Dreadful, horrific news from Canada. “The Sioux Valley Dakota Nation in Manitoba is working to find students buried at Brandon Indian Residential School, which was in operation from 1895 to 1972.Simon Fraser University and University of Windsor researchers, along with the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, hope to identify an unknown number of children to restore their identities – either through commemoration or repatriation“The families and communities whose children were lost while attending these schools have questions that deserve answers,” said Sioux Valley Chief Jennifer Bone in a video statement June 1.“The children buried at these sites must have their identities restored, and their stories told. They will never be forgotten, every child matters.”
Again, some heartening news in that a woman Jennifer Bone is the chief of the Sious Valley Dakota Nation, that she strongly and compassionately asserts that “every child matters” and that the children will have their identities restored and their stories told. It is, of course, sickening to think of impossible, to grasp the level of depravity that allowed this to take place. Depravity describes it: moral corruption; wickedness. Its synonyms are: corruptness, vice, perversion, pervertedness, deviance, degeneracy, degradation, immorality, shamelessness, debauchery, dissipation, dissoluteness, turpitude, loucheness, profligacy, licentiousness, lewdness, lasciviousness, salaciousness, lechery, lecherousness, prurience, obscenity, indecency, libertinism, sordidness; wickedness, sinfulness, vileness, baseness, iniquity, nefariousness, criminality, viciousness, brutality, brutishness. ANTONYMS morality. The most evocative and accurate are the words: brutishness, criminality, turpitude and immorality.
Again, somewhat encouragingly, a strong and moral politician took a stand at the Federal level and his resolution was passed. Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach stood up in a winning parliamentary call for the federal government to stop fighting Indigenous children in court and to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action, on June 7.
The motion also called on the federal government to take concrete actions towards reconciliation with Indigenous people.
However, just read this ! “While Parliament passed the NDP motion, many Liberal cabinet members and the Prime Minister remained silent and chose not to vote, a media statement issued by the MP’s office stated.”
Do you have a death wish Justin Trudeau? Your failure to take action is sinful, vile, base, nefarious and obscene. How in the world can you keep your shaky coalition together when you act in such a base and dissolute manner?
More truths emerge from the mouth of the moral hero who took a stand. “It’s unacceptable that while people across the country are expressing their grief at the discovery of 215 unmarked burial sites at the Kamloops Residential School, the Liberals are in court fighting against First Nations children and residential school survivors,” Bachrach said. “By not even bothering to show up for today’s vote, the Prime Minister’s actions speak louder than any words.”
Bachrach said that there are many examples of how Canada’s “shameful treatment of Indigenous people continues today.”
“As one person said, it’s not one chapter in our history, it’s the entire plot of the book,” he said in his speech to parliament.
While addressing parliament, the MP said he knows a lot of non-indigenous people are feeling sad at the tragic discovery near Kamloops, but what he is hearing from a lot of indigenous people is that indulging in the sadness does not make the situation they face any better.
“What they want us to do, especially those of us in positions of power and influence is to fight like hell in this moment, when people care about something they should have cared about a long time ago. To fight like hell for real action. That’s where this motion comes from … We must act now,” Bachrach saidIn addition to demanding the government to drop its court battles, the NDP motion called on the government to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action regarding investigations of missing indigenous children at residential schools and to provide adequate resources to help residential school survivors heal.”
Bachrach continues in a far reaching manner. In addition to demanding the government to drop its court battles, the NDP motion called on the government to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action regarding investigations of missing indigenous children at residential schools and to provide adequate resources to help residential school survivors heal.
“The Indigenous people I have spoken to over the past week overwhelmingly want to know where their loved ones are,” he said.
“I was infuriated to learn that in 2009 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission asked the Harper government for $1.5 million to search residential school properties … shamefully those funds were denied. What would Indigenous communities know today had that money been granted 12 years ago.”
The NDP is also calling for the full implementation of the Calls to Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
“Truth comes before reconciliation for a reason,” Bachrach said.
As Bachrach spoke during the debate he raised some of the heartbreaking stories from residential school survivors in the Northwest, and expressed the significance genuine steps towards reconciliation would mean for many in the region. Bachrach recently attended ceremonies at Lejac and Witset following the discovery in Kamloops.
During his address in parliament, he cited the example of Lower Post residents who since the 1970s have been forced to use the former residential school as their band office. He said he witnessed elders who suffered abuse having to walk through the doors time and time again to access basic services. Bachrach said he was shown in the basement the dark place under the stairs where atrocities occurred.
“A new building will finally be built in a few short weeks … it’s a long-overdue step in the healing process, however, we have to ask ourselves why did it take us so long.”
After the vote was passed Bachrach said there is still much work ahead.
“The sad fact is, the government’s progress on these issues has been far too slow. Now that this motion has passed, we will keep pushing them to take concerted action on reconciliation,” the MP said.”
I am deeply saddened, shocked and appalled by all of this horror emanating from the land of my birth. I do not wish to wallow in it – and from a practical basis, there is vey little I can do. Goodness, cannot even vote to give Justin his just punishment. The one thing I can do is bring the matter to the attention of others – hopefully get their heads out of the sand. Do have many readers in Canada. The report of Bachrach’s noble act was in the Haidi Gwai Observer, not exactly a conglomerate the size of Al Jazeera, for example.
Bury your head in the sand is to refuse to think about unpleasant facts, although they will have an influence on your situation. Used in a sentence: You have to face facts here – you can’t just bury your head in the sand. “Politicians are often accused of burying their heads in the sand. The idiom bury one’s head in the sand comes from the observation of ostriches. Ostriches are reputed to stick their heads in the sand when they are in danger. This is a myth.”
But humor is healing. Therefore, two cartoons from the magazine version of The New Yorker. One has particular poignancy to me.
