Yes. But there was nothing sinister or evil about any of the deaths. They were simply a fact of life at a time when death from disease was a sad, but common occurrence. Children who attended day schools, or no school at all, died in even greater numbers on their home...
Only when the truth is known can an honourable reconciliation be forged On Jan. 31, Dr. Michael Mahon, president of the University of Lethbridge, cancelled a talk that Dr. Frances Widdowson was scheduled to present. Like all scholars, Dr. Widdowson has nuanced views...
From the earliest times, European newcomers and Indigenous people in what is now Canada have worked together. Indigenous people showed early Europeans how to survive in our harsh northern climate. They assisted militarily in the battles between the factions claiming...
Winnipeg City Council needs to know renaming streets will not advance Indigenous reconciliation and it will deny Winnipeggers a chance for a learning experience about the residential schools legacy. A final motion goes to city council on March 23. The motion aims to...
The indictment of former U.S. president Donald Trump for crimes invented by his political opponents is the most egregious example yet seen of the weaponizing of the law. The United States is now full of examples. However, in Canada, we also see the law being...
OTTAWA, REGINA - Last week, two things happened that could have profound impacts on natural resources development in Saskatchewan. One is a hint the federal government might want to take control of natural resources away from the provinces, and the other is the...
In a recent New York Times article, David Wallace Wells asked, “How did No-Mandate Sweden End up with such an average pandemic”. Let’s be clear. This admission from the New York Times, who tried to destroy the response to Covid-19, starting in April 2020 and...
On many Canadian university campuses, students are told that they need to be “allies” to marginalized groups. Today, we often focus on Indigenous populations, the LGBTQ+ community, and people of colour. Indigenous people are given, by far, a bigger spotlight because...
Canada Day is recognized in our calendars, but some organizers have been spooked by last summer’s hysteria about 215 Indigenous children murdered and secretly buried at Kamloops. Following that news, churches were set on fire, statues were toppled, and a panicked...
The overwhelming majority of Canadians regret the history of European contact with Indigenous peoples, and the injustices and hardships that followed over the hundreds of years since. At the same time, they celebrate Canada’s accomplishments, which have created a...
I wrote an opinion column immediately following the May 27, 2021 announcement of the “shocking discovery of 215 bodies found in a mass grave at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.” In that column, I correctly stressed the need to wait for real...
1.0 Introduction For years there have been constant references to the death of Aboriginal children. It has been said that the death rate in residential schools was much higher than the death rate on the reserves, and that the schools were deathtraps. When the Truth...
A B.C. Indigenous leader who advised Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the contents of the landmark 2008 government residential schools apology has said that Canadians must not succumb to black and white thinking about the schools’ legacy. Despite his opposition to the...
Things have taken a strange turn in Canada on the genocide front. Genocide? Canada? Those are words that you would not normally see together. Words like “polite” or “peaceful” might come to mind. But “genocide”, not so much. In fact, the picture of placid Canadians as...
Rodney Clifton responds to an article in the Winnipeg Free Press.