I recently had an opportunity to travel to Oxford, England where a friend, also from Canada, is working to obtain a Doctorate in the English Literature area of study. I was along to visit the museums and the county town of Oxford itself. As the Town is essentially a blend of historic colleges, one of which my friend studies at, she invited me to accompany her to their wrap-up formal dinner. It was there, as a Canadian, that I was to experience what I had NEVER had to experience in all my fairly extensive travels. During the dinner another guest, around mid to late 30's, who was either an Associate or a "Reader" professor, asked me where I was from. In response to these questions, I always start with my Country first and then refine it should the inquirer have a greater knowledge of Canada's various geographic locations. While this gal did not have that level of knowledge, she did appear to be very informed about our history, or at least a very particular aspect of it. Without hesitation, she pointed her finger at me, and in an audible voice to those seated around us, pronounced "Oh. Canada. The Country that practices genocide on its indigenous people."
I was born and have worked for over 35 years in community development with indigenous communities north of the 60th parallel. I am most familiar with aboriginal politics as I live it and breathe it. I did inform this Oxford scholar, especially as she was an educator, that one should be cautious as to buying into political narratives of a historical occurrence, interpreted in "presentism" and that uses loaded, emotionally charged language. But God help anyone who should push back on the narrative as can be seen by the replies to Mr. Angus's response to David Frum's Atlantic piece.
I, nor Mr. Frum, deny that national governments starting in the 1830's or so, had predominantly Catholic churches undertake the operation of residential schools both in rural and wilderness areas of the country. Between 1830 and 1996, it is estimated 150 thousand First Nations, Inuit and Metis attended "residential" schools, although operations of schools by churches ended in 1969 when the federal government assumed sole control. I do not deny, nor does Mr. Frum, that over 150 some years, there was likely to have been sexual abuse, corporal punishment, illnesses that led to deaths, hunger, and lack of acceptance or tolerance of cultural differences, etc. However, the misconceptions and misrepresentations have become overwhelming and distorted related to official Canadian conduct. Canadians are now forced into a sort of national "self-flagellation" to address our sins and engage in reconciliation or reparations having obscure or unknown outcomes.
In the Atlantic Magazine's recent article by David Frum " Good Intentions Gone Bad
How Canada’s “Reconciliation” with its Indigenous people went wrong", Frum articulates clearly and factually, how vague expressions designed to show respect and historic recognition, policies along with billions of dollars without measurable or articulated results or objectives, and judicial decisions not based on law, have led us into a legal and our own constitutional quagmire. This is fact whether one agrees or disagrees with political narratives.
Mr. Angus, as do many of those replying to Angus's response on the Frum article, would perpetuate the narrative that has reached "jolly, old England and that Oxford scholar. However, if one might be looking for another lens, you may wish to read a book titled "GRAVE ERROR" How the Media Misled Us (and the truth about Residential schools)". It is a collection of journalistic pieces resulting from on-site research. And, contrary to statements such as "..At no point was there ever any credible suggestion that these crimes didn’t happen", the reports capture information which is "credible". that contradicts that statement. It is also interesting that B.C. banned the book on the basis that its content was considered "hate speech" and Residential School denialism. But then Freedom of Expression, while a fundamental right, is NOT absolute. Also to be considered is the NDP's efforts to have legislation which would amend the Criminal Code to criminalise opinions or replies such as what the journalists reported within the book referenced, what I have said in this reply or what David Frum wrote.
I thought I'd repost something I posted in reply to someone who felt personally offended by Karl Dockstader's (One Dish One Mic radio show, etc) call to stop residential school denialism. https://r.flora.ca/p/stop-residential-school-denialism
There seems to be confusion about what the term "denialism" relates to. It isn't about denying the institutions existed, but a lack of recognition of the harmful intent of the institutions whether or not any specific individual was specifically murdered (as opposed to died because of living conditions imposed in the schools and on reservations, both of which are somehow claimed not to be the intent of settler-colonial genocidal policy).
It is like those who refuse to recognize the harmful intent of "conversion therapy", as those people believe that only two binary genders and sexual orientations, and only one neurotype, are valid and anything else is subjectively claimed "a defect" that must be eradicated. The same foreign (Western European and/or Christian in origin) social constructs and social hierarchies are involved in the policies of Canada with respect to the pre-existing "national, ethnical, racial or religious groups, as such" (to paraphrase from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Genocide convention) of this continent (which, as a reminder, is not part of Europe).
