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Articles : Human RightsCanada says "sorry." Will we?
Canada said sorry last week. Four months earlier, it was Australia. Now it’s our turn.
All three countries have a history of mistreatment of the original peoples of their respective lands. All three forcibly separated children from their families, communities, and cultures. And ironically, these same three countries were among the four (including New Zealand) who voted against the recently adopted UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper did what was long overdue. The Conservative leader in a speech in the House of Commons apologized for Canada’s policy of forcing First Nations children into residential schools. He acknowledged the suffering of individual children who were often abused, inadequately housed and fed, prevented from speaking their language and learning their culture. And he recognized that the harm has had far-reaching ripple effects. You can watch the Canadian Prime Minister’s apology here=.
“We now recognize that it was wrong to separate children from rich and vibrant cultures and traditions, that it created a void in many lives and communities, and we apologize for having done this. We now recognize that, in separating children from their families, we undermined the ability of many to adequately parent their own children and sowed the seeds for generations to follow, and we apologize for having done this. We now recognize that, far too often, these institutions gave rise to abuse or neglect. ...”
And, addressing the First Nations’ leaders who listened to his statement on the floor of the House of Commons, he added:
“You have been working on recovering from this experience for a long time and in a very real sense, we are now joining you on this journey. The government of Canada sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly.”
The day was marked by ceremonies in 30 locations across Canada, where First Nations people gathered to remember and to commemorate the apology.
Canada’s apology follows a similar one by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the Aboriginal peoples in February of this year. Like in Canada, young Aboriginals were taken from their families, often by force, and sent to schools and homes where they were often abused, exploited, and prevented from speaking their language or practicing their way of life.
The United States has a similar legacy, but has yet to apologize. One state has stepped up and issued a somewhat different sort of apology, though. In a non-binding resolution, the Colorado Legislature apologized in late April for the intentional deaths, “cruelty, and inhumanity” inflicted on Native peoples. According to an article in Indian Country Today, the resolution specifically mentions the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation in 1838 and the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, when as many as 200 Native people — mostly elderly men, women and children — were killed by members of the Colorado militia. Virginia’s House and Senate, in March of 2007 adopted a resolution of regret to both Native Americans and African Americans.
That’s twos states that have acted, 48 to go, plus the federal government. There’s some good news from Washington, D.C., though. Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican, and Michigan Democrat Dale Kildee, head of the House’s Native American Caucus, are pressing for congressional action, and they could succeed.
An apology to Native peoples is an important first step, but it should be accompanied by a commitment to discontinue the old practices of taking Native land and taking away Native peoples’ political rights. And there are a lot of old wrongs that we can still make right.
While we’re at it, the United States also owes an apology to the descendants of the slaves whose uncompensated labor built so much of the wealth of this country.
Additional info (from the BBC News):
CANADA’S ABORIGINALS
Made up of Indians, known as First Nations people, Metis and Inuit
Population 1.2 million out of total 33 million Canadians
48% of aboriginals are under 25 years old (31% for non-aboriginals)
Unemployment rate for 25-64 year olds almost three times the national rate
34% do not complete secondary school (15% for non-aboriginals)
Suicide rate among young aboriginals almost twice the national average
Sources: StatsCan, Aboriginal Health Organisation
Sarah van Gelder is Executive Editor of YES! magazine, where this article is republished from with permission.
Posted by anthony
Anthony Lappé is GNN's Executive Editor. He's written for The New York Times, Details, New York, Paper, The Fader and Vice, among many others. He has worked as a producer for MTV and Fuse. He is the co-author of GNN's True Lies and the producer of their Iraq doc,...
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Posted by charlesmostoller on Wednesday, June 11th 2008
an apology for past attrocities without an appropriate change in current and future (atrocious) behavior is little more than a PR stunt. typical abusive behavior.
fuck you, Stephen Harper!
fuck you, Kevin Rudd!
Turtle Island is under occupation
you are not fooling anyone
exactly shift. how about giving the land back, or compensating those you stole lied cheated it from. same goes for slavery. the jews got major payday from german genocide, why not these peoples? you knwo what fuck it, let’s just burn this bitch down, the same system that killed and destroyed these peoples lives, land and culture is today doing the same to the entire world.
SORRY, no justice no peace.
as if…
this speech was given while native land in BC was being developed for the 2010 winter olympics. agreed, no justice, no peace. RIOT 2010!
Riot 2008!
Canada gave Indians an entire province to themselves, it’s quite possibly the squishiest government currently in existence.
All three countries have a history of mistreatment of the original peoples of their respective lands
delete “three” and that statement would be even more accurate.
I’m very unimpressed with all these people and mafia/governments who seem to think they can use apologies and “say yer sorrys” as a license to continue bad behaviors. You are not obligated to accept an apology if you feel it’s insincere or made by an ignorant twat like Mike Harper.
Steve/Brian whatever.
“how about giving the land back”
The 300 million white people in the US could all go move to Israel or something.
“compensating those you stole lied cheated it from”
I didn’t actually steal from anyone.
“delete “three” and that statement would be even more accurate”
true
i forgive you all….now lets move on to making a better world
apology long ago to some of our indigenous nations
One native view
Either way, sorry about that.
U.S. out of Turtle Island
European-Americans, will they be welcome in Turtle Island?
Really, Canada is such a dirty evil country, I do not know how anyone lives there. Acting all innocent while always helping the empire.
“all innocent while always helping” the dirty evil empire to the south of them continue their conquistadorial dominations, I should think.
