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I think China is just trying to take pot shots and their comments on the situation really just shows how their leadership appears to act like children. Yes the

I think China is just trying to take pot shots and their comments on the situation really just shows how their leadership appears to act like children. Yes the residential schools are an atrocity. The children were stolen from their parents under a "best intentions" situation and died of disease that they had little natural immunity brought over via Europeans and buried in unmarked graves because the Christians thought they were all going to hell. Nice to see 2 churches burned down under suspicious circumstances in Canada recently. Maybe the church should be shouldering more of the blame here perhaps?

soperj 5y ago
best intentions situation? bullshit. This was to beat their culture out of them.
- malfist 5y ago
  I think that's the first time I've ever heard genocide called "best intentions"
- JulianMorrison 5y ago
  "Kill the indian to save the man" was how they thought of it.
- hluska 5y ago
  As fucked up as this sounds, beating their culture out of them was one of the more mundane things that went on in these awful places. I'm not sure who will read this so I'm uncomfortable going into much detail, but if you do some digging, you'll find stories so horrific that you may find yourself thinking "I wish they had stopped at beating the culture out of them." These are some of the most horrible stories that I've ever heard. It's too horrific to even be believable fiction- the fact that it all happened and that I have graves of Indigenous children all around me is just about too terrible to think about. :(
  - Roscius 5y ago
    Like the senior boys at the schools being taken out in the middle of the night to dig graves...
    - hluska 5y ago
      That's one of them. Have you ever read about sexual assault babies?
  - monkeynotes 5y ago
    Then there is this, which is admittedly unverified but if true would not surprise me: https://www.snopes.com/articles/347191/queen-kamloops-abduction-rumor/ https://www.snopes.com/articles/347191/queen-kamloops-abduct... I live in Canada as an immigrant and I am constantly ashamed of this history, and how indigenous people get treated to this day. RCMP often regard indigenous people as 3rd class citizens, like full on treating folk as criminals all the time. We have all this dialog about black lives matter and the disgusting reality is no one gives a single fuck about the most beaten down minority in Canada. I live in a very white province and work with many people of colour, but not one single native Canadian. All this HR drive to up our diversity but no one gives any thought, at all, to hiring indigenous people. I don't actually agree with hiring singularly for diversity, I believe in equal opportunity though. Even so, HR is up its own ass about driving diversity but this does not encompass native ethnicities. That conversation just does not happen at any level anywhere. This all makes me so angry. Native Canadians had their children stolen, murdered, and buried in unmarked graves and there are people on this forum excusing it as being "best intentions". Can you imagine the reaction to this if the story was of African Slaves in the 1800s? These kids were murdered as late as the 1960s. And let's not forget the land that was stolen, the culture that was all but annihilated, the lives being ripped apart to this day through drugs and alcohol which is largely seen as a criminal nuisance rather than an epidemic that continues to marginalize and shun. I could go on. The story is so sad, so dark, and still going on and covered up to this day. And we all gloss over it and pay lip service on CBC. Where is the criminal investigation? Where are the task forces looking for all the other mass graves? I'm so saddened and ashamed by all of this. I've often thought of leaving Canada due to this shit, I live on unceded native territory for fuck's sake.
scruffyherder 5y ago
It’s not from the 16th century
- beiller 5y ago
  The article doesn't mention when they died.
hluska 5y ago
I'd usually agree but in this case, I'm not sure. The residential school system is a stain on our past that continues to hurt the future. As one example, Indigenous women in Canada are subject to almost unspeakable levels of violence. If you're interested in an absolutely awful read, you can read the final report from our National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls here: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/ https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/ Indigenous people in Canada are several times more likely to live in poverty, several times more likely to find themselves imprisoned and many Indigenous communities in Canada don't even have clean drinking water. The explicit genocide is over but the system still remains.
SonicScrub 5y ago
> I think China is just trying to take pot shots and their comments on the situation really just shows how their leadership appears to act like children Yes. The reasoning behind their statements is a a way to distract from Canadian criticisms of Chinese human rights abuses, but the political agendas behind their statements do not make them any less true. > Maybe the church should be shouldering more of the blame here perhaps? I see this sentiment a lot in Canada with regards to the "who should be responsible for fixing this" question. The Church bearing all the responsibility gives most Canadians the convenient out of feeling deeply uncomfortable with a core part of their identity being associated with these horrific crimes. All Canadians are Canadian, but only some Canadians are Catholic after all. The history of these events tell us that both the government and the church were heavily involved, so I don't find the question "well which entity is MORE at fault" to be particularly useful.
- soperj 5y ago
  Just to be clear, it wasn't just the catholic church that was running these, there was also the anglican church.
  - sudosysgen 5y ago
    It was more than even then two, a great many dénominations ran residential schools.
    - soperj 5y ago
      yeah I see the presbys in there as well. I just knew the Anglican Church was involved off the top of my head, because they ran the Residential school in my city.
- beiller 5y ago
  Well at least we agree on one tiny part of the above. I guess I was a bit callous in my reply. This news has set of a somewhat violent chain reaction in Canada. I'm glad the news came out but lately I am disturbed how much "news" is just overhyping and conveniently lacking details in order to drive ad revenue, and this is the perfect story for that. Many people who I speak to are under the assumption that there was government run mass children murdering squads killing native American children execution style. I am very sympathetic to the atrocities native American people went through _and it continues to this day_. Children are still taken from their homes today via child services meanwhile education on reserves is under funded making native children on reserves far more likely to wind up in foster homes. What do we do to fix it? We're protesting against figures in the past and doing nothing today because we all think it's over.
Roscius 5y ago
Best intentions? Not even close - horrible racism and genocide. In many cases it wasn't disease, they were malnourished, and and in some cases beaten to death.
throw0101a 5y ago
> I think China is just trying to take pot shots Bob Rae, Canada's ambassador to the UN, had some good ripostes to China (and Syria): * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKqBOlLRcgQ&t=11m12s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKqBOlLRcgQ&t=11m12s
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

soperj 5y ago

best intentions situation? bullshit. This was to beat their culture out of them.