The intent is obvious, but the claim some have is that this forced eradication of difference is a good rather than a bad thing.
----------
When I was born, I was declared a citizen by the governments of Ontario and Canada. I have ancestors who came to this continent when the French were calling the region "New France", but most were from Scotland or Ireland. I wouldn't consider any of those ancestors to be "immigrants" because none of them naturalized to the laws of this land, but to the policies of foreign institutions.
While the French were treated as allies or enemies at various times by the British, they were always treated as humans. My Irish and Scottish ancestors weren't even included in "Whiteness" until comparatively recently. Sure, they were individually treated poorly at various times, but that is more information towards openly questioning those institutions (The entire British and French empires, and their ongoing expressions) – not reason to be blindly loyal, as if this was an example of multi-generational Stockholm syndrome.
What aspect of these foreign institutions have you incorporated into your personal identity that you wish to defend from honesty? These institutions were not examples of nation-building, but nation-replacing. While your ancestors may have toiled, they were most likely being exploited by these institutions -- not building. The British Empire might have fought wars and won, but that doesn't make them "the good guys" or the ones "fighting for rights" -- most often these Empires were fighting other Empires for resources (living and otherwise) to exploit.
I am aware that it is a favorite Canadian cultural pastime to subjectively accept and deny genocidal policies. The Irish Famine was generated by British Policy against an occupied people of an Island nation who weren't allowed to eat their own fish (that "right" was extracted by the British), and the Ukrainian Famine (Holodomor) was similarly man-made by a distant central government. One is thought of as a Genocide by the Canadian government and one is not, with the difference being whether the perpetrator is an ally or not.
You seem to wish to ask the illegitimate question of how these children died. Children being buried at a “school” rather than in communities, where the children were kidnapped from their parents (Genocide convention uses language “Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”), is wrong regardless of how the children died. The fact is that the stories were documented over and over again, but because this documentation questioned the “Canada the good” mythology it was ignored. The ground penetrating radar wasn’t done to learn what happened, but to try to move more blind Canadian loyalists away from Denialism.
I wrote a bit more about what being a Canadian means to me a few years back:
It is hard to find "common ground" when we don't even use a common dialect of English or a common understanding of the history behind the meaning of words.
Let's take what I consider to be Canada's "Charter of White Privileges" (Not about individual persons with specific melanin, but specific Western European ideologies privileged over domestic ideologies/ontologies/worldviews/etc ).
* List of eurocentric conceptualization of individual rights, concepts that grew from the unique history of Western Europe/feudalism/etc
* Defined two European languages as official, no domestic languages.
* Lists the other of the two foreign languages as if it were a "Minority Language" for education.
* This foreign document even incorporates the European Christian notion of a gender binary in section 28.
If you take the history and worldviews of Western Europe as the relevant history/worldviews of this continent, which is not part of Europe, how can common ground be reached? Recognizing that the world doesn't revolve around Europe and its most violent empires (England, France, Germany, Russia -- interchangeably allied or at war -- "We were always at war with Eurasia") is the beginning of having language to find common ground today.
I engage in these discussions both to try to figure out why there is denialism of these acts, but also to share with others what I’m learning.
A common theme seems to be a misunderstanding about the concepts such a as “genos”, “gens”, or “tribus” within the narrow supremacist ideologies that grew out of the unique history of Western Europe – and especially regions that are currently known as the United Kingdom, Germany and France (and their ongoing colonies, which includes the Dominion of Canada).
Within these cultures grew specific supremacist ideologies that suggested that there was some “ideal” concept of a human, and they then imagined a a hierarchy of people (individuals) and peoples (gens, etc) as they diverged from that alleged “ideal”. While the ideologies around Eugenics that largely originated within the Anglosphere (UK+CANZUS) received a bad reputation and went underground after WW2 and what the Nazi party did in Germany, the underlying supremacist ideologies haven’t yet gone away.
These people are deeply stuck in the past, and seem incapable of modern thinking that moves beyond these false supremacist ideologies.
This is why today you have people who conflate genocide and homocide, thinking that genocide is only the killing of the body of another human with the concept of “genos” only being understood as the method of picking the victims of homocide. Genocide extends far beyond the concept of individual humans and their bodies, and is an instance where the United Nations – dominated by Western worldview thinkers – allowed for the recognition of rights of peoples (groups, gens, etc) rather than only the narrow rights of individuals.
