Missing

Tuesday June 1, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday June 1, 2021

Canada-wide search urged as children’s remains found

The Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation announced last week that remains were found at a former residential school set up to assimilate indigenous people.

July 13, 2017

The find sparked outrage, prompting some in Canada to lay out tiny shoes at makeshift memorials. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged help but gave few details.

“As a dad, I can’t imagine what it would feel like to have my kids taken away from me,” Mr Trudeau told reporters. “And as prime minister, I am appalled by the shameful policy that stole indigenous children from their communities.”

While he promised “concrete action” when asked what the government would do he did not offer specific commitments.

Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said in a statement the families “deserve to know the truth and the opportunity to heal”.

“A thorough investigation into all former residential school sites could lead to more truths of the genocide against our people,” Mr Bellegarde said.

June 12, 2020

In Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island, a statue of Canada’s first Prime Minister, John A Macdonald, is being removed following the discovery of the children’s remains. Macdonald’s role in residential schools has made him a target for protesters.

The children found on Thursday were students at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia that closed in 1978. Some were as young as three years old. 

Canada’s residential schools were compulsory boarding schools run by the government and religious authorities during the 19th and 20th Centuries with the aim of forcibly assimilating indigenous youth.

June 3, 2015

Kamloops Indian Residential School was the largest in the residential system. Opened under Roman Catholic administration in 1890, the school had as many as 500 students when enrolment peaked in the 1950s.

The central government took over administration of the school in 1969, operating it as a residence for local students until 1978, when it was closed.

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada – set up to examine the history and impact of the residential schools – reported that the system amounted to “cultural genocide”. (BBC)

The discovery of unmarked graves at the former site of a residential school in Kamloops, BC, has sent Canada into paroxysms of shock and horror, which is an appropriate response, except that we already knew about this.

 

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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Saturday March 24, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday March 24, 2012

There’s nothing funny about Peggygate

You needed a cast-iron stomach not to have felt a little queasy watching Mayor Bob Bratina’s handling of the renewed Peggygate scandal the other day.

While senior staffers looked all but green around the gills and councillors exchanged significant glances, Bratina continued to dig a deeper hole for himself, even while labouring under the shadow of an official reprimand from council.

His disordered explanation for why he demanded an investigation with “signed affidavits” to track down the source of rumours that Peggy Chapman, his chief of staff, was on the sunshine list wasn’t the worst of it.

Neither was his unsettling backflip on a quote from Councillor Sam Merulla dealing with the controversy that appeared in The Spectator.

Bratina called the quote “useless” in his now infamous acid-laced email to senior Spec managers.

But during the meeting he told puzzled councillors he agreed with Merulla that these controversies are distracting council from more serious business.

No, the worst part of the shaky performance was his stubborn refusal to face up to stark facts.

Bratina told councillors I’d quoted his email out of context when I wrote in Wednesday’s column that he was once again blaming the $30,000 raise to Chapman on human resources rather than taking responsibility for it himself, the very thing that landed him in boiling pitch last December. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)