Canada Called Itself a Genocide State. Iran Was Listening - "When dictators are called out by the international community for perpetrating human-rights abuses, they often attempt to deflect criticism by accusing their Western critics of hypocrisy... In substance, these attempts at moral equivalence lack credibility. But they can have the appearance of truth when our adversaries base their propaganda on self-incriminating statements made by the West’s own media figures and politicians. This week, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took the rostrum at the United Nations General Assembly to deliver Iran’s habitual denunciations of Western “double standards.” While anti-hijab protests rocked numerous Iranian cities in the wake of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini’s death at the hands of Tehran’s morality police, Raisi went through a predictable laundry list of complaints, accusing Israel of creating the “world’s largest prison” in Gaza, and denouncing US detention policies at the Mexican border. But he also threw in an attack on Canada’s treatment of Indigenous peoples, declaring that “bodies of hundreds of children were discovered in mass graves in a [former residential] school.” As a Canadian, I found this element of Raisi’s performance maddening. Thanks to Canada’s own misinformation mill, the Iranian President didn’t have to go to the bother of inventing his own lies. My own country’s journalists and leaders did that job for him. The issue of supposed unmarked Indigenous child graves dominated the Canadian media in the latter half of 2021. But as I reported in Quillette several months ago, no “mass graves” were ever found. In fact, even the Indigenous groups that initially reported ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey results consistent with the possible presence of unmarked burial sites weren’t talking about “mass graves.” Rather, the invented mass-graves claim was popularized by a badly botched New York Times May 28th, 2021, story written by reporter Ian Austen... aside from the National Post, not a single major Canadian media outlet has admitted its role in feeding the unmarked-graves social panic that exploded last year, and which often included lurid speculation that the supposed grave sites not only contained the remains of Indigenous children, but that these children had been murdered through methods worthy of a horror-movie plot. Given this, what can Canadian public figures say to Raisi now that he’s throwing spurious moral equivalences into our faces? Nothing. In making the false claim that “bodies of hundreds of children were discovered in mass graves in a [former residential] school,” the man is merely reading our own officially sourced misinformation back to us. This isn’t the first time that Trudeau has managed to maneuver Canada into this kind of mortifying position vis-à-vis the world’s tyrants. Last year, when Canadian lawmakers voted to denounce China’s treatment of Uighurs in western Xinjiang as a form of genocide, Trudeau and his Cabinet abstained. The suspected reasons for that move were complex. But they included the fact that Canada was, by its own description, morally compromised on the genocide file: Back in 2019, Trudeau had explicitly acceded to the (absurd) claim that Canada, too, was guilty of “genocide”—this one against Indigenous women. Indeed, according to the official report that precipitated Trudeau’s mea culpa, this supposed Canadian genocide remains ongoing. The leaders of Russia, Belarus, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela know a good propaganda opening when they see one. Last year, these nations collectively called on the UN to investigate crimes against Canada’s Indigenous peoples—doing so, cleverly, on the same day that Western nations were launching a UN campaign to demand that China allow international investigators access to Xinjiang. Words have consequences—especially when they comprise the vocabulary of mass slaughter. The repetition of ghoulish hyperbole about Canada doesn’t just gratuitously harm the country’s reputation. It also helps the world’s autocrats get away with crimes that are anything but fictional."
