34 Replies to “They Just Took ‘Em For The Fun Of It”

  1. So just how the hell can somebody be “missing” for 9 MONTHS,before they are reported missing? Am I missing something here?

  4. You can’t tell me that this is the result of the “white man’s” doing, albeit we have a lot to answer for. This is the sad state of affairs that is accepted in our native cultures. I don’t give a f*ck what race this guy is he is scum and is using far too much oxygen for liking. Seems to me that we critize other cultures around the world for their disregard for human life while here in our country we seem to have a culture with a similar low esteem of life.

  5. There is a good commentary on the Inuit of Nunavut on the editorial page of The Northern Miner March 16 edition – If someone has a subscription maybe they could provide a link.
    Among other things, the commentary says:
    • The challenge of the North was identified in 1967, by the Carrothers Royal Commission:
    “The potential for serious political trouble is here now. The presentation of a viable economic future for the northern peoples may be the only effective alternative. Certainly an effective solution to economic depression is to be found not in seeking merely to alleviate the manifestations through relief and other payments, but in seeking a remedy to treat the cause. In short, this country must see to it that there is a satisfactory union of educational and economic opportunity in the North without delay.”
    Forty years later – governments are still finding ways to delay. Heck, it’s the politically correct thing to do.

  6. You can’t tell me that this is the result of the “white man’s” doing, albeit we have a lot to answer for. This is the sad state of affairs that is accepted in our native cultures. I don’t give a f*ck what race this guy is he is scum and is using far too much oxygen for my liking. Seems to me we rightly critize other cultures around the world for their disregard for human life while here, in our country, we seem to have a culture with a similar low esteem of life.

  7. The social workers see the problems and have to decide whether to let the child stay thee, where they might be safer or take them to a foster home where the chances of getting a decent family they connect with are slim. If they don’t act and the child dies, they have that hanging around their necks. If the child goes into the system, they can hope for the best. No way would i want that job.

  8. I smell another CBC marketing documentary. No such tort for loss of culture. Also, would be statute barred unless the courts bend the law again. Chinese, Ukrainian, German, Irish, Scottish and etc. loss of culture next. The Treaties should have guaranteed no loss of culture, me thinks. Fire water has been the root of most of these horror stories and the demise of a nation. Idol hands are the devils workshop.

  9. And what about the 50% of Indians that are Christians? They seem to manage just fine without a lot of bitching and moaning and eagle feathers. So how come we never hear about Christian Indians? I recently flew in a helicopter with a Christian Indian pilot. He was obviously capable and good at his stuff. Christians don’t mind being adopted – they’re usually grateful. Can we please hear more about this obvious anomaly?

  10. These lawsuits are strange indeed. How does one claim that a “Legal” Government policy, from any time in the past, was or wasn’t beneficial to a particular race. Who is the defendant? The queen?, The Commonwealth?, Canada? Why would anyone think that any past “Legal” government policy was not immune from Tort action. That is unless you can prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, deliberate malfeasance in violation of the standards of the time?
    Who the hell sets the BAR.. What Democracy can claim perfect policies… F**K the lawyers who drummed up a Class Action against a “Legal” right of a democracy.. F**k the Court (Judge) who accepted the case.
    Is this some kind of “UN Standard” (not Canadian law), which past Government policies are compared & Canada taxpayers are found in violation?
    I support Indian rights and Indian pride, but this is Bull Shit.

  11. Although I tend to agree with you on a lot of things, we differ on this one Kate.
    I’m not sure what the message is you are trying to get across here. Perhaps that, had the people in the 2nd and 3rd linked stories been forcibly adopted and/or sent to residential schools none of this would have happened?
    Being of native ancestry myself, as well as a successful professional, I can say that me, and more importantly my father (also a successful indian) had a “leg up” on the typical native because his mothers 2nd marriage was to a white man, giving her instant credibility and enough rights that she could pull my dads older siblings out of the residential schools they were in. This allowed her to raise her children in mainstream society with all the benefits from it. His oldest sibling was not so lucky, she died at the residential school and my grandmother found out only when she didn’t come home for the summer.
    Don’t get me wrong, the paternalistic society the fed’s have propagated and the resulting wards of the state a lot of natives are now because of this paternalistic treatment is the worst thing possible, and will never improve as long as the status quo is maintained (which is what most of the chiefs want)
    But if you are implying that all native children were somehow better off being forcibly removed from their parents, you’re wrong.
    cheers

