Two statues of queens on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature were pulled down Thursday during a rally aimed at replacing Canada Day celebrations with actions in memory of hundreds of Indigenous children buried in unmarked graves at residential schools across the country. [...]
The grounds were the destination of an Every Child Matters walk in Winnipeg on Canada Day afternoon to protest the fallout of Canada's residential schools system.
— CBC
The demonstrators were part of a Canada Day protest meant to draw attention to issues surrounding the forced removal and integration of 150,000 indigenous school children begun during Victoria's rule of the former UK Dominion. 6,000 of the children are reported to have died, and the recent discovery of the remains of 215 in an unmarked grave at a site near Kamloops in British Columbia has renewed calls for the observance of the holiday to be canceled.
Similar scenes have played out throughout the US and UK recently in light of the George Floyd protests, Charlottesville, and other events that have caused a sea change in societies grappling with their own ugly histories of racism and colonization.
Thousands of people attended the demonstrations in Manitoba's capital, Winnipeg. More details on the protest can be found at artnet.
24 Comments
Goodbye bitch
Goodbye bitch
https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/02...
Are you comparing ISIS to the Canadians demonstrating against decades of abuse (by church and state) to native children?
Break away from the U/K totally then and send the statues back.
I would actually like that very much as our obsession with the irrelevant british monarchy is rather sad. Hopefully this will trigger the removal of their faces from our currency when the current wankerette croaks.
The only thing Canada really needs to do is discontinue the reference to the Queen as a symbolic monarch. It can have it's parliament. I would even support a renaming of "British Columbia" and remove the "British" part.... (Province of Columbia) or something else like what the area was historically and maybe more in recognition of cultural and indigenous people but can't say what it should be called.
Pfff... outdated article. Since the discovery of the 215 graves, they then discovered another 751 in Saskatchewan. More will be discovered and more thoughts and prayers offered.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada...
The abuse schools run by the catholic church through the federal government is no secret to anyone who is moderately informed on aboriginal/Canadian history and calls to address this past have been growing for years. Hopefully these public "discoveries" will lead to accountability instead of empty apologies and political maneuvers.
What form does accountability take, and how is it applied?
Not sure Miles, but everywhere I look, all I see are politicians milking this for carreer gains. They knew... we all knew... we just were not all aware of the scale (and that it was still active until mid 90s). This might be a first step. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/cowessess-first-nation-child-welfare-trudeau-funding-1.6091631
Reparations.
Money is the fix?
Our culture speaks the language of money. Until that changes, it makes sense to me that restitution is best dealt in the dominant language.
edit: Of course I wouldn't be averse to criminal charges for those, if any, who are still living.
How far back do we go? I have direct lineage to Barbary slaves. Do I sue modern day Turkey?
I’m more inclined to take the rear view mirror view. Focusing the future, and not repeating the past. Trying to fix the past is impossible,
The school closed in 1997 you dolt. This isn't distant history we're talking about. I have friends whose parents and grandparents (who are still alive) were sent to Indian Boarding Schools.
JLA with the irrelevant and insultingly ignorant comment.
Miles, money is part of the answer, but not the complete one. It's something tangible with immediate effect on people who are still very much affected by the situation. It's much better than thoughts and prayers or a promise to make things better from "this point on".
If the affected are still alive can’t they just sue through the normal processes?
x-jla, let's not drag other countries. While it *may* be true that slavery was a world norm in the past, let's not conflate this into a Political Central 2 thread.... okay. I rather let people in Canada on this forum speak on this as to what should be done. They have the legal standing and are stakeholders that are impacted by this however that all this takes the country and the provinces within.
I assumed that this was in the 1800’s. My bad
Attention Big Green Head, please make the above comment a feature comment on this article. Ramen.
Financial assistance to those in need should be forthcoming regardless of the cause of the need. Opportunities for education and meaningful employment should likewise be available to all. Punishment of organizations (and where possible individuals) responsible should be swift and merciless. Reparations in the form of financial payments is just go-away money that does nothing to improve anything.
What's needed is structural change, not payoffs. That includes eliminating the tax exempt status of the church that bounces from one atrocity to another without consequence.
Rick, stop being rational, it’s scary.
Just to be clear, I said "Reparations" but I didn't say "Reparations and nothing else."
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