Why Reconciliation for Aboriginal Peoples Should Matter to New Canadians – New Canadian Media

2015/06/06 Leave a comment

Ranjit Bhaskar commentary on the TRC recommendations regarding new Canadians:

The broader hope is if Canadians have more knowledge of indigenous history, they will have a better understanding of the current policy disputes between governments and Aboriginal Peoples over natural resources, education and child welfare.

Of significant importance for new Canadians is the last two of the TRC’s 94 Calls to Action. The penultimate recommendation, “call[s] upon the federal government to revise the information kit for newcomers to Canada and its citizenship test to reflect a more inclusive history of the diverse Aboriginal [P]eoples of Canada, including information about the Treaties and the history of residential schools.”

Perhaps it is time for new Canadians themselves to insist on being better informed of an inconvenient truth to better appreciate the travails of indigenous people – essential because we cannot cherry-pick the history we inherit.

The last recommendation urges Ottawa to replace the current Oath of Citizenship with one in which new citizens swear to faithfully observe the laws of Canada, “including Treaties with Indigenous Peoples.”

A timely reminder of not just building a nation-to-nation relationship between Aboriginal Peoples and the Crown that respects the promises of historical treaties, but also for resetting relationships between the First Nations and the “latest nations.”

The two recommendations are a call to remember the injustices inflicted on one of the founding peoples of Canada now that we are slowly, but surely, coming to know about the other history. The part of our collective past not taught in schools, not part of the citizenship test and not part of the “Welcome to Canada” package.

Time to remember the more than 6,000 aboriginal children who never returned to their homes after being sent to residential schools by the Canadian government.

And perhaps it is time for new Canadians themselves to insist on being better informed of an inconvenient truth to better appreciate the travails of indigenous people – essential because we cannot cherry-pick the history we inherit.

…. Far too many Canadians, including many peoples of colour and First Nations themselves, are unaware of the Canadian history of colonization of the indigenous peoples and the exclusion of communities of colour. Instead, we need to invest in our collective understanding and put a halt to an enforced mass ignorance to change the way we look at each other, talk to each other and talk about each other.

Dialogue can hopefully foster positive relationships among indigenous peoples and newcomers to help bring about justice and equality for all. Reconciliation for indigenous people is an important first step towards that goal.

Why Reconciliation for Aboriginal Peoples Should Matter to New Canadians – New Canadian Media.

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Know the truth, make amends – Erna Paris

2015/06/06 Leave a comment

Erna Paris on the need to face our history of residential schools and ‘cultural genocide,’ with some interesting contrasts with other countries who have (e.g., Germany, France), or have not (e.g., Japan, USA) faced up to their past:

A new challenge for Canadians will be to acknowledge the endemic disconnect between our myths and our reality. We view ourselves as a tolerant society that values diversity, but what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has made clear is that we could believe this only because we excluded native peoples from the picture.

One key to reconciliation will be the rejection of all forms of coercive assimilation. For example, the Quebec Charter of Values, with its discriminatory rules about religious dress codes, was a throwback to attitudes that have historically produced ideas of lesser peoples.

The TRC has shown us where that leads.

The past can never be overcome. It can only be managed. With accountability on the part of lawmakers. With memorials to the victims. And with a major effort to pursue justice – however difficult that may be.

Know the truth, make amends – The Globe and Mail.

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TRC Recommendation for a Residential Schools Monument

2015/06/05 Leave a comment

Jen Gerson of the National Post makes a constructive suggestion: situate the Monument for Residential School Victims in the location planned for the Monument for Victims of Communism.

Hard to argue with the logic. Will be interesting to see if anyone picks up on it:

The report calls on provincial and federal governments to install highly visible monuments in Ottawa and each provincial capital. The logistics of this are, inevitably, going to be fraught. However, in the grander scheme of things, at least one monument seems appropriate. In the meantime, there’s still space between the Supreme Court of Canada and the National Library in Ottawa. Catch it before it’s used to commemorate the victims of a political ideology that has never been enacted in this country.