  12. *
    “The rate of deaths from injuries is 3 to 4 times higher for
    Aboriginal children than for other children in Canada.”
    Source: Government of Canada (2002) Healthy Canadians –
    A Federal Report on Comparable Health Indicators 2002.
    Ottawa: Health Canada.
    *

  13. sorry folks…if i was an Indian with irish catholic christian guts and mind working i would be aghast and shocked shamed and angry about the child abuse child rape and child murder amongst all the other abuses occurring all about me on my reserve…
    but these people allow it to continue decade after decade after decade…asking for more and more federal money to solve problems an honest white man and a citizenry inculcated with western self respect and self reliance would solve in five minutes takes the Indians 100 years(if we’re lucky) because the whole process is full of shit…
    the chiefs are crooks…the tribe members are either drunks…drug freaks…on the pad …or too frightened of the chief’s mafia or too stupid drunk or stoned to care…

  15. The best thing that cna be done is to extinguish the indian act forthwith (that was actually proposed by of all people Jean chretien when he was indian affairs minister back in the day – although I suspect it may have been posturing on his part) and thus give those currently subjected to its restrictions the same rights and freedoms and responsibilities as all other canadians.
    The group that would fight this the hardest would not be the pre-columbians but rather the big law firms in Montreal and their satellite offices that skim billions from the bands in legal fees. Sheila fraser in one of her reports even went as far as to single them out – even though that was arguably out of her purvey as auditor general as the bands were the ones getting screwed not the federal government.
    I Imagine it being the final piece of legislation Stephen Harper enacts before he retires undefeated as PM 10 or 12 years from now…

  16. The answer is!
    “Merchant’s Liberal pedigree can be traced back several generations. His grandfather and mother were both members of the Saskatchewan legislature. He won election himself in 1975, and staged an unsuccessful bid for the provincial Liberal leadership the next year. Merchant has also run federally on three occasions, losing each time. He was an early supporter of Chrétien’s leadership ambitions. (This time, he and his family are lining up behind Michael Ignatieff.) And it is accepted wisdom in Saskatchewan legal circles that during the Liberal years Merchant was able to influence who was appointed to the federal bench. “I’ve been able to make some contributions about ideas of people over time,” he says coyly.”
    Residential Schools Settlement Enriches Lawyer
    http://www.canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0012968 – 53k – Cached

  17. The road to hell is paved with good intentions….
    The root problem here is that CAS do not properly moniter fosters or adoptees….regardless of race.
    Although I have many friends who were happily raised as adoptees and fosters….there are a few individuals who went through hell….
    I even had to interveen physically when I came upon a child being beaten…..
    for the child it was touch and go for a bit…lifethreatening injuries and maiming….
    and touch and go for me with the Police (including interpretation of necessary force)….
    The tipping force was the evidence of previous injury on that child and the others in the house…
    the couple involved had their fosters removed and they were then relocated to near Kingston for a predetermined period.
    There are savages amongst us…..

  18. I’d really respect the native people that tell these stories if they could admit to how it really happened in many cases. Most times the indian parents had more children then they could properly keep fed. They also saw that it was much better for their children to get a ” white man ” education, and hopefully gainful employment as a result of it in the future. It is obviously very hard to accept the fact that their parents gave them very willingly to be taken care of. The complete misconception that is being told of how the government agents came in the dark of night and stole them away to be never seen again is a farse.
    As far as how they were treated in the schools, yes, they were forced to speak english, and were kept clean and forced to behave in a disciplined manner. This treatment was no diferent then how my ancestors were treated in the schools they attended as well. They were not allowed to speak their native language either. they were strapped and disciplined as were all children in those days.
    The real truth is that in most cases the children were taken away from homes where they were being abused much worse, both physically and many times sexually, and the same is still occurring sadly.

