Petition to Abolish the Indian Act

[seabee]

Assimilation is the thing to do, some say.

So the Québec government should do exactly that to its reluctant anglo-cultural minority which still lives in its mind in the "glorious" days of its colonialist supremacy. and close down all its schools and hospitals and... whatever. If need be, it should also forcibly take its kids away from their backward parents and, for their own good, place them in special schools where they would be punished for speaking their language or manifesting any of their antiquated "cultural traits".

What is good for he who gooses is ....

[Riverwind]

So the Québec government should do exactly that to its reluctant anglo-cultural minority which still lives in its mind in the "glorious" days of its colonialist supremacy. and close down all its schools and hospitals and...

What has happened to the Anglo community in Quebec can be described as 'cultural genocide' if we accept the standards put forth by Posit and his ilk. The term is an abuse of the language no matter who the alledged victims are.

[Posit]

Heil! What you advocate is against the law. Cultural genocide IS genocide whether you think that assimilation is the answer or gas chambers.

What I suggest is that natives should start assimilating non-native Canadians now - to free them of the chains of slavery and the inferior ideology Canadians subscribe to. Maybe they can take children out of your homes, have their way with them and them bury them in unmarked graves? Maybe they should remove children from our homes and put them in foster care miles away from us in some remote northern community where they can be abused further. Maybe when you appeal for mercy they'll give you a ride on the Midnight Express - when it is 40 below? And just for excitement take your shoes and coat and see how long it takes you to walk back to town.....

It is no wonder that native people are uprising. The ignorant and archaic thinking that created assimilation policies, apartheid, and Nazism are alive an well in redneck hick-town Canada. I just hope that their recent assertion of rights doesn't turn into a western style Palestine with bombs planted on buses and in crowded shopping malls. At the rate you guys are going, I can't say I would blame them even though I believe that negotiation and peaceful means are the only way things get resolved. But you know....your violent thinking is exactly what will cause such a backlash. One reaps what one sows.

God help you. Being as mentally ill as y'all are it would take a miracle to save you.

[Pliny]

Heil! What you advocate is against the law. Cultural genocide IS genocide whether you think that assimilation is the answer or gas chambers.

What I suggest is that natives should start assimilating non-native Canadians now - to free them of the chains of slavery and the inferior ideology Canadians subscribe to. Maybe they can take children out of your homes, have their way with them and them bury them in unmarked graves? Maybe they should remove children from our homes and put them in foster care miles away from us in some remote northern community where they can be abused further. Maybe when you appeal for mercy they'll give you a ride on the Midnight Express - when it is 40 below? And just for excitement take your shoes and coat and see how long it takes you to walk back to town.....

It is no wonder that native people are uprising. The ignorant and archaic thinking that created assimilation policies, apartheid, and Nazism are alive an well in redneck hick-town Canada. I just hope that their recent assertion of rights doesn't turn into a western style Palestine with bombs planted on buses and in crowded shopping malls. At the rate you guys are going, I can't say I would blame them even though I believe that negotiation and peaceful means are the only way things get resolved. But you know....your violent thinking is exactly what will cause such a backlash. One reaps what one sows.

God help you. Being as mentally ill as y'all are it would take a miracle to save you.

Why do you dislike Canadians so much?

[White Doors]

He is a one issue angry man.

He can't prove thinsg he says so he falls back on the nazi ideology. It's straight out of his handbook.

He shoudl really just make a large signature with all the requisite nazi salutations and references and simply post that every time. Would contribute just as much to the conversation as he does now, but save him alot of effort.

I feel sorry for him.

[jennie]

It is no wonder that native people are uprising. At the rate you guys are going, I can't say I would blame them even though I believe that negotiation and peaceful means are the only way things get resolved. But you know....your violent thinking is exactly what will cause such a backlash. One reaps what one sows.

Wow! Hot topic! Hot feelings. Understandable ... after reading this thread ... there are some really disturbing posts here.