Five of the best recommendations from the Truth & Reconciliation Commission, and five that will be problematic

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Teachings about aboriginals ‘simply wrong’, says Murray Sinclair

2015/05/26 Leave a comment

Valid and needed points:

But Sinclair emphasized that one of the most important messages that will come from the report is that the consequences of the school system are far more wide-reaching than many realize.

“This is not an aboriginal problem,” he said. “This is a Canadian problem. Because at the same time that aboriginal people were being demeaned in the schools and their culture and language were being taken away from them and they were being told that they were inferior, they were pagans, that they were heathens and savages and that they were unworthy of being respected — that very same message was being given to the non-aboriginal children in the public schools as well.”

As a result, he said, many generations of non-aboriginal Canadians have had their perceptions of aboriginal people “tainted.”

“They need to know that this history includes them,” Sinclair said of Canadians.

He said many people have told the commission they did not know their country had set up a school system that treated aboriginal children so poorly.

Sinclair said the commission decided during its work that it needed to be “gentle” with Canadians as they learned of their country’s past.

“We needed to be sure that people were brought to the table of knowledge about this in a way that didn’t scare them, didn’t push them away, didn’t make them feel ashamed or guilty or that they were to blame.

“But they needed to see that they were victims, too, of this history.”

In their report, Sinclair and his co-commissioners, former journalist Marie Wilson and Alberta Chief Willie Littlechild, will make recommendations to federal and provincial governments. It’s clear one of them will be to ensure schools teach children about the residential schools and indigenous culture.

“By including teaching around residential schools in Canadian curriculum,” said Sinclair, “we are not only opening the door to having aboriginal people become part of the circle, we are also opening the eyes of Canadians to the fact that they have been educated in the public schools about aboriginals historically, and even today, in (a way) that is simply wrong and doesn’t contain accurate information.”

…“The message for all Canadians is it’s important for us to understand that it’s now time for us to live up to the reputation that we think we had, that we thought we had — and we don’t have,” he said.

“It’s important for us to understand that we have deluded ourselves as a country to a certain extent because we have not educated ourselves about this experience.”

Teachings about aboriginals ‘simply wrong’, says Murray Sinclair.

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First Nations languages explored in global study on mother tongues

2015/04/14 Leave a comment

Interesting study:

At one point, Canada was home to more than 70 distinct First Nations languages. Recent figures suggest about a dozen have disappeared altogether and the others — with few exceptions — are extremely endangered.

“By our being there and fostering this interest in children learning the language, we’re hoping that maybe this will remind people how important it is to speak Dene to their kids so that they keep learning Dene,” Lovick said. “In many other places it’s too late.”

One aim of the research is to identify ways to teach First Nations languages more effectively to adults.

“We know how hard they are to learn as adults,” Jung said. “So everybody is actually really excited to see finally how children do it because we just don’t know how to do it easily.”

One idea — currently being challenged — is that children’s brains have a “hard-wired” grammar module called Universal Grammar from which all human languages can be derived.

Another idea is that learning a language relies on general cognitive mechanisms.

Much of the initial research on Inuktitut and East Cree is already underway or been done.

The other languages in the study are Turkish, Japanese, Russian, Sesotho, which is spoken in southern Africa, Yucatec Maya in Mexico, Chintang in Nepal, and Indonesian.

First Nations languages explored in global study on mother tongues – Saskatchewan – CBC News.

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Mohawk bloodline rule is indefensible – Simpson

2014/12/11 Leave a comment

Jeffrey Simpson on the bloodline rule:

The band council argues that mixed relationships dilute the Mohawk blood line. The council insists that residents be pure Mohawk, defined as having four Mohawk great-grandparents. But in other contexts, this bloodline business has a long and tattered history. It has led to grievous examples of racial discrimination and pseudoscience.

Mohawk bloodline rule is indefensible – The Globe and Mail.

Lawrence Hill, in his Massey Lectures, Blood, takes a similar line:

Let’s drop the idea of what you are not allowed to be, or to do, because of who you are, but encourage each other to look for the good in our blood, and in our ancestry. We should let hatred and divisiveness spill from us as if it were bad blood, and search for more genuine and caring ways to imagine human identity and human relations.

