[Craic] an alternative explanation of the burial sites at Residential Schools __ Saturday Craic 10:30AM EDT zoom link
Arthur Blomme
art at integralshift.ca
Thu Jul 8 18:54:52 PDT 2021
Hi all
Saturday Craic recurring Zoom link
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/516255319?pwd=ZnpFbTdEOFI1d2ZEdnpKTWt5UnJWZz09
<https://us02web.zoom.us/j/516255319?pwd=ZnpFbTdEOFI1d2ZEdnpKTWt5UnJWZz09>
As a discussion frame for this Saturday. Based on this alternative
explanation I would like to discuss the relationship of the dominant
narrative and the actual facts. Who benefits from the narrative?
Maybe I will be able to phrase it better come Saturday.
Art
From Phil Little
Pete Cross is retired from the RCMP and author of the blog "Behind The
Yellow Tape".
Here are his thoughts on a most recent topic.
*The “discovery”*
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fglobalnews.ca%2Fnews%2F7902306%2Funmarked-graves-kamloops-residential-school%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7Ccbf9a56cf3874f5ffcc008d9363beb8a%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637600453245247265%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=PmOVhpRtm%2Bj2L40ZNLC1o5qOMqZVnJ9j3aVGM9UwQxA%3D&reserved=0> of
the children’s bodies found on the property of the Tk’emlups te Secwopmc
First Nation in Kamloops, B.C has captured the attention and the hearts
of Canada.
This residential school operated from the 1890s to the 1960s and now in
2021 pronouncements are circling the globe claiming a “discovered” “mass
grave”, where the bodies of two hundred and fifteen children have been
interred. The clear and intended implication was that the bodies were
hidden purposefully to avoid criminal responsibility. The discovery with
the use of ground radar was now held up as “proof” of the “genocide” of
the Indigenous perpetrated by the government of Canada, the Catholic
church, and the often not-mentioned Protestant religious groups.
It is an event or story which leaves even those some distance from the
issue, affected, wordless, searching for things to say or at least some
sort of explanation. The death of any child, society’s innocents, layers
us in emotion and draws up unstoppable grief. As some anonymous person
said, “losing a child is like losing your breath... and never getting it
back”. It is routinely described as unimaginable and easily
overwhelming. It is a difficult story, but there is a problem— it is not
totally accurate.
It seems that we have reached a state of affairs in this country where
one must question almost all that is being written or reported in the
mainstream media. It is becoming painfully apparent that almost everyone
has an agenda, whether it be political, or social, and, it is
permanently warping our ability to trust. Context is almost always
missing. Instead, we are being fed polar views delivered by the loudest
insistent voices of there being only one truth. In this case, there is
the immediate gush of fury, followed by outlandish statements and
demands for retribution. There is a palpable governmental and corporate
fear of being on the wrong side of any issue and the factual information
is lost in the rush to judgement.
By putting the deaths of children in “grisly” and “shocking” terms, the
headlines wrote themselves. All who may have been directly or indirectly
involved are immediately identified and placed on the wrong side of the
blame spectrum; accusing fingers pointing at the presumed guilty, the
stain of that guilt never to be removed. History has shown us many times
that this quick need to assign fault, the ignoring of rational
alternative records, has not served us well, nevertheless, we rarely learn.
To ask questions, to examine the record, of that which is being
portrayed in this residential school story, risks insulting the
mainstream. Alternate stories are guaranteed to offend almost all who
only see black and white. Be forewarned, I am about to offend those of
you who only think in straight lines. That rationale that it has been
said therefore it is true. The reality is that almost always the facts
are found in various shades of grey. Often, a single one-sided glance
can be deceptive.
These deaths are difficult to process, but it was equally dismaying to
see the commentary on the news; the reporting of the deaths as a
“genocide” a “crime scene” of unequalled proportions all of which
reverberated through the radio, television and print media. Children
“stolen” from their homes and culture. The media in its various forms
showing no compunction in knowingly feeding the fire of outrage. The
oft-repeated story portrayed intrepid searchers stumbling across the
evidence of heinous crimes. An unmarked gravesite, where children were
buried in anonymity. Predictably, politicians of every stripe climbed on
board the indignation train, innuendo solely fed by untested claims of
criminality.
