Nova Scotia drops high school course that asked students to list benefits of residential schools - The Globe and Mail - "The 170-page course offered other “passively racist” content, she said, including questions asking why poverty, alcoholism and unemployment are common among First Nations populations."
Critical thinking means that on topics where there is a leftist consensus, you can only have approved opinions
Toronto-area priest resigns after backlash from sermon on 'good done' in residential schools - " A priest who referred to the "good done" by the Roman Catholic Church in residential schools has resigned from his role as pastor, the Archdiocese of Toronto confirmed on Friday. During a sermon last Sunday, Monsignor Owen Keenan, the pastor of the Merciful Redeemer Parish in Mississauga, west of Toronto, talked about the remains of an estimated 215 children discovered at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. run by the church."
Forest companies, First Nations unhappy with B.C.'s plan to defer old-growth logging - "The provincial plan to defer logging of 26,000 square kilometres of old-growth forest for two years has come under fire from both the forestry industry and a group that advocates for First Nations with logging interests"
Is the environment more important than indigenous people?
Matt Walsh on Twitter - "I’m happy that this land was conquered. It is an immeasurably better place now than it would have been had Europeans never showed up. I’m proud of our history and grateful. I will never apologize for it. I will celebrate our heroes and laugh in your face when your cry about it.
None of you would want to actually live in the primitive cultures you idolize. None of you. You prefer our civilization even as you whine about it. You feast on the bounty while denigrating the men who provided it to you. You’re ungrateful, despicable brats. The lowest of the low"
Barbara Kay: What we don't know about unmarked graves at residential schools - "Over the past month, three noteworthy events have presented as provocative grist to the groaning mill of Indigenous-“settler” relations. First, acclaimed Cree playwright/novelist Tomson Highway’s memoir, Permanent Astonishment, was published by Penguin-Random House. Highway’s experiences at a residential school did not embitter him. On the contrary, he credited that nine-year stint for the foundational skills that led to creative self-realization. But saying so publicly, once permissible, has become a form of blasphemy in the chattering classes... Mount Royal University informed Frances Widdowson, a tenured professor in the Department of Economics, Justice and Policy Studies, that she was being fired for having contributed to a “toxic workplace environment,” thereby “negatively impacting the mission and reputation of the university.” Widdowson’s extensive scholarly research is not in question. Her bio says she “uses a political economy perspective in her research on Aboriginal and environmental policy, as well as the politics of religion.” But even the title of one paper, “The Political economy of ‘Truth and Reconciliation’: Neotribal Rentierism and the Creation of the Victim/Perpetrator Dichotomy,” reveals why she is considered a blasphemer by Indigenous activists and their campus allies. Widdowson never minces words. Her antagonists are particularly enraged by her needling trope “race hustler” to describe “a self-proclaimed spokesperson for a particular racial identity during a perceived incident of racial tension, so that the individual can exploit the situation to serve their own interests.” In September 2020, Widdowson’s pointed criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM “has destroyed MRU”) led to a colleagues-initiated petition to have her fired that garnered 6,000 signatures. But even before that, her fate was likely sealed in 2016 when she protested the plan to “indigenize” learning, an ideology-based plan to “embrace Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing, to integrate Indigenous teachings and practices.” Widdowson is happy to see Indigenous beliefs studied, objectively, as we do other belief systems like Christianity, but indigenized learning forces students to actively valorize these “ways of knowing” as equal to science-based knowledge. Such coerced genuflection to other people’s idols is just not on for her. Widdowson is now engaged in research around the hot-potato issue of unmarked graves at Indian Residential Schools (IRS). Which brings us to the promised third event. Jacques Rouillard, professor emeritus in the Department of history at the Université de Montréal, has published an article in the Dorchester Review, titled “In Kamloops, Not One Body Has Been Found.” One of 2021’s biggest stories was the “discovery” of unmarked children’s graves in the grounds of Kamloops, B.C.’s, former industrial residential school (1890-1978), founded by Shuswap Chief Louis Clexlixqen, and run by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Sisters of St. Anne of Quebec. The “discovery” meme arose from a scanning by ground-penetrating radar in a search for the remains of children