While I recognize the problem, I see the problem as being one of Western worldviews and individualism, which block people from recognizing the diversity of humanity and other life. We are far more than our “meat sacks”, and if my mind was greatly altered (change in neurotype, change in gender, change in sexual orientation, change in worldviews, etc) by an external force that may not end the life of my “meat sack”, but _I_ am no longer me. My body can be untouched, and yet “I” am dead, and a different thing has taken my place.
I suspect those who are adherents to the narrow understanding of humanity that is part of Western/Anglosphere science will find this hard to understand. Those of us in the CANZUS colonies are well aware of how Anglosphere science and medicine is so behind other peoples in understanding mental diversity and mental health.
The fixation on “meat sacks”, and even narrowly through Western hierarchies at that (focus on male bodies over female bodies for much of Western science), makes understanding humanity nearly impossible.
J’ai l’impression de me vider le coeur cette nuit, mais je crois que ça en vaut la peine! Je suis résidente de Lac-Mégantic, oui, cette ville qui a vu son centre-ville et son histoire détruite en une nuit d’horreur avec de ofnombreuses explosions.,.. ce même scénario qu’a décrit Harper comme une zone de guerre … Nous l’avons vécu et nous continuons à la reconstruire… et malgré la négligence du federal à nous protéger réellement, je pense que ce nouveau gouvernement va faire les bons choix pour nous…
J’espère que vous allez vraiment me lire: le mouvement séparatiste n’existe pas seulement en Alberta, mais il ressurgit aussi au Québec et cet automne St-Pierre Plamondon a comploté avec Danielle Smith pour la séparation de l’Alberta et pour la séparation du Québec par la suite… et ça doit être dénoncé! Quand j’étais jeune étudiante à l’université, j’étais pour! J’ai manifesté contre Axworty et ses augmentations des frais de scolarité! C’était une attaque directe envers le Quèbec et notre système d’éducation… J’ai vieilli et j’ai compris que notre pays ne serait plus le même sans le Québec, même si certains continuent de nous bouder et de nous traiter comme si nous n’étions rien que des moins que rien. Parce qu’il faut bien l’avouer, pour certaines personnes, les francophones du Québec sont moins valables que les immigrants… Et c’est pourquoi nous en sommes toujours à cette même guerre entre francophones et anglophones dans notre pays… I can speak and write in English… but Could have to own the same respect? C’est le principal problem in this country between French speakers and English speakers. . Nous sommes là seule province francophone majoritaire, mais nous sommes toujours la seule minorité à réclamer… même si d’autres communautés sont plus minoritaires que nous! Nous avons besoin du soutien de tous pour continuer de vivre en français au pays..
Ce qui se passe actuellement est de récupérer des politiques qui ne concernent pas le Québec pour nous distancer du reste du Canada afin d’obtenir l’indépendance…. Même scénario qu’avec l’Alberta, mais avec6 mois en avance… sauf qu’au Québec , nous avons déjà eu 2 referendums, les deux négatifs je n’ai pas envie de voir le d’un 4e avec l’Alberta dans le décor…
Partly but also to get ordinary citizens thinking about what they MIGHT be able to do!
In Ukraine we saw older women making Molotov cocktails for the soldiers to use. Thats what they could do. Others could make blankets or supply clothing or food.
My upbringing was with family that lived through the "dirty 30s", on prairie farms, that live through the war with the sacrifices, they made to send their sons to war while they stayed home and took care of farms to feed the people
I want people to think that life may not always stay like it is right this moment because of what's happening south of our border we need to look to be stronger to save our border , my thoughts.
Poorly thought out. Extremely impractical. Canada doesn't have anywhere near the required resources. I'm guessing that sharing that assessment is the point of your posting.
This is straight out of the russian troll notebook. american trolls now. double duty. Reddit too. If anyone can get on vancouver landlords reddit report. all they do is bash 1st nations. it has 0 to do with landlords or tenants. i was banned before i had the chance
Thank you for this Charlie. Some of our own MP's have horrible records on acknowledging the horrors of Residential schools, including one adjacent to my riding, Aaron Gunn. It goes to show how closely tied MAGA and Maple MAGA are. Generations of children stolen and abused, up until recently enough that my granddaughters have a living grandfather who was abused in one. I'm tired of these victims having to relive their trauma year after year, repeating their stories on National Truth and Reconciliation day in order to be taken seriously. It happened, we know it happened, the government and churches have admitted it happened, and to still pretend it didn't, in spite of all of that, one would have to be completely obtuse.