Genocide

I think when the truth starts to be told at the Truth Commission this fall, and the (independent) International Tribunal into Genocide in Canada, Canadians will perhaps become more aware of the whole story. Please pay attention, especially those of you who still want to deny it. Inform yourselves and you may change your perspective. Watch this documentary as a start, and then come back here and tell us if you still think it is not genocide ... if you have the balls:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6637396204037343133

Assimilation

FORCING people to assimilate by making that decision for them is genocide. What you are trying to do is destroy them as "peoples". Their culture and their laws do not allow traditional people to become part of another system, so you are forcing them to give up their culture and become only one individual in another culture. Yup ... genocide.

I am not sure why people are still advocating assimilation. Obviously, those who want to assimilate already have. Those who do not want to cannot be forced to. Simple. Assimilation is not a solution.

Independence from government 'handouts'

This just shows people's lack of knowledge. These are treaty rights, education, health care, housing, etc. ... binding contracts ... and what did Canada get in return for the treaty rights? UM ... let's see a COUNTRY perhaps? And has Canada kept its part of the bargain? NO ... Canada 'assumed' ownership of lands that was never surrendered, forced surrendered, or surrendered illegally. Now Canada wants them to fight to get back the land stolen. Go figure!

The money and land taken illegally and now owing will keep Canada in their debt for a very long time. We have NO RIGHT to complain about the legitimate treaty payments.

And hell, if you are concerned about that economic issue, just WAIT til I tell you where you federal tax money is going !!

( See thread ... Where your federal tax money goes ... )

[Riverwind]

I think when the truth starts to be told at the Truth Commission this fall, and the (independent) International Tribunal into Genocide in Canada, Canadians will perhaps become more aware of the whole story. Please pay attention

Sorry, any "tribunal" with an name like that is simply an instrument of propoganda for the native lobby. Canadians should ignore it completely.

people to assimilate by making that decision for them is genocide.

no it isn't. genocide means murder - equating what happened to the natives to murder is not only false - it is downright ridiculous. I don't understand why you think anyone should take you seriously. Edited August 30, 2007 by Riverwind

[Posit]

Do you mean the killing of 50,000 innocent children and hiding their bodies doesn't constitute murder? Mien fuhrer how do you do it?

[Riverwind]

Do you mean the killing of 50,000 innocent children and hiding their bodies doesn't constitute murder? Mien fuhrer how do you do it?

Kids dying from TB in an age when TB was fairly common and deadly does not constitute murder. Negligence -yes. Murder - definately not.

[Posit]

No. That's the other 50,000. This 50k died at the hand of priests, nuns and residential school workers who abused, starved and molested them. Many of their bodies are "officially" unaccounted for. However, word has it that the United, Anglican and Catholic Churches have been destroying paper trails ever since the Truth Commission was announced.

It was state-sanctioned murder - otherwise defined as genocide.

Edited August 30, 2007 by Posit

[Riverwind]

No. That's the other 50,000. This 50k died at the hand of priests, nuns and residential school workers who abused, starved and molested them. Many of their bodies are "officially" unaccounted for. However, word has it that the United, Anglican and Catholic Churches have been destroying paper trails ever since the Truth Commission was announced.

Right. That is the narrative that you and the rest of the indian victim industry are pushing. However, TB was a well know problem at the time and many kids died from it. That makes TB the most plausible explaination for such a large number of deaths. That is assuming that your numbers are actually accurate.

In any case, feel free to peddle your over top propaganda - you undermine your cause more than you help it.

Edited August 30, 2007 by Riverwind

[jennie]

Sorry, any "tribunal" with an name like that is simply an instrument of propoganda for the native lobby. Canadians should ignore it completely.

It is extremely disturbing for Canadians who don't know to suddenly be faced with this, but it is necessary to go through this to understand how we can progress from here.

The name is a standard international protocol. It can't be left up to a country to investigate itself, obviously. The domestic police and courts are often implicated too, so there has to be external recourse for justice. There is sufficient evidence to proceed with full investigation.

no it isn't. genocide means murder - equating what happened to the natives to murder is not only false - it is downright ridiculous. I don't understand why you think anyone should take you seriously.