Self-hating virtue signalling has consequences, though liberals love to claim that one person suffering doesn't mean another person is also suffering (when they aren't pretending that the West's supposed sins means it cannot criticise others)
I don’t need to be ‘welcomed’ to my country | The Spectator Australia - "The notion that Australians must be welcomed or invited to their own country by Indigenous leaders – as occurs at the opening of state and federal parliaments, conferences, and school assemblies – is a divisive and destructive one. This practice, while it may appear reasonable or harmless, is a manifestation of the ongoing assault on Australia’s Western heritage and implies that non-Indigenous Australians, whose families have called Australia home for many generations, do not really belong here. I recently attended an event where the audience (mostly comprised of Australians with European heritage) were ‘welcomed’ by an Indigenous speaker. It was a pitiful display of bitterness, resentment, and even hatred towards white Australians. Indeed, it was little more than a scolding for the colour of their skin. The speaker bluntly stated that Australia still belongs to ‘First Nations’ people (a nonsensical and ahistorical term lifted from Canada’s debates about colonialism) and does not belong to so-called ‘white people’ (or presumably any other migrant families). He then asserted that the audience needed to learn Australia’s ‘true history’. This, even though ignorance of Australia’s British heritage has never been more apparent than it is now. It was an overtly adversarial presentation – devoid of hope or a positive vision for Australians. Not a trace of recognition for the fact that Indigenous people enjoy the same fundamental rights that all Australians enjoy, or the tremendous efforts that governments, charities, and individuals have put into improving life for Indigenous Australians over many decades. Instead, the speaker aggressively asserted that Indigenous people are still colonised and that white people must continue to be reminded of this until colonialism ends... The desired outcome for such activists is unclear. How, exactly, will we know when enough has been done to overcome racism? What measurable goals must be achieved? When will we be able to congratulate ourselves for elevating Indigenous voices and dismantling colonialism enough? Will it be when all references to Christianity are removed from the national curriculum, as was attempted (and, thankfully, negated) last year? Or when we abolish the Australian flag? At what point will we have made enough progress? Ironically, as I flew home on a Qantas jet, the pilot acknowledged the traditional custodians of the state I was returning home to. It is a strange form of colonialism in which major corporations, from airlines to the AFL, feel the need to constantly remind everyone that the land belongs to Indigenous people... The reality that nobody is allowed to acknowledge, but everyone knows, is that Indigenous Australians not only enjoy the same basic rights as everyone else but are now viewed by mainstream institutions such as government, media, and education as having a kind of culturally protected status thanks to policies concerned with promoting ‘equity’. Such policies mean that Indigenous people have access to a range of opportunities, from scholarships to employment, that non-Indigenous people do not. Welfare policies for Indigenous people abound, yet so do high rates of alcoholism, abuse, imprisonment, and early deaths in Indigenous communities. Is this because of racism? How many more apologies, more welcomes to country, more equity programs, are needed to remedy these issues and undo the supposed harms of our colonial heritage? Or could it be that these policies, which negate personal responsibility (that nasty colonial idea), do more harm than good?"
Does that mean that it's not racist to call "minorities" immigrants now?
When Disagreement Becomes Trauma - "unmarked graves at the site of former residential schools... many of us (including me) assumed that these sites would immediately be searched by police and forensic investigators (as one would normally expect in regard to any other alleged murder scene). But almost a year has passed, and no human remains have yet been unearthed at the Kamloops site—an awkward fact with politically radioactive implications. Widdowson was one of the few Canadian academics who dared speak about these facts candidly. Another was Quebec academic Jacques Rouillard, author of a Dorchester Review article titled, “In Kamloops, Not One Body Has Been Found.” As far as I know, everything Rouillard wrote was true. But on this kind of issue, truth and truthing lead in opposite directions. In a long Twitter thread responding to Rouillard (though not by name), the federal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, Marc Miller, denounced any request for evidence of bodies as “ghoulish,” “retraumatizing for survivors,” and “part of a pattern of denialism”—the latter phrase being clearly intended to place skeptics such as Widdowson and Rouillard on the same moral plane as holocaust deniers."
Who 'discovered Canada'? Quebec says French explorer over Indigenous people: survey - "Quebecers are more inclined to say Jacques Cartier -- or even Christopher Columbus -- "discovered Canada," compared to the rest of the country, which points to Indigenous people"
Key Factors Relevant to Aboriginal Sentencing Considerations - "An individual’s Aboriginal status is considered in determining a sentence because his or her circumstances are different from non-Aboriginal offenders."
