Oh, Canada... what the hell were you doing?

[Scout]

Canada mourns as remains of 215 children found at indigenous school Canada mourns as remains of 215 children found at indigenous school

Basically, a lot of human beings were horrible people before 1970-ish?

Sweet Christ

 

[Sea Bass]

It’s heartbreaking. I have always lived in Ontario, and in general I think people in Eastern Canada are still relatively oblivious about how First Nations people were treated in this country until not too long ago. Not that this is exclusively a Western and Northern Canada thing, but I just don’t think Easterners have been exposed to the subject that much. Then again that could be my own oblivion manifesting itself.

I knew next to nothing about the topic of First Nations assimilation and residential schools until last year, when my seventh grader was learning about this topic in school. It’s bad ****, obviously.

Google “The Sixties Scoop” sometime. It’s not light reading.

But yeah, lots of human beings were and are horrible people, pretty much around the world.

 

[OscarMadison]

Not surprised and it's not because I think Canadians are particularly apathetic. There are a lot of people below the 49th parallel who are just as ignorant about the way aboriginal people were and are treated.

The atrocities are more recent than most of us like to acknowledge. To put a human face on the oppressed and the oppressors mean owning what happened.

Tangentially related: White people who participated in a shared screening of "Them" responded to some of the more horrific scenes with the assurance to themselves that "people didn't do things like that." Well, yes, they did. Some responded to pictures of Emmitt Till and lynching postcards with disbelief. (You can find these in archives along with some receipts for the sale of "orphaned" Qualla children.)

 

[Huggy]

It’s heartbreaking. I have always lived in Ontario, and in general I think people in Eastern Canada are still relatively oblivious about how First Nations people were treated in this country until not too long ago. Not that this is exclusively a Western and Northern Canada thing, but I just don’t think Easterners have been exposed to the subject that much. Then again that could be my own oblivion manifesting itself.

I knew next to nothing about the topic of First Nations assimilation and residential schools until last year, when my seventh grader was learning about this topic in school. It’s bad ****, obviously.

Google “The Sixties Scoop” sometime. It’s not light reading.

But yeah, lots of human beings were and are horrible people, pretty much around the world.

I would argue Gord Downie was as instrumental as anyone at trying to bring awareness to this issue.

 

[OscarMadison]

Downie is as close to a bard/laureate this continent has had in a long time.

 

[lakefront]

Not surprised and it's not because I think Canadians are particularly apathetic. There are a lot of people below the 49th parallel who are just as ignorant about the way aboriginal people were and are treated.

The atrocities are more recent than most of us like to acknowledge. To put a human face on the oppressed and the oppressors mean owning what happened.

Tangentially related: White people who participated in a shared screening of "Them" responded to some of the more horrific scenes with the assurance to themselves that "people didn't do things like that." Well, yes, they did. Some responded to pictures of Emmitt Till and lynching postcards with disbelief. (You can find these in archives along with some receipts for the sale of "orphaned" Qualla children.)

I think I have mentioned it here before, apparently in the reviews of plantations (they are not calling them that anymore, dumb) people think the tour guides are a little to rough on the former owners.

 

[OscarMadison]

I think I have mentioned it here before, apparently in the reviews of plantations (they are not calling them that anymore, dumb) people think the tour guides are a little too rough on the former owners.

Maybe it's because the villains look too much like the guests. Maybe it all hits too close to home and people don't want to think about what they could but won't do.

 

[Regan MacNeil]

They're still doing it -- being ****ty to indigenous people, at least.

Look at the RCMP's record sometime.

 

[wicked]

And of course the Catholic Church was involved. The church makes the Trump clan look like pikers.

 

[OscarMadison]

The Methodists were involved with some of the "schools" in the U.S.

 

[Tighthead]

In Canada, the Anglican Church was also heavily involved. United and Presbyterian to a lesser extent.

 

[maumann]

I think I have mentioned it here before, apparently in the reviews of plantations (they are not calling them that anymore, dumb) people think the tour guides are a little to rough on the former owners.

And yet we've got friends and family, college-educated California natives, who want to know if they can visit "working plantations" here in the South. Sure, and don't forget to pick up some Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima in the grocery store.

One came out to visit when we were still in Rocky Mount and whispered to me in a restaurant, "I see it's still segregated here." What he saw were black families sitting together, like how white families would sit together.

"Sorry, your children have to eat with that white couple. It's the law."

I mentioned it to my black co-worker and he laughed so hard. He promised to be my "token black friend" the next time they came to visit.

 

[Sea Bass]

I would argue Gord Downie was as instrumental as anyone at trying to bring awareness to this issue.

Agreed. I did enjoy him calling out Trudeau during that last show in Kingston, made him squirm a bit.

 

[Sea Bass]

They're still doing it -- being ****ty to indigenous people, at least.

Look at the RCMP's record sometime.

Oh absolutely. Sorry, didn’t mean to imply things were now good.

 

[dixiehack]

And yet we've got friends and family, college-educated California natives, who want to know if they can visit "working plantations" here in the South. Sure, and don't forget to pick up some Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima in the grocery store.

One came out to visit when we were still in Rocky Mount and whispered to me in a restaurant, "I see it's still segregated here." What he saw were black families sitting together, like how white families would sit together.

"Sorry, your children have to eat with that white couple. It's the law."

I mentioned it to my black co-worker and he laughed so hard. He promised to be my "token black friend" the next time they came to visit.

Christ nothing jumps on my nerves faster than some Yankee coming South for the first time and treating everybody like a cross between a zoo exhibit and the set of Gone With The Wind.