That is a common misperception, but homicide is the murder of a person while genocide refers to the destruction of a people ... a cultural or racial group ... not necessarily murder of individuals, though that is often part of the picture. However, attempts to destroy peoples ... often Indigenous Peoples ... are attempts to destroy and disperse all of them. It includes such strategies as separating children from their family and their culture, physical and sexual and psychological torture, sterilizing women, disease exposure, medical experimentation, imposed poverty and environmental toxicity, destruction of the environment that sustains them with food and water, etc. ... i.e., imposing 'slow death' as well as outright 'murdering'.

http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/p_genoci.htm

Article 2

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

( Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

© Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

In Canada, there is considerable evidence that the deaths from disease were not accidental. In the TB epidemics of the 20th century, the rate of death in Indigenous communities was somewhat higher than in non-Indigenous communities. However, in the residential schools it was I think it was 7-8 times as high as in the villages. In fact, it was the highest rate of TB deaths in any population in the world ... anywhere ... ever. It considered too high to be accidental in that paper ... wherever it was I read it. I remember that statement clearly, though ... by far the highest rate of death in any population anywhere ... ever, too high to be caused by normal contact and transmission, too many cases at once due to the incubation period - i.e., it was clear that children were intentionally being infected en masse.

There are Indigenous people alive who remember being injected in the 'Indian' schools and 'Indian' hospitals... along with whole rooms full of children, all being injected with disease, all getting sick, most dying, "disappearing" a few surviving.

It might be a good idea to withhold judgment until they finally have these opportunities to tell their stories ... to tell us the truth ... for that is the purpose of Canada's Truth Commission ... for us to listen, and have the opportunity to judge the truth for ourselves.

I must mention too, that the witnesses will often be employees of the churches, not only students and families themselves.

In fact, the first information that came pouring in to the Commission was from (some) church records, logs, staff diaries, letters, recollections of incidents, etc. Currently, though, at Jim Prentice's request, the Commission is immediately investigating records of deaths of children in the schools. The Commission starts this fall and takes five years of investigation, and then probably five more before a report is done, and five more before anything is negotiated .... The Tribunal is immediate video coverage ... I THINK ... not sure ... international media coverage ... and it is a matter of a few months investigating and then reporting to the UN, but it is public reporting throughout where consent is obtained, I assume.

It will be a very educational period for Canada. There are many people who simply do not know. I feel like I should be going around warning people ...

What are all those sayings ... like ... 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' ... 'sometimes to go forward you must go back' ...

I think we're going to need lots of those to get through this and when its all over we will all still be here.

(that is just a friendly wink, though it looks kind of like a leering wink to me ...

Edited August 30, 2007 by jennie

[Posit]

That makes TB the most plausible explaination.....

Actually your excuses and rationalization just add ignorant fodder to an otherwise irrelevent racist thread. It is evident where all this bigotry comes from.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission will expose those murders for all to see. They were well documented in Church records, never investigated and then buried for no one to see. Good thing there are ~some~ good people still in church administration. They were able to pull much out of the records before many of them were destroyed. And the testimony of 100s of surviving residents should shed the light on just how ignorant and racist your petty assertions are.

If nothing - like murder, child sexual and physical abuse, starvation and appalling treatment - ever happened, much to your sanctimonious piety, then you have nothing to worry about letting a commission review the findings of thousands of records and testimony. Of course we both know it will be just one more conviction in the string of Canada's genocide and apartheid-based dispossession of aboriginal lands and resources.

[margrace]

Right. That is the narrative that you and the rest of the indian victim industry are pushing. However, TB was a well know problem at the time and many kids died from it. That makes TB the most plausible explaination for such a large number of deaths. That is assuming that your numbers are actually accurate.

In any case, feel free to peddle your over top propaganda - you undermine your cause more than you help it.