I think we need to have a deeper, and likely more historical analysis of what we reduce to 'hate groups'. The war on women and women's reproductive rights could be included in our understanding of who these alt right people are, and what they stand for and believe in.
Western imperialism was predominantly a white male phenomena. Of course women took part and benefitted from the theft of indigenous land as well.........but in 'the good old days' it was powerful men who set the rules and called the shots. Violence and 'might makes right' played a larger role in those conquests of peoples and their territory than most wanted to admit back in those years of western expansionism. Ideas about 'inferior people', 'savages' and the perverse practises of these heathen were widespread...........for obvious propaganda reasons.
People aren't inherently violent or prone to widespread slaughter.......but imperialism had ways of convincing the majority of little people far from the action, that it was necessary, and for the good of the conquered. We were bringing them to Jesus in short.
Well in recent years all that BS has been revealed as high handed abuse. We've also learned that our native people were and are, in many ways, ethically superior to us. Living for the Seven Generations is not something Capitalism endorses....our bottom line is profit, moving quickly and breaking things, on the assumption what we break was standing in the way of progress.
What's worse, from a racist perspective, is the oppressed are winning in the court of public opinion. Turns out, white guys like Sir John or Duncan Campbell Scott were the creators of cultural genocide institutions. Residential schools come to mind. The Indian Act comes to mind. Starving the people of the Great Plains after the buffalo were gone?? How many even know that story, let alone revere Big Bear as the cultural hero he was??
It's hard, especially during a period of capital retrenchment, to discover your ancestors were the CREEPS. And I capitalize CREEPS....because only extensively damaged individuals could commit some of the crimes we now know happened.
THERE IS NOTHING FOR THE WHITE SUPREMICIST.......OR THE DEVOUT FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIAN TO DO BUT DENY THE NEW STORY. It makes their entire belief system, including their assumptions of EXCEPTIONALITY look like a LIE.
Which is, of course, what it is........but we shouldn't expect them to accept our revisionist history as Truth. Vaccination refusal comes from the same dark place. Science can no more replace their religion than historical fact stand in for the glorious heritage of the white settler pioneer.
How we help them get over their deep need to be 'exceptional', especially during a period when many of them are losing their advantages, is for me the real question. I'm pretty sure the answer isn't AI.
Thank you for this piece on the Atlantic. I had been subscribed to them hoping for some thoughtful journalism, which there is occasionally, but Graham Woods statement that Canadians are treasonous is a line crossed. Subscription canceled! So sad how the media is acquiescing
WHAT??? I subscribe to The Atlantic. I'll be cancelling as well. And for the same reason. Breaks my heart because a lot of their journalism is excellent.
Your reasoning, is the reasoning that l deleted my facebook account ( and tiktok)...less disinformation and trolls here on the stack and over at Bluesky...keep it coming Charlie...
I haven't been on any social media for years....the one liners infuriate the teacher in me and it did become very obvious that a large percentage of those one liners were abusive.
What really scares me about people who can't reason, or include evidence.....is how angry and mean that lack of ability makes them.
I’m ready to fight back
I recently had an opportunity to travel to Oxford, England where a friend, also from Canada, is working to obtain a Doctorate in the English Literature area of study. I was along to visit the museums and the county town of Oxford itself. As the Town is essentially a blend of historic colleges, one of which my friend studies at, she invited me to accompany her to their wrap-up formal dinner. It was there, as a Canadian, that I was to experience what I had NEVER had to experience in all my fairly extensive travels. During the dinner another guest, around mid to late 30's, who was either an Associate or a "Reader" professor, asked me where I was from. In response to these questions, I always start with my Country first and then refine it should the inquirer have a greater knowledge of Canada's various geographic locations. While this gal did not have that level of knowledge, she did appear to be very informed about our history, or at least a very particular aspect of it. Without hesitation, she pointed her finger at me, and in an audible voice to those seated around us, pronounced "Oh. Canada. The Country that practices genocide on its indigenous people."