malfist 5y ago
I think that's the first time I've ever heard genocide called "best intentions"
JulianMorrison 5y ago
"Kill the indian to save the man" was how they thought of it.
hluska 5y ago
As fucked up as this sounds, beating their culture out of them was one of the more mundane things that went on in these awful places. I'm not sure who will read this so I'm uncomfortable going into much detail, but if you do some digging, you'll find stories so horrific that you may find yourself thinking "I wish they had stopped at beating the culture out of them." These are some of the most horrible stories that I've ever heard. It's too horrific to even be believable fiction- the fact that it all happened and that I have graves of Indigenous children all around me is just about too terrible to think about. :(
- Roscius 5y ago
  Like the senior boys at the schools being taken out in the middle of the night to dig graves...
  - hluska 5y ago
    That's one of them. Have you ever read about sexual assault babies?
- monkeynotes 5y ago
  Then there is this, which is admittedly unverified but if true would not surprise me: https://www.snopes.com/articles/347191/queen-kamloops-abduction-rumor/ https://www.snopes.com/articles/347191/queen-kamloops-abduct... I live in Canada as an immigrant and I am constantly ashamed of this history, and how indigenous people get treated to this day. RCMP often regard indigenous people as 3rd class citizens, like full on treating folk as criminals all the time. We have all this dialog about black lives matter and the disgusting reality is no one gives a single fuck about the most beaten down minority in Canada. I live in a very white province and work with many people of colour, but not one single native Canadian. All this HR drive to up our diversity but no one gives any thought, at all, to hiring indigenous people. I don't actually agree with hiring singularly for diversity, I believe in equal opportunity though. Even so, HR is up its own ass about driving diversity but this does not encompass native ethnicities. That conversation just does not happen at any level anywhere. This all makes me so angry. Native Canadians had their children stolen, murdered, and buried in unmarked graves and there are people on this forum excusing it as being "best intentions". Can you imagine the reaction to this if the story was of African Slaves in the 1800s? These kids were murdered as late as the 1960s. And let's not forget the land that was stolen, the culture that was all but annihilated, the lives being ripped apart to this day through drugs and alcohol which is largely seen as a criminal nuisance rather than an epidemic that continues to marginalize and shun. I could go on. The story is so sad, so dark, and still going on and covered up to this day. And we all gloss over it and pay lip service on CBC. Where is the criminal investigation? Where are the task forces looking for all the other mass graves? I'm so saddened and ashamed by all of this. I've often thought of leaving Canada due to this shit, I live on unceded native territory for fuck's sake.

scruffyherder 5y ago

It’s not from the 16th century

beiller 5y ago
The article doesn't mention when they died.

hluska 5y ago

I'd usually agree but in this case, I'm not sure. The residential school system is a stain on our past that continues to hurt the future. As one example, Indigenous women in Canada are subject to almost unspeakable levels of violence. If you're interested in an absolutely awful read, you can read the final report from our National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls here: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/ https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/ Indigenous people in Canada are several times more likely to live in poverty, several times more likely to find themselves imprisoned and many Indigenous communities in Canada don't even have clean drinking water. The explicit genocide is over but the system still remains.

SonicScrub 5y ago

> I think China is just trying to take pot shots and their comments on the situation really just shows how their leadership appears to act like children Yes. The reasoning behind their statements is a a way to distract from Canadian criticisms of Chinese human rights abuses, but the political agendas behind their statements do not make them any less true. > Maybe the church should be shouldering more of the blame here perhaps? I see this sentiment a lot in Canada with regards to the "who should be responsible for fixing this" question. The Church bearing all the responsibility gives most Canadians the convenient out of feeling deeply uncomfortable with a core part of their identity being associated with these horrific crimes. All Canadians are Canadian, but only some Canadians are Catholic after all. The history of these events tell us that both the government and the church were heavily involved, so I don't find the question "well which entity is MORE at fault" to be particularly useful.

soperj 5y ago
Just to be clear, it wasn't just the catholic church that was running these, there was also the anglican church.
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  It was more than even then two, a great many dénominations ran residential schools.
  - soperj 5y ago
    yeah I see the presbys in there as well. I just knew the Anglican Church was involved off the top of my head, because they ran the Residential school in my city.
beiller 5y ago
Well at least we agree on one tiny part of the above. I guess I was a bit callous in my reply. This news has set of a somewhat violent chain reaction in Canada. I'm glad the news came out but lately I am disturbed how much "news" is just overhyping and conveniently lacking details in order to drive ad revenue, and this is the perfect story for that. Many people who I speak to are under the assumption that there was government run mass children murdering squads killing native American children execution style. I am very sympathetic to the atrocities native American people went through _and it continues to this day_. Children are still taken from their homes today via child services meanwhile education on reserves is under funded making native children on reserves far more likely to wind up in foster homes. What do we do to fix it? We're protesting against figures in the past and doing nothing today because we all think it's over.

Roscius 5y ago

Best intentions? Not even close - horrible racism and genocide. In many cases it wasn't disease, they were malnourished, and and in some cases beaten to death.

throw0101a 5y ago

> I think China is just trying to take pot shots Bob Rae, Canada's ambassador to the UN, had some good ripostes to China (and Syria): * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKqBOlLRcgQ&t=11m12s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKqBOlLRcgQ&t=11m12s

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]