  20. I have no sympathy for those first nation freeloaders at all. None.
    Until those morons start taking ownership of their problems rather than blaming Whitey, they are deserve what they get.
    If Canada’s liberal bung holes really believed that all men are created equal, they wouldn’t support the crap that goes on within the reservations.

  21. Mandatory release after serving one third of his sentence.
    He’ll be out and drunk in a year.
    Those two naked babies he dragged in the snow can at least rest peacefully now.

  22. My exwife had a half Indian foster girl from the ages 8-14. the girls Indian father left the white mother, when the girl was an infant, and died a few years later. My wife did wonders with this messed up girl, even though it was a thankless job. It 14 the band of the father obtained custody of the girl, (in order to get the support payments I believe)and even though she had never been on a Reserve in her life there she went. The last I heard she was now living on the streets of Vancouver working in the sex trade. The band destroyed every good thing my wife had accomplished with this girl.

  23. How is dragging native children off to residential schools as a matter of policy the same thing as taking native children at risk into state care? I don’t see the point of this post. “Progressive Indian” nailed this one.

  24. Why is there always a public rendered price tag on salving any hard knock an aboriginal suffers? …. Forgive my tax slave jadedness but I smell the wampum motive again.

  25. One of the few things that government must take responsibility for is for the protection of those who cannot, through no fault of their own, take care of themselves. They are the only one empowered to help. I’d go to jail if I were to deal with a child abuser.

  26. Need Liberal government.
    Need Liberal lawyers.
    Need Liberal judges.
    Need Liberal natives.
    p.s. Is that an Idol or Idle

  27. Let’s hold a sentencing circle of taxpayers to decide how much to give the plaintiffs.

  29. As I stated before, I moved to the west side of Saskatoon about 7 yrs ago. In that time my views have changed drastically about people and cultures. When I moved to S’toon I believed that everyone should be given the benefit of the doubt, that I shouldn’t judge people by how they look, and more importantly by their race or culture. After 4 years in the hood, I have shed myself of my naivety, “if it walks like a duck…”.
    I have neither the time, skill nor interested readers to detail what I’ve seen in the Aboriginal community, everyone has 100’s of stories so I’ll get to the point. I will keep my kids as far away from Aboriginal culture as possible. Once upon a time things may have been different, but today the family values(or lack thereof) in the Aboriginal community are laughable. The Aboriginal community in Saskatoon is failing miserably BECAUSE of the “Aboriginal culture” that puts children last, not first. The imperial evidence is everywhere, regardless of what the talking heads and the activists will tell you. The Aboriginals that are successful(in my observation) are the ones that have abandoned the so called “Aboriginal culture”, or they have found a line of government money.

  30. JJ Joseph: “And what about the 50% of Indians that are Christians?”
    Forget about them. The media will never let them tell their stories, stories of healing, gratitude, empowerment, responsibility, accountability, and giving back to their society.
    I remember hearing two Native women on the CBC about 25 years ago, just when the stories of the residential schools were surfacing. They pointed out that they were GRATEFUL for the schools, where they were clothed, fed well, and got an education. They both stated that they felt safer — they WERE safer — at the residential school they went to than back in their homes on the reservation, where they were beaten and sexually abused by a number of the men in their families.
    I only heard this take on the schools that one time. Since then, the Canadian MSM have cleansed the residential school story of any of the good that came from them. The only stories “allowed” in the media are the horror stories. You have a Good News story to tell? Too bad. We’re not listening.
    A whole group of Native Canadians have been disenfranchised in order to preserve the “all White people, especially if they’re Christian, are bad” meme.

  31. There are different reasons people (of any background) go off the rails. As a mother, I’m thinking to have one’s children forcibly removed (and most often it was for NO REASON) would be enough to do me in. And creating a generation without parenting skills to boot.
    Healing for any generation has to start with the mothers. Once they learn how to love and care for children, and children learn they deserve to be loved and cared for just because they are children, we’ll be on the road to recovering.
    I can’t be the judge of anyone. Any of us could be in those situations.

