In an article entitled Compensation for Sixties Scoop and Day School Abuse, found in "Two Row Times", 28 October 2015, p.4, we learn that some law firm proposes that there are "victims of Canada's assimilation policies through residential schools and other legislative bodies that have fallen through the cracks when it comes to financial compensation". The solution .............. a class action law suit to grab more money from the Canadian taxpayer. Perhaps the election of Trudeau has opened the door to attempts to fleece the taxpayer that never would have flown under the Harper administration.
I have spoken many times in this blog about how controversial the Residential Schools matter is at Six Nations. Many stepped forward to tell stories of supposed woes, garner the sympathy of whoever holds the purse strings, and obtained "compensation" for the pain and suffering they supposedly endured. The party line says that you must all agree that this happened everywhere, not just in remote communities up north, no it was endemic and so all Residential Schools must be tarred with the same brush. The approach worked well at Six Nations with the publication of a book entitled "The Mush Hole", pertaining to the Mohawk Institute in Brantford (actually on the Six Nations Reserve even to this day). However if one looks at the objective facts, and speaks to respected elders who were there and whose stories have NOT been told, you will hear a very different scenario. I have said on more than one occasion, while most will not speak against the party line at "inquiries" and the like, they will to insiders. The most succinct statement of the reality was told to me in this way: "At home we were beaten, had nothing to eat and learned nothing; at school we were beaten, had 3 meals a day, and learned something". To deny these stories is to try to shape the past to fit the common myth - and the truth be damned. Not only this, but most of the teachers at Six Nations in past years were taught at the Mohawk Institute - the story is now so distorted that most are inclined to listen only to those who relay their perceptions of the horrors they claim to have experienced - all other versions are suppressed.
So now some might say that a group of fly by night ambulance chasers are proposing to squeeze more money out of perceived abusers because it is possible that some at Six Nations may have not received enough or even any compensation. Add in something called "Sixties Scoop" and "Day School abuse" where half of the students went home at night, but "were subject to the same life altering abuse as well", and you have the makings of a fine class action law suit. What many seem to fail to realize that many of us across Canada had a rough time at school - it was not only Indian children who experienced brutality at school. I was bullied and abused at Day School - that was indeed the experience of half or more of kids at school in the 50s and 60s, and even into the 80s. I still carry the physical and emotional scars. It was the times, and I don't want a dime in "compensation". The times have changed for the better and methods instituted to ensure what I went through will be far less likely to be foisted on some poor youngster today. Unfortunately there is a group of whiners and complainers who have no ambition and put the blame on everyone and everything but themselves for any misfortunes. A suggestion here would be to take some responsibility and realize that *%it happens and it is how you deal with it that makes you strong - not blood money.
These legal eagles say, as you hear on TV all the time with lawyers offering their personal injury services, that we "will only be paid if you win your case based on a percentage of compensation paid to the client". A cynic here might say that what the lawyers are hyping is that, "you too can also be compensated for 'cultural genocide' and assorted ills, it merely requires you to step forward and sign on the dotted line - what do you have to lose?
It would not be surprising if some would feel contempt for those involved in such questionable actions for monetary gain.
DeYo.
DeYo--the part of your post that really resonated with me was where you said: ". . .if one looks at the objective facts, and speaks to respected elders who were there and whose stories have NOT been told, you will hear a different scenario. I have said on more than one occasion, while most will not speak against the party line at "inquiries" and the like, they will to insiders. . ."
ReplyDeleteI have also found this to be true, although there are a few brave souls who are speaking publicly about the good aspects.
Unfortunately, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) final report executive summary, which was released June 2, 2015, dwells on the negative, and under-reports the positive. My September 7, 2015 counterpoise.ca post is a critique of this summary. As noted in my post, some of the 94 recommendations are worth implementing. But I agree with those commentators who have said that a lot of the "calls to action" will only lead to more dependency on government. What is needed is more self-reliance, not more dependency. As you said "&hit happens and it is how you deal with it that makes you strong. . ."
What a shame that some people have defined themselves as chronic victims and that others are encouraging and using this. All out of greed. Today's young people would better benefit from the example of a strong parent who demonstrates that she/he is an individual with the power to succeed whether or not a bad thing has happened. It is a fact that the necessary support for such an effort is available.
ReplyDeleteCounterpoise and Bonnie, thanks for your comments. I wholeheartedly agree what you are both saying. The "we are victims of colonialism, cultural genocide and 1924" have become entrenched at Six Nations. Getting the message across that it is necessary to break free from perceptions of the past, whether true or not, in order to move forward into the future and succeed in life has only reached a few ears willing to listen.
ReplyDeleteDeYo--thought you might be interested to know that today (November 6, 2015), I published a counterpoise.ca post entitled "Canadian Indigenous Residential Schools - Counter-Narratives." It lists material that has appeared between 1996 and recently, that challenges the view the residential schools were entirely bad news. It also lists material that takes issue with some aspects of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) final report executive summary.
ReplyDeleteThank you counterpoise. A more nuanced and balanced view with the inclusion of the statements of many Indigenous people who benefited greatly from their school experience (but which is withheld for a number of reasons) is much needed. I wish those at Six Nations who have fond memories of their time at Residential School would step forward and state emphatically that the whole matter is not so black and white as the militant - activist groups would have you believe.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it is the militant-activist groups (both aboriginal and white) who are continuing to "call the shots" as the ongoing fiasco in Caledonia can attest to...and always at enormous taxpayer expense; as a well planned adjunct to this is the yearly fiasco dubbed a "hunt" by the Haudenausenee radicals who have once again invaded Shorthills Provincial Park in greater increasing numbers ;this, of course, is again aided and abetted by an all too complicit media which is too lazy to do anything resembling proper historical research; and now we have the "pro-hunt" faction comprised of the same "pseudo-intellectuals" and union bullies that were encountered in Caledonia screaming for aboriginal rights, treaty rights, sovereignty rights and even the "right" to have access to the deer for sustenance! Oh, and I somehow forgot to mention the chief enabler behind all of this in the guise of a provincial government, that weak-kneed excuse for "leadership" which long ago abdicated any sense of responsibility and accountability and threw the RULE OF LAW out the window ; what chance do defenseless deer, much less the TRUTH have in such a "toxic mix"!?
ReplyDeleteMyOrenda, indeed, your comments are right on the money. It would not take a competent journalist to enlist the help of a historian (or simply read the evidence in this and other blogs) to determine that there is no such entity as the "Nanfan Treaty of 1701", and that all Six Nations peoples in Southern Ontario had been conquered by the Mississauga, and killed or forced to retreat to Upstate NY by 1696. The facts are indisputable - and the Short Hills massacre is based on no legal foundation.
ReplyDeleteBy the way MyOrenda, yesterday a friend and I walked the entire Loop Trail in the Dundas Valley Conservation Area (in the second hunt area). We saw 3 deer who simply stopped, not more than 50 feet away, and stared at us. I snapped pictures not a bow string.
ReplyDelete