already surmised to have been buried there. A preliminary report did not find bodies, but rather soil disruptions in a nearby apple orchard. No remains were exhumed, but First Nation Chief Rosanne Casimir stated that according to community “knowledge,” the soil abnormalities were 215 “missing children,” some as young as three. The anthropologist who oversaw the scans cautiously theorized that there were likely 200 “probable burials” — not specifying age — based on the disturbances. But only excavation could provide further evidence of anything, and no excavation has yet been done. But the story was too good to fact-check, and went viral, often with the trope “mass graves” substituting for “unmarked graves,” a distinction with an enormous difference, since “mass” graves are associated with genocide. Suddenly there was talk of “thousands” of “missing” Indigenous children whose parents had not been informed of their deaths. The Parliamentary flag was lowered to half-mast; China (of all nations) called for an investigation into Canada’s human rights violations at the UN Human Rights Tribunal; Pope Francis expressed pain over the “shocking discovery in Canada of the remains of 215 children” at Kamloops. Nobody in political authority — certainly not our instantly and abjectly apologetic prime minister — has to date pointed out that no actual remains have been found. Thus, Rouillard writes, “[G]overnments and the media are simply granting credence to what is really a thesis: the thesis of the ‘disappearance’ of children from residential schools.” The consensus of “cultural genocide,” endorsed by the TRC (but contested by many accredited historians routinely cold-shouldered by uncritical mainstream media), has effectively been elevated to literal genocide, “a conclusion that the Commission explicitly rejects in its [TRC] report.” The bulk of the article details myth-busting evidence that should act as a cautionary tale against uncritical acceptance of feelings-based narratives over objective academic inquiry. Rouillard concludes, “It is hard to believe that a preliminary search for an alleged cemetery or mass grave in an apple orchard … could have led to such a spiral of claims endorsed by the Canadian government and repeated by mass media all over the world … Imaginary stories and emotion have outweighed the pursuit of truth.”... “On the road to reconciliation, isn’t the best way to seek and tell the whole truth rather than deliberately create sensational myths?”"
Race hustlers don't like the truth, since it impedes their rent seeking efforts
How Canada forgot about more than 1,308 graves at former residential schools - "as news of the discoveries quickly circulated around the world, it has spawned assertions that the graves were deliberately hidden or that they are “mass graves.” Neither claim has appeared in statements from the First Nations who have announced discoveries of unmarked burials. “This is not a mass grave site, these are unmarked graves,” Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme said at the June 24 press conference announcing the discovery of 751 graves outside Marieval, Sask. In the case of Marieval and Cranbrook, reports have also ignored cautions from First Nations leadership that they are yet to definitively link grave discoveries to residential school fatalities. In Cranbrook, the Ktunaxa Nation has been explicit about noting that they are not yet able to confirm that the 182 suspected graves uncovered by radar contain the bodies of children who died at residential school. In their statement announcing the discovery, ʔaq’am — a band within the Ktunaxa Nation that uses the Ktunaxa language — said it was “extremely difficult to establish whether or not these unmarked graves contain the remains of children who attended the St. Eugene Residential School.” As First Nations across Canada begin the delicate process of searching for their own forgotten cemeteries, they are also up against a public discourse that is wholly unattuned to the sheer tonnage of forensic work that will be needed to find the lost graves of Canada’s residential school dead... Complicating the search for Indigenous graves at former residential schools is that the cemeteries can also contain the bodies of staff and administrators. Although Indigenous children comprised the vast majority of people who died within the walls of a residential school, any white staff members claimed in the regular waves of tuberculosis outbreaks that struck the facilities could also find themselves in now-forgotten graves... “Graves were traditionally marked with wooden crosses and this practice continues to this day in many Indigenous communities across Canada,” read a statement by the ʔaq’am Indigenous community after their discovery of 182 unmarked burials outside Cranbrook. “Wooden crosses can deteriorate over time due to erosion or fire which can result in an unmarked grave.”"
Weird how the racist white staff who buried the students they murdered in mass graves to insult them buried themselves there too
Addendum: If it is wrong to bury people in a cemetery, what should have been done with the bodies?
