Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
May - 2007
Residential school policy was really well intended?Windspeaker Editorial
Shocked and dismayed. How else can you describe the response in this newsroom to Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice's statement this month that residential schools were originally designed to educate Native children and the policy was therefore well intended and didn't require an apology from the federal government?
Sure, and Auschwitz really was a place where work would make you free.
"Arbeit macht frei" or "Work will make you free" was what the sign over the main gate of that concentration camp said. It was a lie. A vile, evil disgusting bit of propaganda. And sorry, that's where our minds went when we read the minister's comments.
In public policy circles, it's a commonly accepted rule that the first side to mention Hitler loses, that comparing an opponent in a debate to the Nazis is a sign of hysterical desperation. Even mentioning Hitler is a warning sign that your argument is coming apart. Generally, it's a good rule.
But this is an exception. And no comparison between the Conservative Party of Canada and the Nazi Party is intended, by any means. That would be way over the top and irresponsible.
But comparing the residential school policy and the master plan to rid Europe of Jewish people? That comparison can be made.
Residential schools were designed from the start to rid the northern part of the North American continent of Indigenous cultures, to assimilate Indigenous peoples into the mainstream Canadian body politic.
No less a personage than famed "Confederation poet" Duncan Campbell Scott, the deputy superintendent of Indian Affairs from 1913 to 1932, stated this objective in no uncertain terms, as anyone who knows anything about these issues can tell you. It's on the public record.
Scott entered the department in 1879 as a young boy of 17 and then rose to the top, so he both directed and reflected the thinking of the day when he said the objective of the schools was to "take the Indian out of the child."
There's no nice way to say it. That was a plan for cultural genocide; less of an atrocity than the kind of genocide that the Nazis contemplated, yes, but along similar lines.
Generally, over the top political correctness is not a useful public policy tool. Those who wear 18 different colored ribbons and spend all their spare time haunting those who do not edit every word that comes out of their mouths to show sensitivity for a million different causes are missing the point that moderation is the only way to get any useful answers to the most troublesome issues of the day.
Sure, if out of date and discriminatory words and attitudes are to be expunged from society, they must be identified and addressed. But getting to the point of persecuting rather than educating those whose attitudes need a little adjusting is just swinging too far across the spectrum.
So there'll be no call for the minister's resignation here, just a suggestion that those words be reconsidered.
What's most troubling about it all is that one gets the sense that Prentice, as a senior and central member of the Conservative government, and his colleagues are stepping up to the plate in their minds and offering some real leadership, having the courage to make difficult decisions because . . . well, someone has to.
After former prime minister Paul Martin tried to be all things to all people during his short stay in the Prime Minister's Office, Canada can definitely use a little leadership.
But this is the wrong issue on which to seek to appear to be decisive and to be standing up against the forces of political correctness.
And that is the crucial point here. Right wing political movements have gone down that dead end road with tragic results before.
Playing to Canada's mistaken view of itself as a benign and racism free society might resonate with one heck of a lot of Canadian voters and might seem to be the ticket to a majority government, but it's wrong and it can't lead to anything good.
Canada must come to grips with the past if there is to be any peace, order or good government in the days ahead. Horrible things were done for equally horrible reasons. Until the day comes when Canada takes a very public step back from those historical misdeeds, there will still be some that believe that Canada is not sorry and does not regret them.
Think about all the other groups that Canada has apologized to and made restitution. What makes residential school survivors different?
It appears there's a battle raging between the Conservative government and the chiefs over accountability for taxpayers' dollars. It appears that Minister Prentice and his government has decided to make a show of "getting tough with the Indians."
It's been said in this space before that complete transparency and accountability-in all levels of government-is a good thing.
Just don't get the two issues mixed up. They don't belong together.
The suspicion that Canada is avoiding this apology for un-stated and indefensible reasons is still out there. The minister's comments did nothing to address that concern at all.
Quite the contrary, in fact.'
- Windspeaker