— Staff — Peter Holle President Peter Holle is the founding President of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, an award-winning western Canadian based public policy think tank. Since its founding in 1997, Frontier has brought a distinctive and influential …
How Notley Can Avoid Becoming a One Term Wonder
It was a great night for Rachel Notley and the Alberta NDP. The Alberta Liberals collapsed, giving the NDP free run on the left. Having won 53 of 87 seats, the NDP can govern for four years with a comfortable …
First Nations Want to Be Economic Players, Not Wards: Partnerships may be key to self-sufficiency
A potential offer from a First Nation group to purchase a potash corporation could signify a new trend among First Nations of entering the economy.
Residential Schools Generate Anger But Also Pride
There are fundamental questions which have never been answered by those who condemn the residential school system. Were we to leave people by virtue of no common language, illiterate, innumerate and unable to deal with the larger society?
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
It’s Time To Focus On Healing: Residential school stories lack balance
A recent event in Winnipeg organized by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission highlights the need to focus on healing from residential schools, as well as present a more balanced perspective on these institutions, which were not all negative.
Banishment Practice Needs To Be Controlled: New First Nation law presents due process concerns
A new law introduced by a Manitoba First Nation community allowing banishment for criminal reasons needs to be tightly controlled and must never become politicized by the sitting band government.
A Policy That Is Outdated, Expensive And Unworkable
Every Canadian federal government has faced this question since the first one took office in 1867, taking over a patchwork of reserves and treaties negotiated under British rule. In the absence of a convincing answer that satisfied both governments and governed, Canada has opted for incremental change. The result is a system that is increasingly outdated, expensive and unworkable (a fate Canada shares with other postcolonial societies like Australia).
Residential Schools: Another View
Most children who went to residential school learned to read, write and calculate. Many children also learned other modern skills — the principles of democracy and common law, for example — which would help them participate more fully in both aboriginal and Canadian society. Given this context, were aboriginal residential schools the unmitigated disasters that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will, without a doubt, hear them described as? Probably not.