Crisis lines offering support to residential school survivors see spike in calls
Grievance mongering has consequences
Residential Schools - "The information and material here may trigger unpleasant feelings or thoughts of past abuse. Please contact the 24 Hour Residential School Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419 if you require emotional support."
Charges withdrawn against three protesters in paint attacks on Ryerson, Macdonald statues | The Star - "Daniel Gooch, 35, Danielle Smith, 47, and Jenna Reid, 35, all of Toronto, were each facing three counts of mischief under $5,000, and one count of conspiracy to commit a summary offence... Ryerson and Macdonald were proponents of residential schools, which sought to force Indigenous children to assimilate into Canadian culture."
Vandalism is good if you're on the left. But if you put a flag on Terry Fox at a right wing protest (the trucker convoy), you're desecrating him
ITC_Spy on Twitter - "I don't really believe any woke white person who still has a good job or major platform. Why haven't you turned that over to a "POC," for example me?
(2) Same thing as re these ringing declarations that X Thing - Harvard's graduation - takes place on "Native land." No - it doesn't. The Native tribes had great warriors but poor Generals, and LOST, in war. If you want Cambridge to be Native land again...I mean...give it BACK."
"I wonder if the French have land declarations about it being Celtic/Gaulish land. Or the Poles about it being German land. Or the Congolese about it being Pygmy land. I suspect that we're the only navel gazers."
Cool when you leaving : memes - American Indian: "I want all illegal immigrants out of this country"
Tree: "cool when u leaving"
Whose Lands Did Native Americans Steal - "We all know that history is not the left’s favorite subject. Many times, it’s just too inconvenient for their political narratives. Often, history has to be erased or submerged in order to achieve the “greater good” of creating a just and moral society. In truth, it’s not much better on the right, although generally, the conservative take on American history is more nuanced. Christopher Columbus was an ass — a greedy, cruel, ambitious man who didn’t let anyone stand in his way to achieving riches and power, especially native people. But he was courageous enough to cross an unknown ocean in a rickety ship and with a mutinous crew. Do his sins outweigh the good he’s done? Not our call. And certainly not the call of biased, cretinous leftists who don’t want to understand Columbus and only use his sins as illustrations in their little morality plays to condemn the entire “Age of Exploration.” American history did not begin in 1492. There have been human beings residing in North America for at least 20,000 years and probably longer. But the people who crossed the Bering Sea land bridge from Asia to North America during the last Ice Age may not have been the first humans to arrive here. Recent DNA evidence shows that there have been several different migrations to North America with Native American tribes only being the most recent. And that leads to the inescapable conclusion: the Native Americans who were present on the North American continent when Europeans arrived were not the same Native Americans who arrived 20,000 years ago. DNA evidence tracks the migration of one early American civilization — the Clovis people, so-called because the first tools and weapons were found in Clovis, New Mexico — and reveals that they thrived in both North and South America until about 8500 years ago... Any hint that ancient Europeans settled in North America at about the same time as modern Native Americans cannot be countenanced either by Native American tribes or white liberals. For Native Americans, it is a deep insult to their culture to claim that their origins were anywhere else but North America. They reject any migration theories for religious reasons. The controversy over Kennewick Man shows the lengths that some Native Americans will go to “protect” their culture. A skeleton found in Washington bore some markers of being caucasian. A huge controversy erupted as some Native Americans fought to keep science from unlocking the secrets of the skeleton. After more than a decade of legal wrangling, scientists were allowed to examine the priceless find and the skeleton gave up its secrets. The remains are more closely related to modern Native Americans than to any other living population... What happened to Native Americans when European settlers arrived was as tragic as what happened to the Celtic people when the Slavs and Huns invaded Celtic lands just 800 years before the arrival in North America of Columbus. If anything, the Huns were even more brutal than Europeans were to Native North and South Americans. They also massacred entire villages. They also brought disease and pestilence... Jean Jacques Rousseau, the 18th-century philosopher, saw Native Americans as “Noble Savages” — uncorrupted by anything considered “modern. It’s a racist view of Native Americans but it’s still quite popular among many on the left."