Past drug, alcohol use had caused suspect to lose mind: document | Toronto Sun - "A fugitive wanted in a deadly stabbing rampage in Saskatchewan has a nearly two-decade long criminal record and a propensity for violence when intoxicated, a parole board document says. The Parole Board of Canada document from February says Myles Sanderson told the board that regular use of drugs and hard alcohol would make him “lose (his) mind” and get angry. “Your criminal history is very concerning, including the use of violence and weapons related to your index offences, and your history of domestic violence”... RCMP have not said what motivated the attacks on Sunday that left 10 people dead and 18 injured on the James Smith Cree Nation and nearby village of Weldon, northeast of Saskatoon. Police believe some victims were targeted but others were chosen at random. Sanderson’s brother Damien Sanderson, also a suspect in the slayings, was found dead Monday morning on the First Nation and became the 11th fatality. Police continue to search for Myles Sanderson and a warrant has been issued for him on charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and break and enter. Sanderson received statutory release from prison in August 2021, but it was revoked about four months later because the board said he failed to communicate with his parole supervisor... Sanderson was serving his first federal sentence of more than four years, four months and 19 days for a slew of offences including assault, assault with a weapon, assaulting a peace officer and robbery. In total, the document says, he has 59 criminal convictions. Sanderson’s childhood was marked by violence, neglect and substance abuse and led to a “cycle of substance abuse, seeking out negative peers and violent behavior,” the document said. He lived between his father’s home in an urban centre and grandparents’ house on a First Nation. There was violence and abuse in both households... Sanderson fled before police arrived but a few days later he tried to fight a First Nation band store employee and threatened to kill him and burn down his parents’ house... A few months later, Sanderson threatened an accomplice and forced him to rob a fast-food restaurant by hitting him in the head with a firearm and stomping on him... In 2018, the board said Sanderson was drinking at a home and got angry with people he was with. It said he stabbed two of them with a fork, then attacked a man who was walking nearby and beat him until the man lost consciousness in a ditch. Sanderson was located at his partner’s home two months later. During the arrest, he kicked an officer in the face and on the top of the head repeatedly"
Clearly the stabbings are the fault of settler colonialism, and he needs to be let off on parole again
Meme - "I'm living in my car to beat the housing crisis - here's how I blend in"
Aren R. LeBrun @proustmalone: "Living in your car is not "beating" the housing crisis, it's the housing crisis beating you."
Mayda in Ohio @maydaohio: "You know nomadic lifestyles have been a thing among indigenous peoples for millenia. Think before you disparage modern adaptations to environmental challenges."
The Most Violent Era In America Was Before Europeans Arrived - "There's a mythology about the native Americans, that they were all peaceful and in harmony with nature - it's easy to create narratives when there is no written record. But archeology keeps its own history and a new paper finds that the 20th century, with its hundreds of millions dead in wars and, in the case of Germany, China, Russia and other dictatorships, genocide, was not the most violent - on a per-capita basis that honor may belong to the central Mesa Verde of southwest Colorado and the Pueblo Indians. Writing in the journal American Antiquity, Washington State University archaeologist Tim Kohler and colleagues document how nearly 90 percent of human remains from that period had trauma from blows to either their heads or parts of their arms. "If we're identifying that much trauma, many were dying a violent death," said Kohler. The study also offers new clues to the mysterious depopulation of the northern Southwest, from a population of about 40,000 people in the mid-1200s to 0 in 30 years. From the days they first arrived in the Southwest in the 1800s, most anthropologists and archaeologists have downplayed evidence of violent conflict among native Americans... Citation: Timothy A. Kohler, Scott G. Ortman, Katie E. Grundtisch, Carly M. Fitzpatrick and Sarah M. Cole, 'The Better Angels of Their Nature: Declining Violence through Time among Prehispanic Farmers of the Pueblo Southwest', American Antiquity, Volume 79, Number 3 / July 2014, DOI: 10.7183/0002-7316.79.3.444. Source: Washington State University"
Easier and more profitable to just blame whitey for everything
