Joined: Apr 09, 2007 Posts: 5848 Location: Alaska (its much bigger than Texas).
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:02 am Post subject: Blame Canada--they're not a real country anyway!
Canada is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and most Canadians are very nice people. However, some Canadians sound like they've learned nothing since their elementary school social studies teachers whitewashed Canadian history.
Canada is not perfect, and Canada's history is not without blemish.
For instance, contrary to Canadian myth, the Indians and Eskimos who lived there prior to the coming of the white man did not freely give up their land to the white man in Canada.
Just as in the US, some Canadian tribes signed treaties and some were conquered in war. In either case Canada's Indians lost virtually all of their ancestral lands.
Last edited by Plantagenet on Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:53 pm; edited 1 time in total
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:25 am Post subject: Re: Blame Canada--they're not a real country anyway!
Including, to our shame, the Beothuk of Newfoundland, now extinct. _________________ Gravity is not a force, it is a boundary layer.
Everything is coincident.
Love: the state of suspended anticipation.
To get any appreciable distance from the Earth in
a sensible amount of time, you must lie.
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:39 am Post subject: Re: Blame Canada--they're not a real country anyway!
RdSnt wrote:
Including, to our shame, the Beothuk of Newfoundland, now extinct.
It seems the Beothuk had a low tolerance for tuberculosis germs, it was nothing shameful on the part of the settlers, just that they unwittingly carried some fatal diseases.
What is iinteresting, is that though the white Newfoundladers treid to do what they could in the end to salvage the tribe, it was too late, from Wiklipedia:
Shanawdithit (Nancy April)
Shanawdithit was the last known Beothuk. She was captured in April 1823, when in her early 20s, and lived for several years in the home of John Peyton, Jr. (where she was known as Nancy April), working as a servant.
Meanwhile, William Cormack had founded the Boeothick Institute in order to foster a positive relationship with the Beothuk, and study and support their culture. His expeditions found Beothuk artifacts, but concluded that the group was dying out.
For this reason, Shanawdithit was brought to St. John's in 1828 in order to help Cormack with what remained of his project. She provided Cormack with drawings illustrating Beothuk implements, concepts, and mythologies, and augmented the knowledge of Beothuk words.
She was also able to outline the numerical decline of the Beothuk over the previous two decades, testifying that at the time of her capture, only about a dozen remained. Despite medical care from Dr. William Carson, Shanawdithit died of tuberculosis on June 6, 1829."
Joined: Apr 09, 2007 Posts: 5848 Location: Alaska (its much bigger than Texas).
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:42 am Post subject: Re: Blame Canada--they're not a real country anyway!
Even as Canada's white rulers whitewash the realities of their own history, Canada's Indians remain acutely aware of the racist history of Canada. One of the saddest historical events was the Canadian policy of kidnapping native children and forcing them into government schools in an attempt to destroy native languages, religion, and culture in Canada.
The Indian children were isolated from their families and subject to the most horrific abuse in the Canadian schools.
Destruction of a people's culture is a form of genocide. Canada's historical governmental policy amounted to a crazy genocidal destruction of native cultures and remains a shameful legacy today. _________________ "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell
Joined: Apr 09, 2007 Posts: 5848 Location: Alaska (its much bigger than Texas).
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:49 am Post subject: Re: Blame Canada--they're not a real country anyway!
"It's the darkest, most tragic chapter in Canadian history and virtually no one knows about this," said Phil Fontaine, chief of the national Assembly of First Nations, the umbrella group that speaks for Canada's first nations' people.
--------------
Canada successfully hid the truth about their genocidal policies against their own native people behind a myth that there were no wars of conquest or mistreatment of native people in Canada....a myth that many credulous Canadians still seem to believe today..... but the truth will out. _________________ "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell
Joined: Apr 09, 2007 Posts: 5848 Location: Alaska (its much bigger than Texas).
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 12:01 pm Post subject: Re: Blame Canada--they're not a real country anyway!
Denny wrote:
RdSnt wrote:
Including, to our shame, the Beothuk of Newfoundland, now extinct.
It seems the Beothuk had a low tolerance for tuberculosis germs, it was nothing shameful on the part of the settlers, just that they unwittingly carried some fatal diseases.
In addition to carrying disease, the early Canadians invaded the native people's territory on Newfoundland, appropriated it and pushed the Beothuk off it.
But somehow that reality doesn't fit the Canadian myth. The myth says the native Beothuk conveniently crawled off into their huts and died, and Canadians occupied the "empty" land (except for a few remaining native American survivors who were "captured" like zoo animals----and even the "capture" is portrayed as an act to help the Indians)
Joined: Apr 09, 2007 Posts: 5848 Location: Alaska (its much bigger than Texas).
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 12:06 pm Post subject: Re: Blame Canada--they're not a real country anyway!
"Shanawdithit was the last known Beothuk. She was captured in April 1823, when in her early 20s, and lived for several years in the home of John Peyton, Jr. (where she was known as Nancy April), working as a servant. "
Wow.
Canadians still boast of "capturing" those unChristian "wild" Indians and training them to be their servants?
And adding insult to injury, this is portrayed as somehow being of benefit to the Indians?
Joined: Jun 26, 2007 Posts: 1072 Location: The Canada of America
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 12:49 pm Post subject: Re: Blame Canada--they're not a real country anyway!