James Lindsay, uncitable on Twitter - "For Indigenous and Native Americans, the fourth Thursday of November is dedicated to Indigenous history, activism, and resistance. It’s called Unthanksgiving."
"⚠️This claim about entire populations being activists by default is disputed. Learn more about how people, even members of "oppressed" groups, can think for themselves."
Protecting vulnerable children - "The incident sparked a number of inquiries into child protection practices, including by the Children’s Commissioner, whose Office appears to have now become radicalised. They published two reports, with their most recent, “Te Kuku O Te Manawa: Moe ararā! Haumanutia ngā moemoeā a ngā tūpuna mō te oranga o ngā tamariki” (which does not seem to have been given an English title), calling for the introduction of “by Māori, for Māori approaches that are enabled by the transfer of power and resources from government to Māori.” Such a reckless recommendation to embrace the politics of Maori sovereignty and categorise vulnerable children by race instead of need, surely brings the Office, which has a statutory responsibility to advocate for all New Zealand children, into disrepute. Brian Giesbrecht, a retired Canadian Chief Justice, who, with 30 years of experience in dealing with indigenous child abuse cases provided the NZCPR with a report on New Zealand’s Maori Child Welfare Problem in 2019, strongly advises against categorising children by race: “When I became a judge in 1976 they were just starting to talk about turning the control of child welfare agencies over to Indigenous groups. This changeover took place during the 1980s, and 90s. The theory advanced by Indigenous advocates was that there were far too many Indigenous children in care because white child care workers did not understand Indigenous culture and the Indigenous way of life. If only Indigenous workers and supervisors could take over, the numbers would go down. “For the next two decades a combination of incompetence and ideological zealotry condemned many Indigenous children to bleak lives. Children were regarded as the property of Indigenous tribes, and this lead to tragedies. Children who had been in stable homes with loving parents since birth were taken from their homes and placed in Indigenous homes, simply because the foster parents were not Indigenous.” This is already happening in New Zealand with reports that four Maori children who were removed from a violent home by Oranga Tamariki in 2018 into a permanent placement with non-Maori foster parents, were taken away from their home and given to extended family last September. In Canada, many children died while supposedly in the care of these new indigenous agencies, and the former Chief Justice strongly suggests that the only test should be the best interests of a child to grow up within a loving and stable family. With tribal leaders seeking to use the strong political influence they now have in Parliament to expand their power base into governance, it is timely to reiterate the warning given by former US President Barack Obama, who, with a Kenyan father, understood only too well the destructive influence of tribalism: “Ethnic-based tribal politics has to stop. It is rooted in the bankrupt idea that the goal of politics or business is to funnel as much of the pie as possible to one’s family, tribe, or circle with little regard for the public good. It stifles innovation and fractures the fabric of the society. Instead of opening businesses and engaging in commerce, people come to rely on patronage and payback as a means of advancing. Instead of unifying the country to move forward on solving problems, it divides neighbour from neighbour.” Unfortunately, the sad reality in New Zealand today is that vulnerable families are regarded as a money-making resource by tribal leaders. They are peddling the lie that only Maori can provide solutions to Maori disadvantage in the hope of securing Government contracts that remain in place for as long as families remain mired in the cycle of disadvantage... “Let’s scratch the surface of the problem beneath the slogans uttered by these kuia. In 2019, 79.5 percent of Maori babies were born to unmarried mothers compared with 35 percent of non-Maori. The same year over 6,000 parents added a new born to their existing welfare benefit – one in ten of all babies born that year. For Maori the ratio doubles to one in five. Children on a benefit from birth are more likely to experience abuse and neglect, material hardship, poorer health and educational outcomes, and contact with the Oranga Tamariki and the justice system… “But when did you last hear any of our righteous kuia advocating more resources for family planning? Did any of them utter a warning as Sir Apirana Ngata would have, when Jacinda Ardern’s government gave mothers a baby bonus in 2018 for new children born to beneficiaries, thus incentivizing the production of even more potential recruits for Oranga Tamariki?” Dr Basset has identified the problem that is at the heart of the child abuse crisis – women on welfare in unstable family conditions having children and relying on benefits for support, instead of the fathers. Back in 1968, when 72 percent of Maori babies were born to mothers who were married, with 89 percent for non-Maori, there was no child abuse crisis. A survey carried out at the time showed that fewer than three children per 10,000 aged under the age of 16 were abused. But by the early 21st century, largely as a result of the introduction of the single parent benefit, the rate of substantiated child abuse cases had skyrocketed to around 70 children per 10,000 aged 16 and under. New Zealand’s child abuse problem is largely due to the incentives in public policy that encourage children to be born into homes that do not provide them with the stability of two loving parents. Changing those incentives should be the Government’s top priority if it genuinely wants to reduce child abuse. Categorising vulnerable children by race and giving full control of their lives to private tribal organisations, would be a gross abrogation of the Government’s duty – to protect those who cannot protect themselves."