William Watson: After reconciliation, reparations? - "The Fraser Institute has a new study out, called “Fiscal explosion,” on the spike in federal spending on Indigenous matters since 2015... spending on Indigenous matters has exploded — from over $11 billion in the Harper government’s last fiscal year to over $24.5 billion for the current fiscal year, an annual compound growth rate of 11.7 per cent. True, overall federal spending wasn’t exactly quiescent over these years. But it grew at only 8.3 per cent, and the plan is that the extraordinary spending required by the pandemic will eventually recede. By contrast, in the election campaign both the Liberals and (maybe more importantly, given its power in a minority parliament) the NDP called for continuing increases in Indigenous spending. In theory at least, much recent spending should have been one-off, whether for land settlements or as compensation for specific harms done at residential schools or elsewhere. Once one-time payments have been made they don’t have to be made again. Or do they? Flanagan argues, as a good game theorist would, that the Trudeau government has created ideal conditions for continuing claims, which now typically occur as class-action lawsuits that can involve big payoffs — $55 million in one case — for the law firms that organize them. The Harper government was faced with and settled one class-action suit, regarding Indian Residential Schools, in 2006. The Trudeau government has faced nine, from the “Sixties Scoop” to Indian day schools to long-term water advisories and more. Is that just bad timing? Maybe. But maybe not. “The Trudeau government has repeatedly signalled that it would rather negotiate than litigate. The result has been, not an end to litigation but an increase of class-action litigation designed to lead to compensation through negotiations.” If you repeatedly hand out money without people having to demonstrate specific instances of harm, what’s the incentive for them to stop asking or for law firms to stop organizing them? The government has also effectively broadened the grounds for compensation. Students at Indian day schools, i.e., ones where students, whatever they may have been taught during the day, went home at night and could be with their family, speak their own language, and learn about their culture, are nevertheless likely to get compensation, with more than $1.6 billion already set aside to cover payments to 100,000 claimants. As Flanagan puts it (see Nota Bene below): “For all practical purposes, the government of Canada has now embraced the position that providing a Canadian education to native children was an injustice deserving of compensation.” The study is filled with similarly plain talk that many people likely agree with but are afraid, in the current environment, to say out loud. What does Flanagan think the federal government should do? Stop funding the research on which claims are based (“Why should taxpayers fund research designed to extract more money from them?”). Declare a 2024 end date to the specific claims process, which came into being in 1974, on the grounds that 50 years is enough. And “stop rushing to settle class actions.” If not, Flanagan believes, “Canada is now only one step away from accepting the position of RoseAnne Archibald, the new National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, that reparations must be paid to all Indigenous people because of the harm caused by colonialism.” The soundbite at Rideau Hall from Marc Miller, new minister of Crown-Indigenous relations, suggests that, if anything, Flanagan is overly optimistic: “This relationship started with land,” Miller said. “The relationship has been broken because of land — land theft. It’s time to give land back.” Is the government of Canada planning to give all the land back? Compared to serious repatriation, reparations would be cheap.
“For all practical purposes, the government of Canada has now embraced the position that providing a Canadian education to native children was an injustice deserving of compensation. All methods of delivery, as implemented at … (the) time, have been found wanting: residential schools, separate day schools for native children, and attendance at public schools.
“Would not leaving native children without any formal education have been as great an injustice as leading them into residential schools or the other alternatives of the time? That practice was common in parts of Canada during the 19th and early 20th centuries when many Indians and most Inuit were still supporting themselves by hunting, fishing, and trapping; but it could not be maintained forever as Canadian society shifted to an agricultural and then industrial model requiring formal education. Providing education as part of the transition to the new society was necessary and indeed was spelled out as a requirement in some of the treaties.”"
In 2020-2021, indigenous spending was 8% of budgetary revenues and 4% of total expenses?!
Apology from Pope Francis was welcome — but it doesn’t mean Canadian settlers can now absolve themselves | The Star - "An apology will not fix the near extinction of over 87 Indigenous languages in Canada; or the long-term drinking-water advisories in dozens of First Nations communities; or the deplorable housing crisis impacting Inuit in Nunavut; or the massively disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous Peoples, making up 32 per cent of the federal prison population; or the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. There is much to hold the Catholic Church accountable for, but as Canadian settlers we must recognize that we are complicit in systemic violations impacting almost five per cent of Canadians. Commitment to truth and reconciliation can’t be exclusively relegated to the government and the church. We must hold ourselves accountable — and land acknowledgments are not enough. Reconciliation begins at the grassroots level, by fostering genuine relationships with Indigenous Peoples that are neither performatory or transactional. It involves learning from Indigenous sources, centring and amplifying Indigenous voices, adopting a mindset of cultural humility, standing with Indigenous communities in their struggles for justice and healing, and challenging power imbalances that stem from the legacy of colonial policies."