Just a minute, how did they get the TB, is this something like the infected blankets that killed so many natives in the early years. These were given to them as present and wiped out 90% of whole villages.

You know people like to think we change as time goes on, no we don't, we only can't hide our atrocities now.

[Riverwind]

The name is a standard international protocol. It can't be left up to a country to investigate itself, obviously. The domestic police and courts are often implicated too, so there has to be external recourse for justice. There is sufficient evidence to proceed with full investigation.

You would like people to believe that this tribunal is some neutral body set up to discover what really happened. That is clearly false - the name of the tribunal itself indicates that it is nothing more than an exercise in propaganda pushed activists who think it will advance their agenda

That is a common misperception, but homicide is the murder of a person while genocide refers to the destruction of a people ... a cultural or racial group

That is a self serving definition created by professional activists that is not accepted outside of the narrow community of naive and self-absorbed bleeding hearts that haunt some of the back halls of the UN. When the average person hears the word 'genocide' they think it means deliberate murder like what happened in the holocaust which is not what happened to the natives in Canada. The activists who came up with the ridiculous term 'cultural genocide' know this but hope to score propaganda points by abusing the language. Edited August 30, 2007 by Riverwind

[margrace]

You would like people to believe that this tribunal is some neutral body set up to discover what really happened. That is clearly false - the name of the tribunal itself indicates that it is nothing more than an exercise in propaganda pushed activists who think it will advance their agenda

That is a self serving definition created by professional activists that is not accepted outside of the narrow community of naive and self-absorbed bleeding hearts that haunt some of the back halls of the UN. When the average person hears the word 'genocide' they think it means deliberate murder like what happened in the holocaust which is not what happened to the natives in Canada. The activists who came up with the ridiculous term 'cultural genocide' know this but hope to score propaganda points by abusing the language.

So people's lives are judged by a play on words.

[Riverwind]

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission will expose those murders for all to see. They were well documented in Church records, never investigated and then buried for no one to see.

Some murders probably did occur. Your problem is you assume that a few anecdotes about individual events can be extrapolated to support claims like 50,000 children murdered in the schools. There is no evidence to support such a broad claim but there is evidence that TB was a huge problem at these schools. For that reason, death by disease is the most likely explanation for such a large number of deaths if they did, in fact, occur.

And the testimony of 100s of surviving residents should shed the light on just how ignorant and racist your petty assertions are.

Testimony of individuals about individual events does provide any evidence to support your claim of 50000 murders.

If nothing - like murder, child sexual and physical abuse, starvation and appalling treatment - ever happened, much to your sanctimonious piety, then you have nothing to worry about letting a commission review the findings of thousands of records and testimony.

I am sure the things that you describe really did occur. However, you would like people to believe that these crimes were equivalent to what happened to the jews in the holocaust. This is clearly BS - the residential schools were set up to help natives. They were underfunded and badly mismanaged and individual criminals got away with abusing children because the government did not pay enough attention to what was going on. If you simply wanted to say that these schools were shameful examples of government incompetence then I would agree. But you don't want to say that - you want everyone to think that they were concentration camps set up with the intent to murder people with the full knowledge and support of the government.

The royal commission on aboriginal peoples looked at the residential schools - you can find their report here: http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sg28_e.html#100

Your tribunal is a joke - if people interested in finding out the truth then they can start with the link I provided. There won't be any truth coming from your tribunal.

Edited August 30, 2007 by Riverwind

[BornAlbertan]

Isn't it funny how everybody is so against racism...when it is the white guy (whether he is right or not is irrelevant....sometimes the truth hurts)

Every native I know who grew up on the reserve had a childhood innocence about them. Went to school with countless natives being in a town with 4 reserves within a half hour drive. Kids can be cruel yes....but they can also be innocent. I watched Native friends slowly begin to distance themselves from me and speak bad of me and friends as they grew older. Though they knew damn well I had never done anything to them. Perhaps it was their parents who were too drunk to ship them off to school for weeks at a time in elementary...I dunno. Or perhaps they weren't drunk....maybe the kids were healing....again I dunno.