I was born and have worked for over 35 years in community development with indigenous communities north of the 60th parallel. I am most familiar with aboriginal politics as I live it and breathe it. I did inform this Oxford scholar, especially as she was an educator, that one should be cautious as to buying into political narratives of a historical occurrence, interpreted in "presentism" and that uses loaded, emotionally charged language. But God help anyone who should push back on the narrative as can be seen by the replies to Mr. Angus's response to David Frum's Atlantic piece.
I, nor Mr. Frum, deny that national governments starting in the 1830's or so, had predominantly Catholic churches undertake the operation of residential schools both in rural and wilderness areas of the country. Between 1830 and 1996, it is estimated 150 thousand First Nations, Inuit and Metis attended "residential" schools, although operations of schools by churches ended in 1969 when the federal government assumed sole control. I do not deny, nor does Mr. Frum, that over 150 some years, there was likely to have been sexual abuse, corporal punishment, illnesses that led to deaths, hunger, and lack of acceptance or tolerance of cultural differences, etc. However, the misconceptions and misrepresentations have become overwhelming and distorted related to official Canadian conduct. Canadians are now forced into a sort of national "self-flagellation" to address our sins and engage in reconciliation or reparations having obscure or unknown outcomes.
In the Atlantic Magazine's recent article by David Frum " Good Intentions Gone Bad
How Canada’s “Reconciliation” with its Indigenous people went wrong", Frum articulates clearly and factually, how vague expressions designed to show respect and historic recognition, policies along with billions of dollars without measurable or articulated results or objectives, and judicial decisions not based on law, have led us into a legal and our own constitutional quagmire. This is fact whether one agrees or disagrees with political narratives.
Mr. Angus, as do many of those replying to Angus's response on the Frum article, would perpetuate the narrative that has reached "jolly, old England and that Oxford scholar. However, if one might be looking for another lens, you may wish to read a book titled "GRAVE ERROR" How the Media Misled Us (and the truth about Residential schools)". It is a collection of journalistic pieces resulting from on-site research. And, contrary to statements such as "..At no point was there ever any credible suggestion that these crimes didn’t happen", the reports capture information which is "credible". that contradicts that statement. It is also interesting that B.C. banned the book on the basis that its content was considered "hate speech" and Residential School denialism. But then Freedom of Expression, while a fundamental right, is NOT absolute. Also to be considered is the NDP's efforts to have legislation which would amend the Criminal Code to criminalise opinions or replies such as what the journalists reported within the book referenced, what I have said in this reply or what David Frum wrote.
The ongoing thread with @melanson follows a familiar pattern:
https://charlieangus.substack.com/p/maga-uses-residential-schools-to/comment/192197824
I thought I'd repost something I posted in reply to someone who felt personally offended by Karl Dockstader's (One Dish One Mic radio show, etc) call to stop residential school denialism. https://r.flora.ca/p/stop-residential-school-denialism
There seems to be confusion about what the term "denialism" relates to. It isn't about denying the institutions existed, but a lack of recognition of the harmful intent of the institutions whether or not any specific individual was specifically murdered (as opposed to died because of living conditions imposed in the schools and on reservations, both of which are somehow claimed not to be the intent of settler-colonial genocidal policy).
It is like those who refuse to recognize the harmful intent of "conversion therapy", as those people believe that only two binary genders and sexual orientations, and only one neurotype, are valid and anything else is subjectively claimed "a defect" that must be eradicated. The same foreign (Western European and/or Christian in origin) social constructs and social hierarchies are involved in the policies of Canada with respect to the pre-existing "national, ethnical, racial or religious groups, as such" (to paraphrase from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Genocide convention) of this continent (which, as a reminder, is not part of Europe).
The intent is obvious, but the claim some have is that this forced eradication of difference is a good rather than a bad thing.
----------
When I was born, I was declared a citizen by the governments of Ontario and Canada. I have ancestors who came to this continent when the French were calling the region "New France", but most were from Scotland or Ireland. I wouldn't consider any of those ancestors to be "immigrants" because none of them naturalized to the laws of this land, but to the policies of foreign institutions.
While the French were treated as allies or enemies at various times by the British, they were always treated as humans. My Irish and Scottish ancestors weren't even included in "Whiteness" until comparatively recently. Sure, they were individually treated poorly at various times, but that is more information towards openly questioning those institutions (The entire British and French empires, and their ongoing expressions) – not reason to be blindly loyal, as if this was an example of multi-generational Stockholm syndrome.