If it's racist to call the children of immigrants immigrants, is it racist to call the descendants of settlers settlers after hundreds of years?
It sounds like nothing will ever be enough
I find it interesting that even though the writer is a Muslim, he groups himself with the "settlers"
Meme - Jessica Hernandez, Ph.D. @doctora _nature: "Indigenous knowledge is science
Indigenous knowledge is science
Indigenous knowledge is science
Indigenous knowledge is science
Indigenous knowledge is science
Indigenous knowledge is science
Indigenous knowledge is science
Brian J Griffith @brianjgriffith: "Indigenous epistemologies don't need to be justified by the standards of modern science. The impulse to draw an equivalence, here, almost assumes that science is somehow superior to indigenous knowledge. They're different ways of knowing, and that's okay."
alanna @Alanna_Cronk_: "Lord help you, white man who thinks he knows more about native science than a literal native scientist. You don't get to tell us what our epistemology is and isn't. Stay in your lane studying fascist food history in Italy or whatever."
The slippery slope has slipped once again. Even the non overlapping magisteria approach advocated by Gould is not enough for SJWs. Give them an inch...
Dawkins made the point that you don't need to know about leprechology to debunk leprechauns. But in this case, it's like theologians claiming that theology is science, and anyone who disagrees is not just wrong but racist
Opinion: Enacting the Charter made us more liberal and less democratic - The Hub - "In R v Sharma, the Court will decide whether Parliament’s 2012 decision to remove conditional sentences as an option for a certain class of offences violates the Charter. Conditional sentences, which were first introduced in 1996, are controversial because they allow offenders who would otherwise spend time in prison to serve their sentences in the community, typically under some form of house arrest. But Parliament had good reasons, in our view, to minimize the use of incarceration, including reducing public expenditures, fostering successful community reintegration, and mitigating Indigenous overrepresentation in prison. Crucially, among other restrictions, judges may not award conditional sentences if doing so would pose a significant danger to the public. It is one thing to believe that conditional sentences are a desirable option for many offences. But it is quite another to conclude that they are constitutionally mandatory. In one of the most nakedly activist decisions in recent memory, a 2:1 majority of the Ontario Court of Appeal found in Sharma that the decision to narrow their availability violated Indigenous Canadians’ section 15 Charter right to equality. Because Indigenous offenders are more likely to be incarcerated than non-Indigenous offenders, the court found, the removal of the conditional sentence option exacerbated their preexisting disadvantage in a discriminatory manner. The majority’s reasoning violates a fundamental tenet of constitutional law: absent a constitutional amendment, a legislature cannot bind a future version of itself. As Justice Miller observed in his dissent, the majority circumvented this requirement by effectively holding that when one legislature passes an ameliorative provision, and a future legislature scales it back, any adverse impact on a minority population will violate the Charter. This would turn lawmaking into a one-way ratchet: once a benefit is conferred on a disadvantaged population, it can never be taken away. This departure from a basic norm of constitutionalism was exacerbated by the majority’s indeterminate and overbroad conception of the Charter’s equality guarantee. It is true that curtailing the availability of conditional sentences could negatively affect Indigenous offenders. But so would almost any attempt to impose more punitive sentences, not only for Indigenous offenders but also for any other overrepresented minority. And while the majority in Sharma limited its holding to the rescinding of beneficial legislation, its logic is readily extendable to any governmental decision shown to disproportionately affect a disadvantaged group. Under this theory of equality rights, the scope for legislative action would be dramatically diminished."