Oranga Tamariki boss Grainne Moss under fire - but for what exactly? - " What worries me is that the main objection to Moss is that she is not Māori, the assumption being that, if the main clientele of a government service is Māori, a chief executive of that ethnicity would do a better job. The danger is that, even if Moss is doing an excellent job, she will end up as collateral damage in the culture war. The irony is that Moss has transformed Oranga Tamariki into a Māori organisation. For instance, karakia and mihi have become a ritualised part of the work day and meetings. Māori staff have their own separate meetings, and te reo has become a bigger part of the organisation. Moss appears to have strong support from Māori staff."
The Enfranchisement of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada - "some members of the First Nations community viewed enfranchisement negatively. They believed that by voting they would be giving up their distinct Status and become assimilated. In particular, they were concerned that gaining the franchise would lead them to lose the reserve lands which were guaranteed by the Crown...
'I wish you to know that the Band of Indians of which I am the Chief is not in favour of any amendment to the Elections Act giving Indians the franchise in Federal elections, and on behalf of the Band and for myself I hereby request the Government to reconsider its plans to amend the law. You are aware that the rights of Indians are established by Treaty and we do not wish in any way to interfere in the choice of Government of the Country. According to statements attributed to your Government the only reason the Indians are being given the vote is so that certain other governments abroad cannot say some of the residents of Canada are deprived of voting powers. Surely this country's representatives abroad can explain to other governments the status of Indians in this country and the derivation of their rights through Treaty. I am surprised that a Government would seek to alter in any way the status of Indians without first ascertaining whether the Indians themselves concurred and I therefore request of you that the proposed Government legislation be withheld as long as the Indians are opposed to it. I know that you will wish to have regard for the rights of the minority.'"
Raymond J. de Souza: Historically inaccurate to suggest Catholic Church hasn't apologized for residential schools - "The Catholic Church, like other Christian communities, has been engaged in reconciliation and healing for 30 years. It made sincere apologies not long after the issue came to wider public attention... Those who allege that the “Canadian Catholic Church” has never apologized are simply mistaken about how the Catholic Church is structured. All the relevant structures — individual dioceses, religious orders and the associations of bishops — have done so. Indeed, many did so in their submissions to the TRC... What then about the pope? In 2009, after years of sincere dialogue between Catholic bishops in Canada and Indigenous representatives, Pope Benedict XVI received a delegation at the Vatican. It was led by Phil Fontaine, then-national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. It was a historic moment of contrition, sorrow, reconciliation and healing. Fontaine’s address on that occasion is one of the most poignant and illuminating on the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Indigenous peoples of Canada. At the time, it was considered the “final piece” of a nearly 20-year process of reconciliation that “closed the book,” in the words of Fontaine. So all the parties were confident that a good measure of healing had taken place: apologies were offered, and apologies were accepted... The TRC’s position is that a papal apology in Rome is not sufficient; it has to be made in Canada. Yet papal visits are not common events. The first to Canada was in 1984, though Pope John Paul II returned for an overnight visit in 1987 to meet with Indigenous peoples in Fort Simpson, N.W.T., as fog had prevented him from landing there a few years earlier. John Paul returned in 2002, but that was for World Youth Day, not so much to visit the country itself. Benedict XVI did not visit Canada. There is no doubt that if Pope Francis were to visit Canada, he would meet with Indigenous leaders and renew, in his own name, the apologies made over the last three decades. But he is not visiting Canada — just as he has not visited Germany or France or even his own country of Argentina... In the global celebrations for the year 2000, John Paul insisted that requests for pardon be given a prominent place on the agenda. I was in St. Peter’s when he led the entire Catholic Church in what he would call a “healing of memories,” leading repentance for times when Catholics “have often denied the Gospel; yielding to a mentality of power, they have violated the rights of ethnic groups and peoples, and shown contempt for their cultures and religious traditions.”"