Lawrence Hill on the power of blood – Life – Macleans.ca

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Ontario girl can rely on traditional medicine to treat cancer, court rules

2014/11/17 1 Comment

This is a very uncomfortable ruling. So the rights of the parents and their belief in aboriginal healing outweigh the rights of the child to have a future:

Hospital president Dr. Peter Fitzgerald says there are no plans to appeal the ruling at this time.

“My main concern is for this child’s life,” he said. “Without treatment this child has no chance of survival. We really want to keep our doors open to the family and reach out as much as possible.”

The judge sided with McMaster on all other issues. He ruled the girl was not capable of making her own medical decisions. He affirmed that a court is the place to decide these cases, not Ontario’s Consent and Capacity Board. He agrees she requires medical treatment that her “caring loving” parent is not providing.

The hospital told court that before she withdrew from treatment in August, the girl had a 90 to 95 per cent chance of being cured by chemotherapy done in phases. However, in the end, it came down to Edward’s conclusion that the mother’s choice to pursue traditional medicine “is her aboriginal right.”

“This is not an eleventh hour epiphany employed to take her daughter out of the rigours of chemotherapy,” the judge wrote in his decision. “Rather it is a decision made by a mother, on behalf of a daughter she truly loves, steeped in a practice that has been rooted in their culture from its beginnings.”

“It is this Court’s conclusion therefore, that the mother’s decision to pursue traditional medicine for her daughter is her aboriginal right. Further, such a right cannot be qualified as a right only if it is proven to work by employing the western medical paradigm. To do so would be to leave open the opportunity to perpetually erode aboriginal rights.”

Noteworthy that the other aboriginal child in a similar situation, Makayla Sault, has relapsed, given her parents’ choice for alternative therapy.

Sad.

Ontario girl can rely on traditional medicine to treat cancer, court rules | Toronto Star.

Commentary by Arthur Schafer on the medical ethics involved:

Respect for the autonomy of children is important, especially when, as in cases involving chemotherapy, the proposed treatment is highly aggressive and distressing. These days, even quite young children are encouraged to participate. That’s good medicine as well as good ethics.

The question that should always be asked is whether this particular child is competent to make the difficult medical decisions on which the child’s life may depend. If a child appears to be dominated by the scientifically eccentric beliefs of her parents, then it may be the duty of a judge to rule that the child requires protection.

If the odds of survival were reversed, if chemo treatment had only a five to 10 per cent (instead of a 90 to 95 per cent) likelihood of saving the child’s life, then it would be reasonable for the family to make its own decision, without interference from doctors or courts. But when the scientific evidence strongly favours treatment then, whatever the family’s culture or religion, courts generally see it as necessary to override family autonomy in favour of child protection.

Canadian society has an ugly record of riding roughshod over the wishes of First Nations families. We should never forget the shameful legacy of the residential schools. Respect for First Nations cultural values is undeniably important.

When the crunch comes, however, and the life of a child hangs in the balance, then even if the parents and child favour traditional healing or alternative medicine our courts should take the child’s best interest as the deciding criterion. In this case, that didn’t happen.

First Nations children not well served by chemotherapy ruling: Arthur Schafer

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The Royal Proclamation celebrates its 250th birthday

2013/10/08 Leave a comment

A short piece on the Royal Proclamation that recognized aboriginal rights in 1763. These have now been enshrined in Section 25 of the  in Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Of course, implementation of the Royal Implementation and aboriginal rights was another matter.

The Royal Proclamation celebrates its 250th birthday – Editor’s Picks, Need to know, Nick Taylor-Vaisey – Macleans.ca.

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Allan Gregg » Tecumseh’s Ghost

2013/10/06 Leave a comment

For your Sunday reading.

A long piece by Allan Gregg on the history of the War of 1812, Tecumseh, and the taking of Indian land in North America. Long but engaging, and one of the uncomfortable truths of Canadian history.

Allan Gregg » Tecumseh’s Ghost.

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What the Métis decision means for Canada – The Globe and Mail

2013/03/03 Leave a comment

What the Métis decision means for Canada – The Globe and Mail.

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