indigenous

Friday November 9, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday November 9, 2018

Trudeau apologizes for Canada’s 1939 refusal of ship of Jewish refugees

Survivors and families of 900 German Jews whose pleas for asylum Canada ignored during the Holocaust received an official federal apology Wednesday, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed more federal help to combat anti-Semitic acts.

Toilet paper apologies

It was 79 years ago that the government of William Lyon Mackenzie King rejected an asylum request from an ocean liner carrying German Jews as it neared Halifax, forcing it back to Europe.

Most of the passengers scattered across the continent and more than 250 of them died in the Holocaust.

The decision to turn the country’s back on European Jews was “unacceptable then and it is unacceptable now,” Trudeau said in his speech on the week marking the 80th anniversary of what is known as “Kristallnacht” and the start of the Holocaust.

January 10, 2015

Trudeau said Holocaust deniers still exist and anti-Semitism remains prevalent in Canada — the latest numbers from Statistics Canada show Jews are the most frequent target of religiously motivated hate crimes — and North America, shadowed by the shooting deaths of 11 worshippers inside a Pittsburgh synagogue almost two weeks ago.

The ensuing days have seen countrywide vigils and, Trudeau said, calls for the government to do more through a federal program that funds security improvements at places at risk of hate-motivated crimes, such as synagogues.

WLMKing merch

Trudeau pledged to listen to the request, but didn’t provide further details. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

Yet, statues of the then Prime Minister, William Lyon MacKenzie King, remain standing, despite his and his government’s anti-semitist policies. This follows several months of debate and scrutiny of another Canadian Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, and his government’s anti-indigenous peoples policies. Do more statues need to come down? 

 

Thursday August 16, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 16, 2018

Ottawa to declare federal holiday to mark legacy of residential school system

June 3, 2015

The Liberal government will declare a federal statutory holiday to mark the tragic legacy of the residential school system, fulfilling a recommendation made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

In a statement, a spokesperson for Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said the department is working with Indigenous peoples to determine the best date for this sort of commemoration.

July 13, 2017

“We have committed to fulfilling all of the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Call to Action 80 asks the government of Canada to establish a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to honour the survivors of residential schools,” said Simon Ross, the minister’s press secretary.

“That’s exactly what we will do, and we will do that in partnership with Indigenous Peoples.”

Canada Day 2017

Two days are currently under consideration: June 21, which is National Indigenous Peoples Day, and September 30, which is named “Orange Shirt Day.” It is named for the bright orange shirt given to six-year-old Phyllis Webstad by her grandmother in 1973; it was taken from her by administrators when she attended the St. Joseph Mission School in Williams Lake, B.C. The date was chosen because it’s around the time Indigenous children were taken from their homes and sent to residential schools. 

It’s not yet clear when the new federal statutory holiday will be implemented, but the official said conversations with Indigenous peoples are well underway.

June 12, 2008

Constitutionally, it’s up to the provinces and territories to determine which statutory holidays exist in their jurisdictions.

Nothing in any federal legislation would force them to follow suit and implement a day to mark the horrors of the residential school system.

So a new federal holiday would apply only to workers in federally regulated industries — like the federal public service, banks, interprovincial and international transportation companies, TV/radio, telecommunications, fisheries and Crown corporations, among others — unless the provinces took action on their own. (Source: CBC) 

 

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Thursday January 11, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 11, 2018

Sen. Lynn Beyak’s views might be ‘typical’ but that doesn’t make them right

It’s sad to note that newly independent Senator Lynn Beyak is pretty much your typical Canadian. She comes off as well-intentioned and hard-working — the type of person you expect to see cheering in bleachers at small-town hockey rinks while holding a Tim Hortons coffee cup. I think of her when I think of the people Prime Minister Stephen Harper referred to with his “old-stock Canadians” quip last election campaign. 

But I say “sadly” of her typical-ness because Beyak, who Conservative leader Andrew Scheer removed from the Conservative caucus last week after she refused to take down offensive letters from her Senate website, is just like a great number of Canadians who are genuinely unable to see how their views are harmful. (For the record, in a statement Monday, Beyak said no one from Scheer’s office spoke with her or her staff about taking down the letters.) Instead, these Canadians still seem to believe in that mythical free pass to which many white people — and I am a white settler myself — try to clutch: that of good intentions.

As long as we have good intentions, many of us believe, there is no need to apologize, and no need to grapple with the weight of ugly words such as “prejudice” and “racism.”

But just because a view is typical doesn’t make it right.