Jagmeet Singh, the Federal leader of the NDP, dramatically,
breathlessly, and tearfully, literally unable to speak. The Liberal
Apology Party, having apologized several times before, to no avail, are
now demanding apologies from the Vatican— a political sleight of hand
designed to make you look the other way. The wokes scurrying around the
country trying to hide the statues of Sir John A., the now damned
originator of residential schools.
The purpose of this post is not to examine the policy of the residential
schools. Was it an attempt by colonists to wipe out the Indigenous
culture, or on the other hand was it an effort to assimilate and
educate? The answer is likely somewhere in the middle. The currently
accepted view was that it was a misguided policy at the very best and it
is likely equally clear that many of those involved in the early years
were unconcerned at the time with preserving the “culture” of the First
Nations. That is a never-ending circular debate. The purpose of this
post is to merely examine what the evidence actually shows up to this
point in time.
The early reports of the findings by the use of “ground radar” gave one
the impression of it being an unexpected “grisly discovery”. Grisly yes,
but it was not a “discovery”.
The*National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation*
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnctr.ca%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7Ccbf9a56cf3874f5ffcc008d9363beb8a%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637600453245247265%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=%2B5KBG6YnKurO%2F6r8Xx2S80o2bGNPubBKEI1ExYLD4Mg%3D&reserved=0> in
examining residential schools identified the names of, or information
about, more than 4100 children who died of the 150,000 children (some
estimates are lower at 3200 children). That represents a fatality rate
of 2.7%, or if one accepts the lower rate, 2.13%.
In 1950, in Canada, the* infant mortality rate*
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.macrotrends.net%2Fcountries%2FCAN%2Fcanada%2Finfant-mortality-rate&data=04%7C01%7C%7Ccbf9a56cf3874f5ffcc008d9363beb8a%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637600453245257221%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=HXP2x1fpdc7oluFI8bU5Kx96jdlgI3XmpHWr6ZGOVKs%3D&reserved=0>was
2.92%. A higher death rate nationally than in the residential schools. .
Infant mortality rate on reserves would have been much above the
national average.
That aside, that children were dying in saddening numbers in the years
of the residential schools is a fact. However, the biggest killer in
1900 was pneumonia and influenza and those two illnesses alone recorded
202 deaths per 100,000 people in Canada. There were other killer
diseases lurking: smallpox, typhus, cholera, yellow fever, and
tuberculosis. TB by itself was widespread in children after WWI. It was
also deadlier, as it was slow to recognize, as it affected the glands,
bones and joints rather than the lungs. Those children that contracted
tuberculosis had a very low survival rate. So this is being reported as
a “genocide” when to date, there has been no evidence of anyone being
purposefully killed.
The second question was why were they then placed in unmarked graves on
the property? Was this an attempt to hide wrongdoing? There is a simpler
but yet unpalatable answer. The cost of returning the bodies to the
families was prohibitive during those austere times. That has been
documented. Secondly, record keeping in those times both on the Reserves
and by the Church was spotty at best and often totally absent. Many
children had only their assigned names and a guess as to their true age.
So the children were by necessity, dictated by the times, buried on the
property. The fact that the children were buried on the sites of the
residential schools throughout the country— some in unmarked graves,
others in marked graves, has been known for a very long time.
The *Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement*
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca%2Feng%2F1100100015576%2F1571581687074&data=04%7C01%7C%7Ccbf9a56cf3874f5ffcc008d9363beb8a%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637600453245257221%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=huQB63%2B%2Bab5IhW38rlX04ej0pxDCF6MeFL1Cvi2hew0%3D&reserved=0> had
already recognized that there were 139 residential schools across the
country. (These are only those that received Federal support, there were
others run solely by religious orders or provincial governments). An
undertaking to return the bodies to the families would be, even to this
day, a logistical nightmare.