What aspect of these foreign institutions have you incorporated into your personal identity that you wish to defend from honesty? These institutions were not examples of nation-building, but nation-replacing. While your ancestors may have toiled, they were most likely being exploited by these institutions -- not building. The British Empire might have fought wars and won, but that doesn't make them "the good guys" or the ones "fighting for rights" -- most often these Empires were fighting other Empires for resources (living and otherwise) to exploit.
I am aware that it is a favorite Canadian cultural pastime to subjectively accept and deny genocidal policies. The Irish Famine was generated by British Policy against an occupied people of an Island nation who weren't allowed to eat their own fish (that "right" was extracted by the British), and the Ukrainian Famine (Holodomor) was similarly man-made by a distant central government. One is thought of as a Genocide by the Canadian government and one is not, with the difference being whether the perpetrator is an ally or not.
You seem to wish to ask the illegitimate question of how these children died. Children being buried at a “school” rather than in communities, where the children were kidnapped from their parents (Genocide convention uses language “Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”), is wrong regardless of how the children died. The fact is that the stories were documented over and over again, but because this documentation questioned the “Canada the good” mythology it was ignored. The ground penetrating radar wasn’t done to learn what happened, but to try to move more blind Canadian loyalists away from Denialism.
I wrote a bit more about what being a Canadian means to me a few years back:
https://r.flora.ca/p/canadian
------
It is hard to find "common ground" when we don't even use a common dialect of English or a common understanding of the history behind the meaning of words.
Let's take what I consider to be Canada's "Charter of White Privileges" (Not about individual persons with specific melanin, but specific Western European ideologies privileged over domestic ideologies/ontologies/worldviews/etc ).
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1982/11/contents
* List of eurocentric conceptualization of individual rights, concepts that grew from the unique history of Western Europe/feudalism/etc
* Defined two European languages as official, no domestic languages.
* Lists the other of the two foreign languages as if it were a "Minority Language" for education.
* This foreign document even incorporates the European Christian notion of a gender binary in section 28.
If you take the history and worldviews of Western Europe as the relevant history/worldviews of this continent, which is not part of Europe, how can common ground be reached? Recognizing that the world doesn't revolve around Europe and its most violent empires (England, France, Germany, Russia -- interchangeably allied or at war -- "We were always at war with Eurasia") is the beginning of having language to find common ground today.
In case anyone is curious, I included this topic in my New Years post.
I am not my body! Understanding genos vs homos
https://r.flora.ca/p/i-am-not-my-body
I engage in these discussions both to try to figure out why there is denialism of these acts, but also to share with others what I’m learning.
A common theme seems to be a misunderstanding about the concepts such a as “genos”, “gens”, or “tribus” within the narrow supremacist ideologies that grew out of the unique history of Western Europe – and especially regions that are currently known as the United Kingdom, Germany and France (and their ongoing colonies, which includes the Dominion of Canada).
Within these cultures grew specific supremacist ideologies that suggested that there was some “ideal” concept of a human, and they then imagined a a hierarchy of people (individuals) and peoples (gens, etc) as they diverged from that alleged “ideal”. While the ideologies around Eugenics that largely originated within the Anglosphere (UK+CANZUS) received a bad reputation and went underground after WW2 and what the Nazi party did in Germany, the underlying supremacist ideologies haven’t yet gone away.
These people are deeply stuck in the past, and seem incapable of modern thinking that moves beyond these false supremacist ideologies.
This is why today you have people who conflate genocide and homocide, thinking that genocide is only the killing of the body of another human with the concept of “genos” only being understood as the method of picking the victims of homocide. Genocide extends far beyond the concept of individual humans and their bodies, and is an instance where the United Nations – dominated by Western worldview thinkers – allowed for the recognition of rights of peoples (groups, gens, etc) rather than only the narrow rights of individuals.
While I recognize the problem, I see the problem as being one of Western worldviews and individualism, which block people from recognizing the diversity of humanity and other life. We are far more than our “meat sacks”, and if my mind was greatly altered (change in neurotype, change in gender, change in sexual orientation, change in worldviews, etc) by an external force that may not end the life of my “meat sack”, but _I_ am no longer me. My body can be untouched, and yet “I” am dead, and a different thing has taken my place.
