Never let the truth spoil a good narrative

 

This poor deputy minister of Fisheries and Oceans, where I was DG of Communications a while back, had to slink out of his job with his tail between his legs because he uttered the truth about reconciliation.  A thirty-year career public servant, Timothy Sargent wrote an internal memo, in which he said, "The Indigenous depiction of colonialism is a gross misreading of history."

It is, he is right.  Just as former Senator Lynn Beyak was hollered, bayed and hounded from her Senate seat for saying that colonialism actually did a lot of good for Indigenous people, so Sargent has been shamed and fired for saying basically the same thing.  Most of the Indigenous leaders in Canada, including a Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, went to a residential school, thanks to colonialism, allowing them to go on to university.  Many became lawyers.  Here are just a few:

By that measure, I would have been tried, convicted and jailed for some of the truth I blog about natives.  Colonialism did both good and bad -- just as is the case with all forms of education, particularly at boarding schools, where you get some of the best education around, but you can also suffer abuse.  

The fact is abuse happens in all fora where children interact with adults in power relationships.  It happened at some of the schools I attended and it also happened to me at the hands of my orthodontist.  (When I recently read his obituary, I was tempted to write a vivid remembrance; B talked me out of it.)

But let's not forget, much of the abuse at native schools was perpetrated by older students against younger.  That's a fact, but you'll never see that in print because, again, it spoils such a good narrative.

As for the unmarked graves accusations, archeological digs have recently shown that some of the sites contain remains that are thousands of years old.  Other research has shown many are actually tree roots, not human bones.  In many cases, the parents of native students who died in schools of influenza and other diseases asked that their children be buried on site, as they could not afford to bring them home.  

But you'll never hear those facts either.  This is what you'll see, a monument to today's popular, hysterical narrative.  Mary Simon, who was at the announcement, along with Trudeau (of course), said the site will serve as a constant reminder of the consequences of "policy actions".  Yes, the consequences of residential schools is the fact that so many who attended became very successful -- unless they moved back the their reserves, where all hope was lost.  Here is the latest hoax:

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The Thunder Bay police force debacle, ongoing for years, has taken another turn:

It'll now be run entirely by Indigenous officers.  We'll see how that pans out.