'You f*cking colonizer': Portland man rages at liberal white woman over traffic incident - "An argument over a traffic incident broke out on the streets of Portland, Oregon where a self-identified Native American man yelled at a liberal white woman, repeatedly calling her a "f*cking colonizer." The term "colonizer" is a derogatory slur for white people used amongst woke activists who believe all white people are responsible for the colonization of indigenous lands... the man shouted dubious insults such as "YOU WHITE LADY" and "You f*cking colonizer." The argument started when the woman confronted the man for allegedly cutting her off in traffic. She apparently scolded him saying, "We don't drive this way in Oregon. We're f*cking kind and we make space."... The man avoided addressing the traffic incident and instead doubled-down on his issues with the woman's skin color "Admit you're white. You have a colonizer mindset." "It's not about race" she pleaded, along with "Don't pull the race card," and "You're taking out your pain and aggression on me right now." But the man was still discontent with her pleadings, telling her to "shut up" and that the racial justice work to be done was not his responsibility. He mocked her pleas and eventually erupted with, "It's not on me to change it's on you and your colonizer mindset so get the f*ck out of my face now. The man continued screaming, "NOW, YOU WHITE LADY! YOU WHITE LADY!" Using "white" as an insult has escalated as activism and education depicting whiteness as evil has grown exponentially in recent years. "I'm as angry as you are," she said in sympathy to the man's woke sentiments. Dismissive, the man continued in his rage, "Then get out of my face because I'm done with conversation, you f*cking colonizer," and "I'm not taking any f*cking directions from a white lady.""
Is this violence against women or violence against indigenous people?
When liberal excesses boomerang back against them
Conrad Black: Facing the past to resolve some of Canada's most intractable issues - "The policy debate surrounding Native people absolutely must be taken away from the victim industry and radically reformulated. The first problem with the TRC report is the number and gravity of its dishonest and contentious claims and accusations. The “Summary and Legacy” volumes do not accurately represent the material presented in the preceding four volumes, which have been largely ignored by the media. Many of the negative generalizations in the summary volumes are not supported by preceding evidence. Extensive interviews in which the subjects espoused favourable opinions of the IRS were not reflected at all in the concluding volumes. Instead, there are a number of unsupported inflammatory claims. Volume 1 begins: “For over a century the central goals of Canada’s Aboriginal policy were to eliminate Aboriginal governments; ignore Aboriginal rights; terminate the treaties; and through a process of assimilation cause Aboriginal people to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious and racial entities in Canada. The establishment and operation of residential schools were a central element of this policy, which can best be described as ‘cultural genocide.’ ” As the excellent book I cited last week, “From Truth Comes Reconciliation,” noted: “Finding a reference to cultural genocide at the very beginning of this important report probably forces readers to wonder why the Government of Canada signed treaties, established reserves, published dictionaries of Indigenous languages, banned relatively few Indigenous traditions … and never forbade Indigenous people from speaking their languages in residential schools or anywhere else. Such puzzling questions remain unexamined in the TRC report and in the public media. Just as worrying, the commissioners assert that Indigenous students attending residential schools were considered ‘subhuman.’ ” No evidence was adduced to support such a claim, which is disturbing from a commission that promised the truth. Fewer than 40 per cent of Indigenous children attended residential schools, which seriously undermines the TRC’s claims that “residential schools are responsible for virtually all the current challenges facing Indigenous people.” (The large number of Indigenous people who had no formal education at all faced another set of hardships.) Approximately 150,000 Indigenous people spent at least one year in the IRS system, some of them were rescued from miserable conditions, and while there were many inexcusable incidents of physical and emotional abuse, there are also a great many stories of Native people who felt that residential schools enabled them to have successful lives. Practically the entire administrative, investigative and judicial apparatus that oversees Indigenous matters was effectively bulldozed into a far more comprehensive and grave condemnation of the official motives and performance of the residential schools than was justified. Following the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in 1996, which effectively called for one-third of Canada to be handed over to First Nations people to govern as they wish, with no taxation and all expenses paid by the rest of Canada, there came the Indian Residential School Agreement, with the stated purpose to “bring a fair and lasting resolution to the legacy of the Indian residential schools.” The tangible consequences were the Common Experiences Payments (CEP) and the Independent Assessment Process (IAP), under which approximately 110,000 alumni of the IRS received $1.9 billion in CEP, including approximately $100 million from the various Christian churches, and $2.7 billion (which the TRC does not mention) from the IAP. This colossal slush fund of extravagant reparations has intensified rather than abated the rapacity of the Native victimhood industry... There are over 1.6 million Aboriginal people in Canada, about four per cent of the population. A proportionate part of the country, with enough royalty income to fund the territory comfortably and with fully adequate year-round infrastructure, should be given to them as an autonomous First Nations-governed district of Canada, where Canadian rules of honest governance and human rights must be observed. Those Aboriginals who wish to integrate altogether into general Canadian society must be given every reasonable assistance in doing so. We must recognize that every Canadian has an equal right to be here, and that all Canadians played a role in building this great country."
BONOKOSKI: The enslaving history of Mohawk icon Joseph Brant | Toronto Sun - "there is no getting around the fact that the Mohawks’ revered leader and Iroquois warrior, Joseph Brant (1743 – 1807), was a slavery man. Which is worse? Slavery or forced schooling? Brant kept upwards of 40 slaves, including enemy Indian slaves grabbed while aiding the British in the American Revolutionary War, but thought judgmental folk were making too big of a fuss over nothing. And so, not to be bothered, he carried on using slaves as personal servants and farmhands. In more recent times, Brant’s legacy has, in fact, been widely debated due to his use of slave labour. Once African slavery was introduced into North America by European settlers, Iroquois — such as Brant — lined up to buy African slaves... So, if the mob that tore down Egerton Ryerson’s statue, especially the Mohawk who draped his toppled body with a Mohawk flag, want to remain on message no matter what, there are statues of Joseph Brant to size up. There’s one on Wellington St. in Ottawa, and a large and magnificent one on Victoria Ave. in Brantford, the town that bears his name as it is adjacent to Brant’s Six Nations Mohawk territory. In fact, there are schools and hospitals that bear his name, mostly in Ontario, including a building at Canada’s military college in Kingston, John A.’s home and resting place. As for Brant’s statues, they’re easy to find. All one needs is a thick rope, a steel saw for dissection, and a good truck to pull the statue down and perhaps drag it through the streets... And what about Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the last prime minister to sign off on the residential schools? Let’s see him get a good era-scrubbing and a statue toppling. There’ll be cheers aplenty."
Indigenous Canadians want natural resources development — why aren’t we being heard? - "the vast majority of Indigenous communities in Canada are engaged in natural resource development, and on terms that we agree to. Indigenous communities have entered into over 450 agreements with mining companies since 2000, and 58 per cent have a contract or agreement with a forestry company. Across Canada, 25 First Nations produce oil on reserve and 35 produce natural gas. Dozens more have entered into agreements to have pipelines cross through their territory, and three separate Indigenous consortia are vying to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline on behalf of their communities. Indigenous-owned businesses are 40 times more likely to be involved in the mining and oil and gas sectors than the average Canadian business. The extractive sector hires twice as many Indigenous employees and pays on average twice as much in wages as other sectors. Natural resource development is where we’ve been able to make the most progress as employees, contractors, partners and owners. It provides much-needed jobs and revenues to our communities. I previously worked for the Aboriginal Equity Partners, a group of 31 First Nations and Métis communities who had an ownership stake in the Northern Gateway pipeline. It would have produced $2 billion in economic benefits including jobs, business opportunities, and training for our communities, until it was killed by the federal government. When we went to Ottawa to testify in opposition to Bill C-48, the oil tanker moratorium, Transport Minister Marc Garneau called us “private interests” who were “not in the same category” as the First Nations in support of the government’s bill. This is an unfortunate but common sentiment. Every day Indigenous leaders are called on by their people to address poverty in their communities through better housing, water, education and employment. But when they go and engage with industry to actually develop economic opportunities, they are often called sell-outs. This is made worse by the fact that those who are the loudest in opposition to working with oil and gas and mining are often elites in cities and institutions who don’t have to face the consequences of on-reserve poverty every day. In the past two years, a group of us working to defeat on-reserve poverty have started a new organization, the National Coalition of Chiefs, comprised of Indigenous leaders who are pro-development. When individual leaders work with industry or speak out for economic development, they are often denounced by NGOs and protesters... What I want for my children and grandchildren is what most people want: a good job, a comfortable place to live, and food in the fridge. Sadly, many people living on reserve don’t have that. Ottawa never has, and never will be able to provide it. In any case, most Indigenous peoples don’t want to have to rely on the federal government for their daily needs... Do not deny us our opportunity for well-being and prosperity simply to serve your stereotypes of what Indigenous peoples should be for and against."
Minorities have no voice and need white liberals to speak for them
If you consider that liberals want to make indigenous people dependent on the government, their actions make sense