The Beyak saga might have only reached a breaking point now, but it has been brewing for many months, starting way back in March of last year, when Beyak said the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s findings of systemic racism against Indigenous peoples in Canada ignored the “well-intentioned” actions of instructors at residential schools.

“Mistakes were made at residential schools,” she said at the time, “in many instances, horrible mistakes that overshadowed some good things that also happened at those schools.” (Source: CBC News) 

 

 

Thursday September 6, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 6, 2017

Blockade down in Caledonia

An Indigenous barricade that blocked a main thoroughfare in Caledonia for close to a month has been dismantled.

July 31, 2013

Ontario Provincial Police say they asked demonstrators to leave the Highway 6 bypass Monday night.

“Once we responded, they eventually dispersed … on their own,” OPP spokesperson Const. Rodney LeClair said Tuesday.

The protesters had moved their roadblock from its original location at Argyle Street South to the Highway 6 bypass earlier Monday.

LeClair said police responded that evening because a “group was gathering” and using tires and trees to block a stretch of the bypass, which runs between Greens Road and Argyle Street South.

No one was arrested or injured, he said.

May 8, 2006

The OPP reopened Hwy. 6 Tuesday afternoon after the Ministry of Transportation’s maintenance contractor cleared the road.

LeClair said he hadn’t been told if demonstrators were still occupying the area around the bypass Tuesday.

“We’re remaining in the area just to preserve the peace like we’ve said from the onset, just maintain public safety,” he said.

Protesters who support the Six Nations hereditary government, known as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, set up the barricade on Argyle Street South — Caledonia’s major thoroughfare — Aug. 10.

April 23, 2006

This spot — just south of town at the entrance of the former Douglas Creek Estates — is where a larger, more intense blockade and standoff took place in 2006 over land claims.

Indigenous people have renamed the site Kanonhstaton, “the protected place.”

This time around, demonstrators have said they were protesting the Ontario government’s transfer of a 154-hectare property known as the Burtch lands to the Six Nations Elected Band Council instead of the confederacy.

The return of the land, the former site of a correctional facility, was negotiated in exchange for the earlier barricade coming down more than 10 years ago.

April 21, 2006

On Monday, demonstrators issued a statement noting they had moved the barricade to the bypass “to unify the people of Six Nations and relieve pressure on our people and the residents of Caledonia.”

They erected a barricade on the bypass to “apply pressure on Canada to return to the negotiation table,” the statement reads.

It’s not clear what led the demonstrators to dismantle their barricade altogether or whether any issues were ironed out.

Protesters did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Thursday July 13, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 13, 2017

Commissioner Quits Murdered & Missing Indigenous Women Inquiry

While the national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls continues to lose high-level staff and appears in disarray, Canada’s Minister of Indigenous Affairs is urging everyone to not lose hope in the process.

July 1, 2017

Saskatchewan lawyer Marilyn Poitras issued her resignation in a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday. She is the first commissioner to resign from the inquiry.

In the letter, Poitras said she is “unable to perform my duties as a commissioner with the process designed in its current structure.”

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett told Ottawa media that she has met with the commission, reviewed their path forward and has faith in what they have planned. “They really do have the vision, the values, the tools and the plan to get this work done,” Bennett said.

She added there is “no question that we all agree that the communication has been an issue,” and they must do a better job telling families about their plan and vision. But she believes they will.

May 16, 2017

However, not everyone feels as though the inquiry, in its current form, will be able to do all that is hoped. Many families and Indigenous leaders have openly questioned the inquiry’s direction, its methods and chastised it for not involving more grassroots activists — who have been fighting for an inquiry for years. They feel the inquiry has lost its way and are demanding it begin again.

Poitras’ resignation follows a press conference held last Thursday by the inquiry’s Chief Commissioner Marion Buller. Buller gave an update on the probe’s summer progress after several controversies including high-profile resignations. On June 30, executive director Michèle Moreau quit the inquiry. Moreau cited “personal reasons” for her resignation.

June 3, 2015

Buller has defended the inquiry and its progress to date, saying she will meet all the milestones including an interim report in November even though only a handful of families have spoken at public hearings.

Buller has said staff leaving the inquiry have all done so for “personal reasons” and that some had dream job offers. The inquiry has five commissioners who are mandated to travel the country, hearing the testimonies of families, then making recommendations on how to protect vulnerable Indigenous women and girls. An RCMP report in 2014 indicated there are 1,181 Indigenous women and girls who have been killed violently or have disappeared. Many believe that number is low.(Source: Toronto Star) 

 

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