The *Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015*
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trc.ca%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7Ccbf9a56cf3874f5ffcc008d9363beb8a%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637600453245267187%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=QnsI5g52bTA0JtTO9n7aNuxf5fa%2Fvb87AQQWJjSAu0U%3D&reserved=0> in
releasing their report even included a section on missing children and
burial grounds. They recommended 94 calls to action. One of those calls
was for the Federal government to work with churches, indigenous
communities, and former students “to establish and maintain an online
registry of residential school cemeteries, including where possible,
plot maps showing the location of deceased residential school children”.
So two years ago, in the 2019 budget, the Liberal Federal government
allocated $32 million to implement the burial recommendations. There is
still $27 million left. Now, Mr Trudeau says the government is leaping
into action and is going to distribute the money “on an urgent basis”.
These graves were not uncovered and fully documented sooner for a simple
reason—government and Indigenous bureaucratic inefficiency. We should
also keep in mind that the Provincial government paid for the
examination of the Kamloops residential school site. This clearly was
not a cover-up.
There is the additional claim running rampant as part of the cover-up
theory— that the Catholic Church and the Federal government is
withholding records from the schools.
In fact, the Federal government did indeed destroy documents related to
the residential “school system between 1936 and 1944, including 200,000
Indian Affairs files”. Were the records destroyed as a result of a
governmental cover-up, or were they destroyed as a matter of routine?
Government records often run on a twenty-five or fifty-year timeline.
One could presume that death records of any kind should never be
destroyed, but that is a separate issue.
In the early times of the residential schools, accurate record-keeping
was in short supply. Children were coming in from Indigenous communities
where there were often no records of births or deaths, that was the
custom. The schools upon receiving these children, were also seemingly
sparse with their documentation when compared to standards of the 21^st
century. Also contrary to the current reporting, in fact, records at
the Kamloops residential school have already been provided. It showed
only fifty-one deaths compared to the two hundred and fifteen, but is
that the result of poor and absent record-keeping, or was it a
conspiracy to only reveal some of them?
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, the academic director at the
Indian*Residential School History and Dialogue Centre*
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Firshdc.ubc.ca%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7Ccbf9a56cf3874f5ffcc008d9363beb8a%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637600453245267187%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=KtIRn212CMbjaEKtbFoXaT73BMrJjcqDrIKkbpZ4T%2Bs%3D&reserved=0> at
the University of British Columbia, stated that the records from the
Kamloops residential school had not been provided to the Truth and
Reconciliation group. However, she admits that the “churches handed over
most residential school records, but in a few cases, the narratives were
withheld, notably at Kamloops and St Annes (in Ontario)” So the Church
records, like the children’s bodies were and are hiding in plain sight.
The fact that no one has acted on them is probably the story that should
be pursued.
The final question is whether or not this is a site where there is
evidence of criminal activity. Is it as NDP MP Leah Gazan says, that all
the residential schools are the sites of “active crime scenes”?
Well no, they are not crime scenes, because crime scenes need to have
evidence or confirmation of wrongdoing. Now some may argue that the
stories told by the Indigenous “survivors”, is evidence enough of
criminality. In recent years we seem to have taken the approach that
allegations standing by themselves are sufficient evidence of
wrongdoing. As any homicide investigator will tell you, that is an
untenable position.
Little is yet known as to the condition of the bodies. Ground radar
(actually it works like sonar) shows very little, other than shapes in
the ground. The exhumation of the bodies and subsequent pathology could
possibly show evidence of assault, or lead to estimations of causes of
death, but to pronounce it so, so early in the investigation is
unprincipled.
Was there wrongdoing at the schools in the form of physical abuse or
sexual deviance? Let's ask the current Armed Forces or the RCMP whether
it's possible that their organizations have been open to abuse and
sexual assaults over the last number of years? Would we think the
Catholic churches any different? It would seem impossible that the
Catholic church, whose wrongdoings have been hauntingly exposed during
the last several years around the world, would not be guilty of some
criminal offences over such a lengthy span of time. However, the
evidence in the burial site will not likely aid that level or type of
investigation.