  32. wendy.g said:
    ” . . .to have one’s children forcibly removed (and most often it was for NO REASON). . .”
    Has everyone forgotten that killer tuberculosis was rampant on the reservations at that time? Saving children from TB while teaching them useful life skills like English, those are at least TWO good reasons to remove kids. There was lots more reasons, like saving kids from rampant sexual abuse from their “uncles”. Well, there’s THREE good reasons now. How about teaching them the Christian faith? I’m sure that in a few more minutes I could find a dozen more good reasons.

  33. I agree with you, wendy.g, that healing for any generation (including our own, big-time) begins with mothers and, to broaden that scope a little, families.
    Let’s not forget, however, that 80% of the Native chiefs at the time ASKED the federal government to take their children, to house them, feed them, and educate them. They knew they couldn’t handle many of the endemic problems on their reserves mentioned by JJ Joseph, especially as many of them were isolated and nowhere close to medical or other facilities.
    They also, wisely, understood that their children would have to learn English if they were to survive — or, better yet, succeed — in the North American society of the day and the future. They recognized that their world had changed, and rather than curse the darkness, they lit a candle for their children. Residential schools were not all gloom and doom.
    The deconstruction of Canada’s history, in order to build a “poverty industry” around Canadian Natives — and in doing so, constructing a straw man, that dastardly “Whitey,” of more often than not honourable men and women whose only agenda was to help Native Canadian children — is a vile undertaking. First, because it’s a lie and, second, because it has done nothing to contribute to the health and well-being of Canada’s Native population.
    A few people have grown rich off the enterprise (take a look at Phil Fontaine’s bio), but most Native Canadians have not found healing from the lies told about the residential schools and the money they’ve been able to obtain for, in many cases, alleged abuse which happened so long ago that many of the witnesses are long dead. Where actual physical or sexual abuse happened, I’m happy to see the book thrown at the culprits, but as far as “cultural abuse” is concerned, it is a shameful construct, with no basis in fact. If 80% of the Native chiefs ASKED the Canadian government to set up residential schools for their children, how can they possibly be construed as contributing to “cultural abuse”?
    And, if we want to get into that business, I as a sixth generation, Anglo-Saxon, Christian could really go to town about what’s happened to my culture in today’s dystopian, post-Christian, Canada.
    But I won’t. Not today …

  34. I agree with you, wendy.g, that healing for any generation (including our own, big-time) begins with mothers and, to broaden that scope a little, families.
    Let’s not forget, however, that 80% of the Native chiefs at the time ASKED the federal government to take their children, to house them, feed them, and educate them. They knew they couldn’t handle many of the endemic problems on their reserves mentioned by JJ Joseph, especially as many of them were isolated and nowhere close to medical or other facilities.
    They also, wisely, understood that their children would have to learn English if they were to survive — or, better yet, succeed — in the North American society of the day and the future. They recognized that their world had changed, and rather than curse the darkness, they lit a candle for their children. Residential schools were not all gloom and doom.
    The deconstruction of Canada’s history, in order to build a “poverty industry” around Canadian Natives — and in doing so, constructing a straw man, that dastardly “Whitey,” of more often than not honourable men and women whose only agenda was to help Native Canadian children — is a vile undertaking. First, because it’s a lie and, second, because it has done nothing to contribute to the health and well-being of Canada’s Native population.
    A few people have grown rich off the enterprise (take a look at Phil Fontaine’s bio), but most Native Canadians have not found healing from the lies told about the residential schools and the money they’ve been able to obtain for, in many cases, alleged abuse which happened so long ago that many of the witnesses are long dead. Where actual physical or sexual abuse happened, I’m happy to see the book thrown at the culprits, but as far as “cultural abuse” is concerned, it is a shameful construct, with no basis in fact. If 80% of the Native chiefs ASKED the Canadian government to set up residential schools for their children, how can they possibly be construed as contributing to “cultural abuse”?
    And, if we want to get into that business, I as a sixth generation, Anglo-Saxon, Christian could really go to town about what’s happened to my culture in today’s dystopian, post-Christian, Canada.
    But I won’t. Not today …

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation