On January 11 a few Canadians on awakening will remember that it is Sir John A. Macdonald Day, as decreed by Parliament in an act of March 21, 2002. On that long-ago date Sir John was considered a Canadian hero, worthy of celebration and commemoration but now, of...
Residential Schools
Graves And School Murders? What Were We Thinking?
The year 2021 was the year of the Kamloops graves. It was the top news story of the year. It was reported by CBC and all mainstream media that ground penetrating radar had detected remains of 215 indigenous children who were found buried in the old apple orchard on...
There are no Indian Residential School Denialists, so Why Criminalize Them?
In a recent Canadian Press story, Kimberly Murray, the government’s special interlocutor on unmarked graves of missing Indigenous children from residential schools, is reported as saying: “We could … make it an offense to incite hate and promote hate against...
A Review of: Lonely Death of an Ojibway Boy by Robert MacBain
What should reasonable people do when schoolchildren are told things that are untrue about Canadian history?
Featured News
Our Health Ministers Need to Take a Lesson from Hockey Coaches
Those of you who are tired of my rants about the demise of our once great health system will be pleased to know that this is my last editorial. I am retiring from the BCMJ Editorial Board; currently, I am the longest-serving member (more than 20 years). I have been a...
Zinchuk: Oilpatch Only Spending Half What It Spent in 2014
Back in the lofty, pre-Justin Trudeau government days of 2014, back when oil was booming, pipelines were planned to east and west coasts, and Alberta and Saskatchewan were swimming in money, around $81 billion was spent in capital expenditures (CAPEX) in the Canadian...
It Is Time to Move On
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...
We Have Found Death Certificates for the Missing Children
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...
B.C. Indigenous Leader urges moving beyond black and white thinking on schools
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...
Note to Americans: Education is Not Genocide
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...
Sinclair is Wrong — It Wasn’t Genocide
Rodney Clifton responds to an article in the Winnipeg Free Press.
It’s Time To Focus On Healing
I refer to your column in the Winnipeg Free Press on July 9th, “It’s time to focus on healing”, where you appear to encourage moving on in the Residential Schools issue. Over the years I have spoken to a considerable number of former staff members, teachers and students from the Indian Residential Schools and I can assure you, from my perspective, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will discover very little of the truth they are seeking and there will never be a true and full reconciliation. More — email from Bill Steele, Winnipeg
Residential Schools Propaganda?
While not forgetting that Indian residential schools were based on coercion and allowed abuse, it should be remembered that not everyone suffered abuse and that they opened up educational opportunities to many.