'Burn it all down': Head of B.C. civil liberties group resigns over tweet about church fires - "The head of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association — one of the most significant civil rights groups in the country — has left her job following an uproar after a social media post that seemed to celebrate the burning of Catholic churches... the board of directors said, following Walia’s tweet, the organization faced “inexcusable racism and misogyny and threats to physical and mental safety.” "We encountered a wave of hateful commentary, fueled by the fact that our executive director is a racialized woman leader.”... Throughout the drama, Walia has had her supporters; some suggested the idiomatic “burn it all down” had been misconstrued by her critics. In a piece written for The Tyee, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, the head of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, wrote that “burn it all down” is a call for decolonization not arson, and said the outrage is “pearl clutching.” “‘Burn it all down’ is part of a lexicon of social movements going back two centuries,” Phillip, and his co-authors, wrote. Ryan McMahon, an Anishinaabe comedian and host of the Red Man Laughing podcast, told the National Post Sunday that “burn it all down” is “clearly referring to a challenge to historic systemic inequities as a result of ongoing colonization and assimilation in Canada.”... News reports have estimated around 45 instances of fires or vandalism at churches, since the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc first announced it had discovered 215 probable grave sites at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School."
Liberal grievance mongering has consequences
Apparently racialized women get to incite violence and that's fine
Ben Woodfinden: Burning down Catholic Churches, or any place of worship, must be condemned - "Four Catholic churches have been burned down in the last week on First Nations land in B.C.’s Southern Interior. Two others, one in northern B.C, the other in southern Alberta, set on fire. Churches have also been the target of vandalism, most recently in Edmonton where a statue of Pope John Paul II was covered in red paint. And yet, there has been silence from most political leaders, including Justin Trudeau. It’s hard to imagine that if four houses of worship of any other religion were burned down that the prime minister would remain silent, and nor should he. This kind of behaviour has no place in Canada, and condemnation from political leaders makes this clear. More troublingly, you can find plenty of voices on social media who seem to welcome or applaud these acts. Yes, social media offers a distorted picture of the world, but the response, or lack thereof, to these acts is worrisome... burning down places of worship is always wrong, period. If you can’t bring yourself to say that then shame on you. What makes these fires even worse in some ways is that the people most hurt are Indigenous Canadians and Indigenous Catholics especially. The churches burnt down were on Indigenous land serving Indigenous people. Around 42 per cent of Indigenous Canadians identify as Catholic, many who likely have been wrestling with the realities of history while also trying to figure out what this means for their faith. The people most likely to insist that we must listen to Indigenous voices are the ones who seem most willing to ignore the pain and shock some Indigenous Canadians are expressing in response to the fires"
Rupa Subramanya: Church fires show the left's disgusting propensity to turn a blind eye to violence - "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seemed to condemn the attacks, but then added this caveat: “It’s real and it is fully understandable given the shameful history we are all becom(ing) more aware of.”... Trudeau, being the consummate politician that he is, measured his words carefully. But far-left activists went much further. Reacting to a news story on Catholic churches in Canada, activist Harsha Walia tweeted, “Burn it all down.” She reportedly later recanted, claiming her tweet was “misquoted” and “taken out of context.” Let’s play this back differently. Suppose a series of mosques had been attacked around the country and most of the perpetrators belonged to communities with a grievance against Islam, such as, for example, that their ancestors had been forcibly converted by the sword... How different is Trudeau’s prevarication about the attacks on Catholic churches from Hindu fundamentalists in India who in one breath condemn the 1992 destruction of the Babri mosque by Hindu activists, and in a second breath excuse the action as “understandable,” given that the mosque stood on the ruins of a Hindu temple destroyed by an Islamic invader?... there is a more insidious explanation for why politicians and activists condone, tacitly or otherwise, certain instances of violence: such acts serve as a form of symbolic politics, also known as tokenism... Part of the problem is that Canada seems to have imported its culture wars, and the way people fight them, from our neighbours to the south. Let’s not forget that the United States was born through revolution and reasserted its nationhood after a bloody civil war. In other words, violence is part of its history and permeates its cultural ethos, even today. Think about all the right-wing Americans who will take up arms for, well, the right to bear arms. Canada, meanwhile, was born through political consensus, not violence, and our country came into being through an act of the British Parliament. For that matter, even Great Britain has seen its share of violent upheavals, including the killing of a king and a period of anti-monarchist republicanism, until the monarchy was eventually restored... Hopefully, before we get sucked into someone else’s definition of a culture war, we will remember this, take a step back and behave like Canadians, not wannabe Americans."