Plantagenet wrote:
Even as Canada's white rulers whitewash the realities of their own history, Canada's Indians remain acutely aware of the racist history of Canada. One of the saddest historical events was
Wow, really put a bug up your ass, didn't I?
This new hobby of yours? -- you're welcome. Enjoy! _________________ I can has cheezburger?
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 2:56 pm Post subject: Re: Blame Canada--they're not a real country anyway!
Plantagenet wrote:
Even as Canada's white rulers whitewash the realities of their own history, Canada's Indians remain acutely aware of the racist history of Canada. One of the saddest historical events was the Canadian policy of kidnapping native children and forcing them into government schools in an attempt to destroy native languages, religion, and culture in Canada.
At the risk of seeming like I am excusing the worst outcomes of the tactics employed, I really believe that the nation's leaders at the time of the residential schools believed they were upgrading the upcoming generations of native people. Education was seen as the key to a bright future, then as today.
First off, for practicality sake, they had to build consolidated schools for the Inuit, which forced them into the residential situaton, as the Inuit were so scattered in small clusters (such as on islands in Hudson's Bay) that it was not practical to build the one room schoolhouse model. Secondly, there were aspects of the native culture that did not fit into the modern world, and the educational authorities, perhaps ruthlessly, wanted the children to abandon these aspects, perceived to be backward.
Also, the schools were run by Protestant and Catholic churches and these organizations for sure wanted to erase ceetain aspects the native spirituality. We can say today, with benefit of hindsight, that was a form of cultural genocide. But, likely no different than what happened centuries earlier in Europe as a community adopted Christianity and had its traditions erased which were not compatible with biblical teaching. Nobody considers that as "cultural genocide". Christians of the residential schools era thought they were doing good. If these chuildren retained their embrace of pagan notions, those could intefere with their new Christian faith, and the latteer was impertive for salvation. Most of the teachers were involved not out of a mercenary sense, but a sense of doing good, and rwescusing native souls from perdition. We should not mock them for that, they truly believed that they were bringing souls to heaven. In that era, if the govnernment dared to make a barrier such that native spirituality and lifestyles were maintained status quo, there would have been a huge political push back that such a government was condemning people to poverty in this world and souls to hell in the next.
I think the jury is still out on the matter. There were a number of Christian converts made who embraced their new faith. For instance Susan Aglukark, a popular Canadian singer is the daughter of an Inuit who became a minister, and presumably was very happy that his family embraced Christianity, whether it was pushed on them or not.
Befoe one judges past decisions, one must research the rationale behind them and the prevailing ethical framework.
Nor was Canada unique with regards to schools or the broader interface of native culture with the mainstream, similar situations occurred in other former colonial places like the U.S.A. and Australia. For instance, it was a common objective of both Canadian and U.S. authorities to outlaw some of the Pacific coast Indian traditions, such as the wild "potlatch" parties, which they saw left the native participants in poverty after the event was over. Today, we see those actions as paternalistic. But those authorities, I think, saw themselves as doing something good, bringing the Indians to an industrious and prosperous type of lifestyle, in common with other Canadians in the late nineteenth and 20th centuries.
Joined: Feb 23, 2005 Posts: 501 Location: Winnipeg
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:09 pm Post subject: Re: Blame Canada--they're not a real country anyway!
Its called living on planet earth. Its what people do to each other; and many, many other species as well. What do you suppose happened to most of North America's large mammals?
If it makes you feel better, at some point the white settlers will submerged in a never ending tide of immigrants. Its what keeps the gene pool percolating, making better, at least more disease resistant people.
Joined: Nov 08, 2005 Posts: 261 Location: The Maple State
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:25 pm Post subject: Re: Blame Canada--they're not a real country anyway!
zoidberg wrote:
Its called living on planet earth. Its what people do to each other; and many, many other species as well.
Quote:
The Dorset culture preceded the Inuit culture in Arctic North America. Inuit legends mention the Tuniit (singular Tuniq) or Sivullirmiut ("First Inhabitants"), who were driven away [made extinct] by the Inuit.
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:34 pm Post subject: Re: Blame Canada--they're not a real country anyway!
Canada is a "real" country. It took us some time. Back in 1967, a union of four colonies occurred, but that just provided a federal framework for many (not most) of the colonial functions, such as a natinal post office, defense, certain taxation, etc. It was not until 1927 that Canada was empowered to act on its own behalf in international affairs. It was not until 1948 that Canada had a Canadian govnernor-general, before that, the King's representative was appointed by London, and they had always picked somebody born in Britain.
Then, in 1982, Canada adopted its own Constitution. So, since then, we have been a full fledged country in all aspects. Though, one may question why our formal head of state is the Queen of England, in the Canadian Constitution she is referred to as the Queen of Canada. Its up to her to decide where she lives or does in her spare time.
Joined: Apr 09, 2007 Posts: 5848 Location: Alaska (its much bigger than Texas).
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:48 pm Post subject: Re: Blame Canada--they're not a real country anyway!
Denny wrote:
Canada is a "real" country.
Of course Canada is a real country.
But the "South Park" comedy show's famous joke about Canada not being a real country has resonance because its really quite funny how some Canadians are insecure to the point of paranoia about their "Canadian-ness".
As certified famous Canadian Margaret Atwood said:
"If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia".
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