Sometimes hypocrisy is a bitch ain't it? Native cry racism etc....when they are the biggest god damned bigots in this country. They live to hate white man and they raise their kids to do it and we continue to pay for it!!

Like the French on the Plains of Abraham....they WERE a conquered race!! But white man has tried to make amens. However, reparations can never be made to people who like to live with one foot in the past, one foot in the present and their heads up their asses instead of the future.

[scribblet]

Abolishing the Indian Act is not forcing natives to 'assimilate', it will only serve to help them become more independent and less dependant on our largesse.

http://hal.lamar.edu/~browntf/Churchill1.htm read here about the myths perpetuated by Ward Churchill re: deliberately infections natives with smallpox"

But this idea that the US Army distributed smallpox-infected blankets to cause genocide among Indians? Apparently, it's a myth many of us bought, a myth which seems to have originated with one Ward Churchill. (we know now that Ward Chuchill did commit research fraud)

As Thornton remarked, regarding Churchill's interpolation of his writings: "The history is bad enough—there’s no need to embellish it. "

The native act has really achieved nothing more than creating a "aboriginal industry" that mostly benefits corrupt chiefs at the expense of fellow band members. It shields natives from being held accountable for the billions of taxpayer dollars they receive every year. Gee some of these chiefs can go to meetings in LA for instance while the people lack even the most basic of necessities. You bet they don't want to give up that lack of transparency.

Not only that, but this act promotes racism and double standards based on race or what kind of Canadian you are, it costs us billions. All Canadians should be treated equally.

[Pliny]

Some murders probably did occur. Your problem is you assume that a few anecdotes about individual events can be extrapolated to support claims like 50,000 children murdered in the schools. There is no evidence to support such a broad claim but there is evidence that TB was a huge problem at these schools. For that reason, death by disease is the most likely explanation for such a large number of deaths if they did, in fact, occur.

Testimony of individuals about individual events does provide any evidence to support your claim of 50000 murders.

I am sure the things that you describe really did occur. However, you would like people to believe that these crimes were equivalent to what happened to the jews in the holocaust. This is clearly BS - the residential schools were set up to help natives. They were underfunded and badly mismanaged and individual criminals got away with abusing children because the government did not pay enough attention to what was going on. If you simply wanted to say that these schools were shameful examples of government incompetence then I would agree. But you don't want to say that - you want everyone to think that they were concentration camps set up with the intent to murder people with the full knowledge and support of the government.

The royal commission on aboriginal peoples looked at the residential schools - you can find their report here: http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sg28_e.html#100

This tribunal is a joke - if people interested in finding out the truth then they can start with the link I provided. There won't be any truth coming from your tribunal.

I agree with this summation as closer to the probable truth. Basing it upon a knowledge that most individuals attempt to improve the conditions in their lives, not just for themselves, but for those involved in their lives, any departure form that is irrational or criminal. That people attempt help, out of a "know-best" attitude, or self righteous superiority complex is perhaps a reason to condemn them as "do-gooders", and rightly so, only a few willingly or compulsorily have criminal intent.

Posit, despising people you never knew and transferring that to the present, through anecdotal story-telling is nothing but....well...racist. and I understand it as an effort to improve, not only your life but those involved in your life. Unfortunately, you harbor a lot of pain and anguish fed from hardships of the past.

Many classes of people have been oppressed in the past such as the mentally handicapped, who suffered forced sterilization out of the "do-good" concept of Eugenics. That program is gone and so is the oppression of aboriginal people. It is a real crime that those wielding power in the interests of aboriginals have more concern for the preservation of the institutional structure, and the benefits they feel they deserve ad infinitum are out of the same "know-best" do-gooder attitude that helps as much as any self-righteous do-gooding has helped in the past.

And I agree the tribunal is a joke, an attempt to bring "awareness" to an already preconceived "truth".