I’d feel a lot better about this apology if Canada stopped acting unilaterally in matters of mining, forestry, educational funding, will and estate trusteeship, fisheries ‘management’, health costs and coverage, highway appropriation of reserve lands, water quality protection and distribution, aboriginal initiated justice system innovations, cultural artifact and grave reparations, industrial pollution, ‘crown land’ disposition, tourism symbolism appropriation, sports mascots, child and family welfare issues…
What a shame that Canada’s farcical “apology” (ie. Harper trying to create an image of himself as empathetic and “Canadian” to mitigate his well earned image as Darth Vader’s buttboy) about the abuses in government-funded, church-run residential schools (it wasn’t a blanket apology) is nothing more than PR…and pre-election PR at that. (Kind of goes well with his anti-Liberal video message/propaganda at the gas pumps where he tries to make himself not look like Big Oil’s well greased buttboy. Just like with Bush, the strategy is to use the PMs office as a never ending campaign platform – perpetual campaign and perpetual war go hand in hand.)
A little quote by an MP hand picked and propped up by Harper (though he’s now disowning him). Let’s give the floor to the REAL Conservative perspective on native peoples and native affairs….Ladies and gentlemen….Pierre Poilievre…
“That gets to the heart of the problem on these reserves where there is too much power concentrated in the hands of the leadership, and it makes you wonder where all of this money is going. We spend $10 billion dollars – $10 billion dollars – in annual spending this year alone … now, that is an exceptional amount of money, and that is on top of all the resource revenue that goes to reserves that sit on petroleum products or sit on uranium mines or other things where companies have to pay them royalties and that’s on top of all that money that they earn on their own reserves. That is an incredible amount of money. Now along with this apology comes another $4 billion in compensation for those who partook in the residential schools over those years. Now, you know, some of us are starting to ask, ‘Are we really getting value for all of this money, and is more money really going to solve the problem?’ My view is that we need to engender the values of hard work and independence and self reliance. That’s the solution in the long run – more money will not solve it.”
*incidentally, in 1998 PM Jean Chretian also offered an apology and Harper and his party have had nothing to do with arranging compensation or settlements (which started in 1998 with the Statement of Reconciliation and the $1.9 billion compensation package was mandated in 2005. Seems like Harper’s just trying to ride on the coattails of Kevin Rudd and mimic his success in Australia – though Harper’s essentially the anti-Rudd!
It should be pointed out that Poilievre’s comments were made the same day as Harper “apologized”. It seems kind of odd to hold a charade of this kind up and promote it as some kind of example to be copied when it’s so clearly propaganda and not genuine.
Sorry bout that.
We are terrible, terrible people, it is true. It is how we are described the world over.
We wear a sweater when it is cold and take it off when it is warm. That’s about all it takes, really…
Just like the Mexicans…
I suppose they could start with Alex White Plume and the Lakota
Alex sums things up nicely in the update video.
HEMP for Victory !!!
TCS, TCS
i been there, filthy, garbage strewn, smug little fifty first whore state
i like the dirty people just fine, almost as good as americans and better humor
except for TCS
it seems
“except for TCS”
Humorless bastard he is.
Ahem….
Science, in Canada that would be “humourless bastard”....Canada, putting the you back into humour…
there is no you in science
but there is an “I C”... What does it all mean? You’ll neverknwo what sekrits lurk within…
I did notice that there is an “E” in xenonix…along with a “no”...hmmm, xen is neverno!!!
I’m the worst Canadian ever…
Not even close, Tcs:
Worst Canadian evarrrrrrrrrrr
One of his larger crimes against humanity is his celebutot spawn…
The 2 Laws:
Do all you have agreed to do
and
Do not encroach on other persons and their property.
these countries have broken these basic laws a trillion times over
Are the Injuns going to apologize for the animals they brutally hunted into extinction? Maybe they can tear down their casinos and make life habitats for some endangered bison.
If we all had trusty mammoths to ride around on, we wouldn’t be in this gas crunch and we wouldn’t be in this war. Blame the injuns for the 1 million dead Iraqis.
“Are the Injuns going to apologize for the animals they brutally hunted into extinction? “
Which ones are those exactly?
The Giant Land Sloth, and Bigfoot.
“Are the Injuns going to apologize for the animals they brutally hunted into extinction (The Giant Land Sloth, and Bigfoot)?”
cite plz?
Personally as a Native American and proud representative of that heritage, I think this is long over due. I feel that there even though they are not as often as in the past worst case scenarios of indian hatred. I personally have been victim of this by US police forces in my home of Missouri!
“Maybe they can tear down their casinos and make life habitats for some endangered bison.”
as opposed to death habitats?
The only problem with “sorry” in the english language is it’s famous for meaning pretty much absolutely nothing. And indigenous peoples everywhere are so sweet the way that’s all they’re asking.
And the Europeans and the Euro Diaspora makes SUCH a big deal about it, like there’s no way in hell the Bush Administration would ever ever ever admit to being wrong about invading Iraq, because saying sorry, if there’s any chance that anyone would take it seriously, is the closest thing to death by a thousand cuts that they could possibly imagine.
You know, for instance, when France starts saying they’re sorry to the Algerians — they’re laying the groundwork for a major exploitative effort.
native death squads
we are, of course, all natives of spaceship earth
imagine we can make paradise here and now
now
i forgive you all….now lets move on to making a better world
This post should not have been “no sold”
“Canada says ‘We`re Sorry. Will We?”
Fat chance. Ours are always at best, quasi-, or worst, non- apology apologies. Even when we do it taken an Ice Age and it usually is half-hearted. Why?
We`re AMERICANS!!! We NEVER apologize.
Do you think Obama, or Clinton for that matter, will be in Baghdad, or Kabul, or Tehran ( come on ) apologizing for the 3,000,000 that got killed because they consistently agreed to fund an offensive invasion based on Congressional perjuy and contempt? To be fair, in private they may kick themselves, but out in public its a mandatory “...1k dead kids is worth it.”