Raymond J. de Souza: Rash of Catholic church burnings and vandalism isn't 'sad,' it's sacrilege/a> - "My home parish was established in 1972 and the church was built ten years later. It’s patron, St. Bonaventure, died in 1274, more than two centuries before Columbus first sailed. It has no connection to the residential schools, so vandalism visited upon it can only be justified, if justification is attempted, by an appeal to collective guilt. Given that no vandalism in Calgary took place against federal government buildings, this would be collective guilt of a rather specific sort. There is a name for that: prejudice... the public reaction is noteworthy. My colleague Chris Selley detailed just how muted the reaction was, and how comparatively dilatory, even though more than 60 per cent of Indigenous Canadians are Christian, about 35 per cent of them Catholic. It appears that political leaders — not all, but the majority — have assumed that the burnings are a form of protest, not acts of vigilante revenge or violent prejudice. Even the Calgary Police Service, in announcing the church vandalism, devoted the majority of its statement to residential schools and praising its own efforts at reconciliation. Indeed, it has been Indigenous leaders who have taken the strongest line against the arson and vandalism, including from those who profess an “intense hatred for the Catholic church.” Catholic leaders themselves detected neither sacrilege nor prejudice. Three bishops who had violence in their dioceses confessed to be “sad,” “saddened” and “very saddened,” People are sad when it rains at the parish picnic; arson would likely call forth a more robust response. Not this time. Does it mean that there is an emerging consensus that protest violence is legitimate? Last year that case was made by some prominent and respected voices in the United States during a summer of riots. Canadian leaders have not gone that far — yet."
Terry Glavin: Canada's early Christian prophets were Indigenous. Now someone's destroying their churches - "it was not the “missionary vanguard” that brought Christianity to Indigenous people in furthest corners of Canada, and rather than being merely an instrument of white supremacy or colonialism or whatever such cliché we’re all meant to recirculate, Indigenous Christianity was “mobilized as a religion of resistance” in the early days of European settlement. In the analysis of the University of Manitoba’s Jason Allen Redden, indigenized Christianity was like a manifesto"
EDITORIAL: We must condemn the burning of Catholic churches - "When it comes to international data, Christianity is currently the most persecuted religion in the world. This thankfully is not playing out in North America, rather in other parts of the world. But let’s work to keep it that way... Canadians have recently reacted with outrage and horror to other stories of religious and cultural intolerance. There was the atrocious killing of a Muslim family who chose to go for a walk one night — mowed down by a man police say targeted them because of their faith."
cucumber | /r/PoliticalCompassMemes | Political Compass | Know Your Meme - Native American: "I want to preserve the culture, traditions, and values of my people"
Liberal: "OMG OMG THIS SO MUCH THIS"
Viking: "I want to conserve the culture, traditions, and values of my people"
Liberal: "YOU RACIST NAZI THIS IS A RACIST DOGWHISTLE IM GONNA GET YOU FIRED"