There is no attempt today at cultural genocide except in the minds of those who need reason to make claim to the prosperity of others and who live myopically in the past. Aboriginals can keep their culture alive by living it but I am sure they wish the benefits of modern convenience as well. They will have to blend or the aboriginal culture will forever be preserved in the fromaldehyde of legislation, forever a curiosity in a jar.

[jennie]

I agree with this summation as closer to the probable truth. Basing it upon a knowledge that most individuals attempt to improve the conditions in their lives, not just for themselves, but for those involved in their lives, any departure form that is irrational or criminal. That people attempt help, out of a "know-best" attitude, or self righteous superiority complex is perhaps a reason to condemn them as "do-gooders", and rightly so, only a few willingly or compulsorily have criminal intent.

Posit, despising people you never knew and transferring that to the present, through anecdotal story-telling is nothing but....well...racist. and I understand it as an effort to improve, not only your life but those involved in your life. Unfortunately, you harbor a lot of pain and anguish fed from hardships of the past.

Many classes of people have been oppressed in the past such as the mentally handicapped, who suffered forced sterilization out of the "do-good" concept of Eugenics. That program is gone and so is the oppression of aboriginal people. It is a real crime that those wielding power in the interests of aboriginals have more concern for the preservation of the institutional structure, and the benefits they feel they deserve ad infinitum are out of the same "know-best" do-gooder attitude that helps as much as any self-righteous do-gooding has helped in the past.

And I agree the tribunal is a joke, an attempt to bring "awareness" to an already preconceived "truth".

There is no attempt today at cultural genocide except in the minds of those who need reason to make claim to the prosperity of others and who live myopically in the past. Aboriginals can keep their culture alive by living it but I am sure they wish the benefits of modern convenience as well. They will have to blend or the aboriginal culture will forever be preserved in the fromaldehyde of legislation, forever a curiosity in a jar.

I am interested in knowing the source of people's knowledge on this topic, as it seems well established.

It seems to me that until the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and/or the International Tribunal provide some evidence are we not all whistling in the dark unless we are those affected or family, etc?

I have my opinion too, but mainly I now look forward to hearing the information that will be made public to clarify these issues for all of us.

As I said above, it is noteworthy that much of the information already received by the Truth Commission has come from non-aboriginal staff of the church schools, etc. That source of information will be particularly relevant to verification of incidents, etc.

To get back to the topic, though ... the Indian Act definitely needs to become something different

... but how about if Canada just lives up to its treaty responsibilities first?

Edited August 31, 2007 by jennie

[Riverwind]

I am interested in knowing the source of people's knowledge on this topic, as it seems well established.

Read the report from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. It has an entire section devoted to residential schools and makes none of the sweeping allegations that you and your kangaroo court make. If people are interested in a factual account of what happened they should read RC report. Your tribunal is hopelessly biased and will not be taken seriously by anyone outside of the professional aboriginal victim industry. Edited August 31, 2007 by Riverwind

[Pliny]

I am interested in knowing the source of people's knowledge on this topic, as it seems well established.

It seems to me that until the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and/or the International Tribunal provide some evidence are we not all whistling in the dark unless we are those affected or family, etc?

I have my opinion too, but mainly I now look forward to hearing the information that will be made public to clarify these issues for all of us.

As I said above, it is noteworthy that much of the information already received by the Truth Commission has come from non-aboriginal staff of the church schools, etc. That source of information will be particularly relevant to verification of incidents, etc.

To get back to the topic, though ... the Indian Act definitely needs to become something different

... but how about if Canada just lives up to its treaty responsibilities first?

My view is mostly from Libertarian principles and the Austrian theory of economics.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and/or the International tribunal will provide evidence of what? That man's inhumanity to man does indeed exist? We know that already. We need to know how to prevent it in the future. What is being suggested by this tribunal process is how to make hay of man's inhumanity to man and not resolve a thing regarding the real issue.

As for living up to treaty responsibilities. You can't continue to build houses every couple of years just to have them torn down and used as firewood in the winter. The government is running out of ways to "do-good". If natives are lucky the government will give up trying to be "helpful".

