This will knock your socks off!

A reader of my blog sent me this.  It's an accurate account of what really went on in residential schools and why.  It's a disgrace that journalists are so lazy and do NO research.  They just parrot the latest "Woke" garbage.  Read on and become enlightened:

In 1959 Indigenous Leaders Wished To Expand The Indian Residential School System

And the Federal Government Rejected Their Request

Researcher Nina Green has uncovered records from 1959 that show Indigenous leaders wanted to expand the Indian Residential School system and have at least two more schools built - contradicting claims by Indigenous activists that IRSs were designed for the purpose of genocide.

Historian John S. Milloy’s 1999 book ‘A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School System’ mentions a meeting of the Catholic Indian League of Alberta that took place in 1959 in which a request for the construction of two new schools was requested by Indigenous leaders, but later rejected by the federal government. This is not the story Canadians are used to hearing about the history of residential schools.

A 1959 issue of a Winnipeg publication called the ‘Indian Record’ features a large group photo taken in front of the Ermineskin Residential School, of members of the Catholic Indian League of Alberta, features the title - Indian League Urges Vocational Schools.

“The need for more vocational schools in the province and the urgent need for a central all-Indian trade school in Alberta was stressed recently at a convention here attended by 100 Catholic Indians from all parts of the province.” -From ‘The Indian Record’ 1959

The charge today is that IRSs were designed by the federal government and the Catholic church to intentionally commit cultural genocide.  But if that were the case, why would one hundred Indigenous leaders in a single province want to expand a system, supposedly so hostile to their own interests?

Another line in ‘The Indian Record’ piece that caught my eye:

“Indians present voted unanimously to claim the education of their children at all levels, including high-school, in all-Indian schools on the Indian reservation. It was generally felt that the so-called integration policy which consists in sending Indians to non-Indian schools was premature…It was asserted that this integration, to be successful, requires four conditions.”

The conditions are laid out as follows 1) Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous must opt-in. 2) Non-Indigenous teachers must be willing and able to work with Indigenous students 3) The rights of parents must be respected at all times 4) That the socio-economic status of the Indigenous be equal or close, to that of non-Indigenous people.

Once again, these puzzle pieces seem to be assembling an image that does not resemble the one currently projected onto Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. The description on Amazon for Milloy's book contains the following quote referring to the Indian Residential School (IRS) system:

"In the early decades, the system grew without planning or restraint. Despite numerous critical commissions and reports, it persisted into the 1970s, when it transformed itself into a social welfare system without improving conditions for its thousands of wards."

The IRS system transformed itself into a child welfare system? Spontaneously? For what reason? Could it be because they were dealing with marginalized people who were somewhat resistant to integration, and living in increasingly squalid, unsafe and unhealthy conditions? 

In a conversation with retired Manitoba judge and columnist Brian Giesbrecht, I asked what his thoughts were regarding Milloy’s point about IRSS being used for child welfare purposes:

“I don’t think Milloy is right about the IRS system transforming itself into a social welfare system in the 1970s. I think that process began long before. I believe that the use of IRS for neglected children was necessary because of the rapid deterioration on reserves beginning in the 1950s when binge drinking became a major social problem. The federal government saw what was going on and tried to respond to it by enlisting the provinces to apprehend children. (This produced the 60s Scoop). But the need was so great that IRSs were used in addition to child welfare apprehensions. All of this is still going on today. Perhaps 90% of the children in Manitoba’s child welfare system are Indigenous despite the fact that Indigenous people make up 10% of the problem. The jail statistics are almost as bad. Indigenous leaders and all politicians have no answers for this appalling dysfunction within Indigenous communities, so blame residential schools instead of trying to deal honestly with the massive problem.”

The appalling dysfunction and desperate conditions described by Brian are not consistent with what the majority of Canadians experience in day-to-day life. Some reserves are extremely remote and cut-off from services and economic activity, and the people in them experience disproportionately high levels of fetal alcohol syndrome, violence and sexual abuse. What kind of education are kids living in these places receiving? And why are we so obsessed with former IRS students, when the tragedy is happening right now on reserves?

Indigenous activists and the neo-tribal elites of the Aboriginal Industry have been using the desperation on reserves as a means to extract government aid. The privileged Indigenous elites who manage the funds, demand that there be no over-sight, nor accountability. They appear to be siphoning off proceeds meant to help poor Indigenous people. This has been going on for years as conditions on reserves get worse. Matters have become dire and there’s little hope things will get any better. This continuation of desperation is not a situation the activists and neo-tribal elites are likely to reverse, as it is not in their interests to solve these problems. The Aboriginal Industry benefits when problems, and the processes involved with proposed solutions, are prolonged and on-going.

‘The Indian Record’, November, 1959

Chiefs, councillors and delegates from Saddle Lake, Beaver Lake, Leigoff, Peigan, Blackfoot, Blood, Sarcee, Winterburn, Meadow Lake, Gold Fish Lake, Onion Lake, Bobtail, Louis Bull, Ermineskin and Samson reservations were present at the Aug. 5-6, 1959 meeting of the Catholic Indian League of Alberta at the Ermineskin Residential Catholic School. “The need for more vocational schools in the province and the urgent need for a central all-Indian trade school in Alberta was stressed recently at a convention here attended by 100 Catholic Indians from all parts of the province.” -From ‘The Indian Record’ 1959 Meeting held in Hobbema, Sask.

In an conversation with retired Manitoba judge and columnist Brian Giesbrecht, I asked what his thoughts were regarding Milloy’s point about IRSs being used for child welfare purposes:

By James Pew, ‘Woke Watch Newsletter’, August 2022