collected 860 complaints of children being raped, sexually assaulted, tortured, beaten, and otherwise physically abused by 180 identified perpetrators. What took place at St. Anne’s could only be described as a crime against humanity. What kind of people would defend that?
The answer, painfully enough, is the Canadian Department of Justice — in the present day. Under the Independent Assessment Process (IAP) that was created as part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the Department of Justice is in the strange position of having to defend Canada against these accusations while also having to prepare evidence for the hearings on behalf of the survivors in order to determine their settlements.
More government cover-ups:
When asked about these allegations, however, what the lawyers did was to claim that there were “no known incidents found in documents regarding sexual abuse at Fort Albany [Indian Residential School].” Yet they were holding back documents including all the information about the 180 named perpetrators, and the 860 complaints. Angus writes that Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt wrote to him that “of course” the government was aware of the evidence. But instead of handing it over, as it was mandated to do, it appears it simply lied to survivors of child rape because it allowed the government to save money paid out to compensate for ruined lives.
So survivors sued, and the Ontario Superior Court compelled government lawyers to release the documents that proved the crimes had been committed. Sault Star commentator Tom Mills noted at the time that though the court did not conclude the lawyers had acted in bad faith, they were nonetheless employing “highly adversarial civil law procedures to residential school compensation hearings, which are supposed to be non-adversarial.” ..."
These are just two examples. The government has withheld evidence and acted in both a prosecutory and defensive role - a complete conflict of interest. And not just in these examples, but in virtually the whole process of so-called "reconciliation". After a century of crimes and tens of thousands of victims, less than 50 people have faced prosecution when the government itself holds thousands of names, depositions, statements, accusations and records!
This is a cover up. An informal one to be sure; one done in plain sight. But cakers aren't able to distinguish that because again, in their eyes these institutions are 'legitimate' and what they did was legitimate even though they "made mistakes along the way".
To actively prosecute criminals who were sanctioned by church leaders, and the government itself - could potentially lead to questions regarding the prosecution of government entities. Thus we see that the caker kingdom wants "reconciliation" and a financial "settlement" without actually doing anything to effectively de-legitimize its past conduct.
The press can shed a few crocodile tears over 'bad apples' and 'bad conduct' and sweep the whole issue under the rug. Once official settlements have happened, it's likely aboriginal people won't be able to legally prosecute officials or the government later on.
Conflicting the matter are aboriginal leaders. Many former students have made accusations against leaders in the aboriginal community and government. None of these have been properly investigated (they have been dismissed as 'absurd'), and as such, there is no incentive for these "leaders" to actively pursue justice, nor can their downtrodden victims who have been threatened, harassed and worse. More from Hidden from History:
"Sadly, the two-tiered system of collaborators and victims created among native students at the schools continues to the present, as some of the state-funded band council officials --themselves former collaborators-- appear to have an interest in helping suppress evidence and silence witnesses who would incriminate not only the murderers but themselves, as agents of the white administration." (p 20)
And so it can all be summed up in this:
"Christian European culture in Canada still sees nothing fundamentally wrong with its invasion and occupation of the New World and its destruction of aboriginal societies; it simply regrets the "excesses" of that process. No wing within any of the mainline Canadian churches is challenging the Christian missionary effort per se, merely aspects of it, such as the sadism of particular school staff, or the "cultural insensitivity" of missionaries to First Nations.
... And these attitudes are still defended today by leading church officials, like former United Church moderator Bruce McLeod, who stated on a CBC interview in the spring of 2000, "The residential schools as a whole were well-intentioned experiments." (p 26)
No, cakers are not sorry about conquering, subjugating and mass murdering aboriginal peoples, nor for taking their land; they're sorry about the 'mistakes' made by 'well-intentioned' institutions.
A caker today is likely to say, "it was a long time ago! I wasn't around when that happened, so it's time to get over it." And yet, if he's a French Canadian he's likely to moan to Ottawa about the injustices Quebec has experienced and demand 'nationhood' and 'special recognition', without even noticing his own hypocrisy. Or if an Anglo - complain about his "hardship" in having to be sensitive and allot federal funding money for Aboriginals.
Destroying aboriginal culture was 'an unfortunate event' of the past, yet the government will spend billions forcing the French language on the population of Canada: including the indigenous, mentally disabled children and remote Inuit villages (previously).
Cakers complain about the "Asian invasion" in Western Canada; bitter that Asian immigrants have brought over their language, hire their 'own people' and drive up real estate prices. Apparently this is some kind of outrage, yet aboriginal people need to 'get over it' when it comes to mass murder and genocide.
I for one, openly welcome the Chinese to come and invade Canada. Feel free to force white Canadians to live on small patches of land; make Mandarin the official language, Cantonese the second; take their children away to live in Chinese-run state schools and murder tens of thousands of them.
Thirty years from now I will smugly remind cakers that "it's in the past and we all need to move on."