I suspect those who are adherents to the narrow understanding of humanity that is part of Western/Anglosphere science will find this hard to understand. Those of us in the CANZUS colonies are well aware of how Anglosphere science and medicine is so behind other peoples in understanding mental diversity and mental health.
The fixation on “meat sacks”, and even narrowly through Western hierarchies at that (focus on male bodies over female bodies for much of Western science), makes understanding humanity nearly impossible.
J’ai l’impression de me vider le coeur cette nuit, mais je crois que ça en vaut la peine! Je suis résidente de Lac-Mégantic, oui, cette ville qui a vu son centre-ville et son histoire détruite en une nuit d’horreur avec de ofnombreuses explosions.,.. ce même scénario qu’a décrit Harper comme une zone de guerre … Nous l’avons vécu et nous continuons à la reconstruire… et malgré la négligence du federal à nous protéger réellement, je pense que ce nouveau gouvernement va faire les bons choix pour nous…
J’espère que vous allez vraiment me lire: le mouvement séparatiste n’existe pas seulement en Alberta, mais il ressurgit aussi au Québec et cet automne St-Pierre Plamondon a comploté avec Danielle Smith pour la séparation de l’Alberta et pour la séparation du Québec par la suite… et ça doit être dénoncé! Quand j’étais jeune étudiante à l’université, j’étais pour! J’ai manifesté contre Axworty et ses augmentations des frais de scolarité! C’était une attaque directe envers le Quèbec et notre système d’éducation… J’ai vieilli et j’ai compris que notre pays ne serait plus le même sans le Québec, même si certains continuent de nous bouder et de nous traiter comme si nous n’étions rien que des moins que rien. Parce qu’il faut bien l’avouer, pour certaines personnes, les francophones du Québec sont moins valables que les immigrants… Et c’est pourquoi nous en sommes toujours à cette même guerre entre francophones et anglophones dans notre pays… I can speak and write in English… but Could have to own the same respect? C’est le principal problem in this country between French speakers and English speakers. . Nous sommes là seule province francophone majoritaire, mais nous sommes toujours la seule minorité à réclamer… même si d’autres communautés sont plus minoritaires que nous! Nous avons besoin du soutien de tous pour continuer de vivre en français au pays..
Ce qui se passe actuellement est de récupérer des politiques qui ne concernent pas le Québec pour nous distancer du reste du Canada afin d’obtenir l’indépendance…. Même scénario qu’avec l’Alberta, mais avec6 mois en avance… sauf qu’au Québec , nous avons déjà eu 2 referendums, les deux négatifs je n’ai pas envie de voir le d’un 4e avec l’Alberta dans le décor…
The link to the new idea for a Canadian Defence and Mobilization force: https://www.google.com/search?q=Defence+Mobilization+Plan&rlz=1CDGOYI_enCA989CA989&oq=Canadian+Civil+&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8&ved=2ahUKEwiQkfzli-GRAxV4G9AFHd5_OdMQgK4QegYIAQgAEAM&mstk=AUtExfAcejkvNhCI4Z2kKClf_K8wWNaG_5-Wv8A4fFbnaJBQy_Fylsv8gvxqxB3TM5eXCkniBNOevGlZc3bfoz42snVvuddJDSKKAYkX8nNTT5mffl0t_saUJX_1m-jZ7ms62PCYxMEETVzA8LulXQl2ALwbAuZK_ooWMUCr1YEfRyr4xs1nUyp-rjtGnPpS_U0sjlRKOTBKQW-_PdgFdURGR7gROASpIBc8fAn-HVYhTsb7KI4CpU9PGvru3VYH7d2061_JZ7umzv3ExPmV0DPDb6B4&csui=3
Partly but also to get ordinary citizens thinking about what they MIGHT be able to do!
In Ukraine we saw older women making Molotov cocktails for the soldiers to use. Thats what they could do. Others could make blankets or supply clothing or food.
My upbringing was with family that lived through the "dirty 30s", on prairie farms, that live through the war with the sacrifices, they made to send their sons to war while they stayed home and took care of farms to feed the people
I want people to think that life may not always stay like it is right this moment because of what's happening south of our border we need to look to be stronger to save our border , my thoughts.