Even if one is to assume that this was in fact a crime scene, then it
should be suggested that the RCMP do more than “offer its full support”
to the First Nations who are now in attendance and overseeing the “crime
scene”. A crime scene by the way, which will now be forever tainted in
the event something is discovered amongst the bodies. The RCMP, if they
believe that this is a possible crime scene, should be taking charge and
control of the scene if that were the case. Instead, *Minister Bill
Blair*
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fglobalnews.ca%2Fnews%2F7915929%2Fbill-blair-rcmp-residential-schools%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7Ccbf9a56cf3874f5ffcc008d9363beb8a%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637600453245277134%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=5fxy5FKtSuuMmk8%2Frp4wWHhwAb%2FWRAXBgMqVIAlfSs0%3D&reserved=0> says
the RCMP continues to go forward with its “work towards reconciliation”
Mr Blair also apologizes for the RCMP having performed according to the
law and carried out the “clear and unavoidable role”. He is late to that
apology, probably confused, because Commissioner Zaccardelli apologized
in 2004, and then Commissioner Paulson apologized in 2014.
Despite all these inconsistencies, the fallout damage in the reporting
on the residential schools is now done. The political gains that the
Indigenous movement hoped to engender have been cemented. The world is
now believing that Canadian history includes the genocide of their
Indigenous population.
Now, of course, when pressed on the word “genocide” the spokespersons
are falling back to the more acceptable argument of “cultural genocide.
And, only yesterday an Indigenous spokesperson walked backed away from
the “mass grave” description and now clarifies the record to say that
they were actually “individual” un-marked gravesites.
The Perry Bellegarde’s of the Indigenous movement will now proffer up
the discoveries as a lever to aid in the battle to get passed– the
recently introduced Liberal legislation Bill C-15— the *United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples Act*
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newswire.ca%2Fnews-releases%2Fgovernment-of-canada-introduces-legislation-respecting-the-united-nations-declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples-866026951.html&data=04%7C01%7C%7Ccbf9a56cf3874f5ffcc008d9363beb8a%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637600453245277134%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=KPoBzmzu7uBztLKG2%2BjfGjQ58THzYgJLf4HEngpagWU%3D&reserved=0>.
Who would dare to question the bill, while expressing their overwhelming
guilt in the treatment of the Indigenous? There is a valid argument that
this future Act could give the Indigenous possible veto power over the
economic development of Canada. One would have to be incredibly naive to
think for a moment that this point has been lost on the Indigenous
leadership in Canada.
In the next few months, monies will be provided for further examination
of marked and unmarked gravesites throughout the country, a process
which could take years and years of painstaking “investigation”. The
Mounties will no doubt dutifully continue to “standby” and “provide
support”. Commissioner Lucki will be the lead social worker.
The Indigenous can and will be encouraged by the media to continue to
narrate the verbal claims of abuse and “incarceration” at the schools.
The dominant reported narrative, like the one surrounding the Indigenous
Missing Women’s task force, will remain by its very origin, clearly
slanted. The masses will be satiated with apologies or flowered
monuments. The truth will have to surface on another day and in another
time.
Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister Mark Miller will continue to ask the
Pope for an apology as their preferred policy option. It is interesting
to note that *Cardinal Thomas Collins *
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ctvnews.ca%2Fcanada%2Fcanadian-archbishop-says-trudeau-comments-on-church-s-role-in-residential-schools-unfair-1.5458553&data=04%7C01%7C%7Ccbf9a56cf3874f5ffcc008d9363beb8a%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637600453245287089%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=ie51Q5%2B4X8NmRpMTv9yiiG6WzeCjpRiVFdD9SzzkjIw%3D&reserved=0>of
Toronto of the Catholic Church, said that he felt Trudeau’s comments
were “unhelpful” and “not based on real facts”. Amen to that.
That truth is that children were removed from often desperate situations
and sent to sparse boarding schools during a time of disease and
illness— ailments from which this country could not protect them; run by
religious groups who brought with them their own inherent dysfunctions.
This is a difficult story, but up to this point in time, only a partial
story.
--
Note: If you forward this email, please delete the forwarding history,
which includes my email address. It is a courtesy to me and others who
may not wish to have their email addresses sent all over the world.
Erasing the history also helps prevent Spammers from mining addresses
and prevents viruses from being propagated
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.integralshift.ca/pipermail/craic-integralshift.ca/attachments/20210708/a1706025/attachment-0001.html>
More information about the craic
mailing list