[jennie]

Read the report from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. It has an entire section devoted to residential schools and makes none of the sweeping allegations that you and your kangaroo court make. If people are interested in a factual account of what happened they should read RC report. Your tribunal is hopelessly biased and will not be taken seriously by anyone outside of the professional aboriginal victim industry.

Am I confused ... or am I confusing you?

Are you talking about the government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission?

I believe it was recommended by the RCAP as a Public Inquiry, and we know they do not indict individuals for crimes, so by demand it has already gone past the Recommendations in the RCAP: Records and evidence and reports of crimes will be turned over to the RCMP now.

Recommendations

The Commission recommends that

1.10.1

Under Part I of the Public Inquiries Act, the government of Canada establish a public inquiry instructed to

(a) investigate and document the origins and effects of residential school policies and practices respecting all Aboriginal peoples, with particular attention to the nature and extent of effects on subsequent generations of individuals and families, and on communities and Aboriginal societies;

( conduct public hearings across the country with sufficient funding to enable the testimony of affected persons to be heard;

© commission research and analysis of the breadth of the effects of these policies and practices;

(d) investigate the record of residential schools with a view to the identification of abuse and what action, if any, is considered appropriate; and

(e) recommend remedial action by governments and the responsible churches deemed necessary by the inquiry to relieve conditions created by the residential school experience, including as appropriate,

• apologies by those responsible;

• compensation of communities to design and administer programs that help the healing process and rebuild their community life; and

• funding for treatment of affected individuals and their families.

1.10.2

A majority of commissioners appointed to this public inquiry be Aboriginal.

1.10.3

The government of Canada fund establishment of a national repository of records and video collections related to residential schools, co-ordinated with planning of the recommended Aboriginal Peoples' International University (see Volume 3, Chapter 5) and its electronic clearinghouse, to

• facilitate access to documentation and electronic exchange of research on residential schools;

• provide financial assistance for the collection of testimony and continuing research;

• work with educators in the design of Aboriginal curriculum that explains the history and effects of residential schools; and

• conduct public education programs on the history and effects of residential schools and remedies applied to relieve their negative effects.

[jennie]

My view is mostly from Libertarian principles and the Austrian theory of economics.

Thanks for the opportunity to check this out ...

One criticism of the Austrian school is its rejection of the scientific method and empirical testing in favor of supposedly self-evident axioms and logical reasoning.[6] Bryan Caplan has criticized the school for rejecting on principle the use of mathematics or econometrics which "more than anything else, what prevents Austrian economists from getting more publications in mainstream journals"[7] There are also criticisms of more specific theories.[8]

Rejecting econometrics ... well I can see arguments for that. If one is always predicting on past data, one never considers the unique probabilities of fortuitous events, creativity, perhaps? But then relying on logical (deductive) reasoning has those limitations as well ... and "self-evident axioms" ... well ... I would have to see them to evaluate them I guess.

Self-evident to whom? To me, an economic novice? An example?

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and/or the International tribunal will provide evidence of what? That man's inhumanity to man does indeed exist? We know that already. We need to know how to prevent it in the future. What is being suggested by this tribunal process is how to make hay of man's inhumanity to man and not resolve a thing regarding the real issue.

They will provide evidence of crimes to be investigated and brought to justice. These may be individual or collective, such as Canada's potential crimes against humanity. It is a necessary stage of justice ... the 'rule of law' in effect.

As for living up to treaty responsibilities. You can't continue to build houses every couple of years just to have them torn down and used as firewood in the winter. The government is running out of ways to "do-good". If natives are lucky the government will give up trying to be "helpful".

I gather they needed the warmth? Ya ... real do-good that is ! ... Livin' in luxury, those kids ...

Once our governments HONOUR TREATY AND TRADITIONAL LAND RIGHTS AND PAY OUR OUTSTANDING LEGAL LIABILITIES, then the government is free to give up trying to be so "helpful" ... in my 'legal' opinion.