Poorly thought out. Extremely impractical. Canada doesn't have anywhere near the required resources. I'm guessing that sharing that assessment is the point of your posting.
Thank you for this, Charlie.
This is straight out of the russian troll notebook. american trolls now. double duty. Reddit too. If anyone can get on vancouver landlords reddit report. all they do is bash 1st nations. it has 0 to do with landlords or tenants. i was banned before i had the chance
Thank you for this Charlie. Some of our own MP's have horrible records on acknowledging the horrors of Residential schools, including one adjacent to my riding, Aaron Gunn. It goes to show how closely tied MAGA and Maple MAGA are. Generations of children stolen and abused, up until recently enough that my granddaughters have a living grandfather who was abused in one. I'm tired of these victims having to relive their trauma year after year, repeating their stories on National Truth and Reconciliation day in order to be taken seriously. It happened, we know it happened, the government and churches have admitted it happened, and to still pretend it didn't, in spite of all of that, one would have to be completely obtuse.
I think we need to have a deeper, and likely more historical analysis of what we reduce to 'hate groups'. The war on women and women's reproductive rights could be included in our understanding of who these alt right people are, and what they stand for and believe in.
Western imperialism was predominantly a white male phenomena. Of course women took part and benefitted from the theft of indigenous land as well.........but in 'the good old days' it was powerful men who set the rules and called the shots. Violence and 'might makes right' played a larger role in those conquests of peoples and their territory than most wanted to admit back in those years of western expansionism. Ideas about 'inferior people', 'savages' and the perverse practises of these heathen were widespread...........for obvious propaganda reasons.
People aren't inherently violent or prone to widespread slaughter.......but imperialism had ways of convincing the majority of little people far from the action, that it was necessary, and for the good of the conquered. We were bringing them to Jesus in short.
Well in recent years all that BS has been revealed as high handed abuse. We've also learned that our native people were and are, in many ways, ethically superior to us. Living for the Seven Generations is not something Capitalism endorses....our bottom line is profit, moving quickly and breaking things, on the assumption what we break was standing in the way of progress.
What's worse, from a racist perspective, is the oppressed are winning in the court of public opinion. Turns out, white guys like Sir John or Duncan Campbell Scott were the creators of cultural genocide institutions. Residential schools come to mind. The Indian Act comes to mind. Starving the people of the Great Plains after the buffalo were gone?? How many even know that story, let alone revere Big Bear as the cultural hero he was??
It's hard, especially during a period of capital retrenchment, to discover your ancestors were the CREEPS. And I capitalize CREEPS....because only extensively damaged individuals could commit some of the crimes we now know happened.
THERE IS NOTHING FOR THE WHITE SUPREMICIST.......OR THE DEVOUT FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIAN TO DO BUT DENY THE NEW STORY. It makes their entire belief system, including their assumptions of EXCEPTIONALITY look like a LIE.
Which is, of course, what it is........but we shouldn't expect them to accept our revisionist history as Truth. Vaccination refusal comes from the same dark place. Science can no more replace their religion than historical fact stand in for the glorious heritage of the white settler pioneer.
How we help them get over their deep need to be 'exceptional', especially during a period when many of them are losing their advantages, is for me the real question. I'm pretty sure the answer isn't AI.
Thank you for this piece on the Atlantic. I had been subscribed to them hoping for some thoughtful journalism, which there is occasionally, but Graham Woods statement that Canadians are treasonous is a line crossed. Subscription canceled! So sad how the media is acquiescing
What Atlantic article are you referring to?
WHAT??? I subscribe to The Atlantic. I'll be cancelling as well. And for the same reason. Breaks my heart because a lot of their journalism is excellent.
But, first, I want to read that article.
Do not let MAGA divide Canadians. We value and resprct all our founding heritages.
Wait till they find out about the First Nations Hospitals aka Indian Hospitals in Canada.
Your reasoning, is the reasoning that l deleted my facebook account ( and tiktok)...less disinformation and trolls here on the stack and over at Bluesky...keep it coming Charlie...
I haven't been on any social media for years....the one liners infuriate the teacher in me and it did become very obvious that a large percentage of those one liners were abusive.
What really scares me about people who can't reason, or include evidence.....is how angry and mean that lack of ability makes them.
I agree Charlie. Dangerous gangster regime to our south
Well written Charlie. I really hate that they keep trying to rewrite history!