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Colonialism and Assimilation First Nation

by Oui Sat Jun 5th, 2021 at 10:38:24 AM EST

Canadians copying indigenous project established after the Civil War in the US.

Canadian Prime Minister John A. Macdonald commissioned journalist and politician Nicholas Flood Davin to study industrial schools for Indigenous children in the United States.

Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds | Ottawa - 14th March 1879 |

Report based on study President Ulysses S. Grant to assimilate Indian tribes through Peace Commission of 1869.

Most stupid comment ever heard from Canadian PM Trudeau ...


Ulysses S. Grant: Mass Genocide Through 'Permanent Peace' Policy

Yet Grant realized that his expansionist goals required the removal of Indians from desirable land. His Indian Peace Policy, designed to reform the Indian Bureau and remove corrupt agents, also called for rigorous agricultural training on reservations and established schools and churches that would transform Indians into Christian citizens.

The Residential School System for First Nation

From the 1990s onward, the government and the churches involved--Anglican, Presbyterian, United, and Roman Catholic--began to acknowledge their responsibility for an education scheme that was specifically designed to "kill the Indian in the child." On June 11, 2008, the Canadian government issued a formal apology in Parliament for the damage done by the residential school system. In spite of this and other apologies, however, the effects remain.

What led to the residential schools?

The early origins of residential schools in Canada are found in the implementation of the mission system in the 1600s. The churches and European settlers brought with them the assumption that their own civilization was the pinnacle of human achievement. They interpreted the socio-cultural differences between themselves and Indigenous Peoples as "proof" that Canada's first inhabitants were ignorant, savage, and--like children--in need of guidance. They felt the need to "civilize" Indigenous Peoples. Education--a federal responsibility--became the primary means to this end.

Canadian Prime Minister John A. Macdonald commissioned journalist and politician Nicholas Flood Davin to study industrial schools for Indigenous children in the United States. Davin's recommendation to follow the U.S. example of "aggressive civilization" led to public funding for the residential school system. "If anything is to be done with the Indian, we must catch him very young. The children must be kept constantly within the circle of civilized conditions," Davin wrote in his 1879 Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds (Davin's report can be read here.)

In the 1880s, in conjunction with other federal assimilation policies, the government began to establish residential schools across Canada. Authorities would frequently take children to schools far from their home communities, part of a strategy to alienate them from their families and familiar surroundings. In 1920, under the Indian Act, it became mandatory for every Indigenous child to attend a residential school and illegal for them to attend any other educational institution.

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Ontario legislature moves Egerton Ryerson painting and bust after request by Opposition

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by Oui (Oui) on Mon Jun 7th, 2021 at 01:31:30 PM EST
Egerton Ryerson: Racist philosophy of residential schools also shaped public education

Conservative leader Erin O'Toole issued a public apology in December: "I said that the residential school system was intended to try and 'provide education.' It was not. The system was intended to remove children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures." He was referring to comments he made in a meeting with a Conservative club at Ryerson University, where he defended Egerton Ryerson in response to substantial debate and protest surrounding Ryerson's legacy.

Dramatic social shift

Schooling existed in a variety of forms in what would become Ontario before the middle of the 19th century, but the rise of mass public education in the latter half of the century marked a dramatic social shift.

As chief superintendent of schools in Canada West starting in 1844, Ryerson presided over this shift. He either wrote or directed many foundational educational laws over the next 30 years.

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In 1847, the Department of Indian Affairs asked for Ryerson's suggestions for a model for industrial schools for Indigenous children. His recommendations would influence the development of residential schools throughout Canada.

In 1850, under the same act that established separate schools for Catholics and Protestants, he legislated separate schools for Black children. Black families were soon forced into separate schools even when they wished to attend common schools.

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Ryerson set up the project of schooling as one of national development. This vision was understood in deeply colonial, racialized and hierarchical terms. He wrote:

"We had no desire to be set apart": Forced Segregation of Black Students in Canada West Public Schools and Myths of British Egalitarianism

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by Oui (Oui) on Mon Jun 7th, 2021 at 01:33:41 PM EST
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Jun 8th, 2021 at 01:13:50 PM EST

Canada: Police say family members have been fatally anti-Muslim attacks | Islamophobia News |

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by Oui (Oui) on Tue Jun 8th, 2021 at 01:14:43 PM EST
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by Oui (Oui) on Tue Jun 8th, 2021 at 01:40:30 PM EST
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by Oui (Oui) on Thu Jun 10th, 2021 at 09:26:17 AM EST
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by Oui (Oui) on Thu Jun 10th, 2021 at 09:27:48 AM EST
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Premier Doug Ford Islamophobia Ontario Province

Doug Ford denounces pro-Palestinian protest | MEE - Dec. 23, 2019 |

Members of York University's chapter for Students Against Israeli Apartheid had staged the protest on 20 November after former members of the Israeli Defence Force were invited to speak at an event on campus.

Also present were members of the Jewish Defence League, a designated hate Group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Scuffles broke out, but no one was arrested. Officials from the Toronto police force later described the protest as "mostly peaceful."

Still, Ford condemned the protesters, calling them racist.

"I was shocked by the vile hatred that was on display last night at York University," Ford said. "I stand with Jewish students and the Jewish community."

My earlier writing ...



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by Oui (Oui) on Tue Jun 8th, 2021 at 01:20:24 PM EST
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by Oui (Oui) on Thu Jun 10th, 2021 at 09:31:29 AM EST
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Controversial Doug Ford gets booed at vigil



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by Oui (Oui) on Thu Jun 10th, 2021 at 09:32:53 AM EST
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This White Nationalist Says Doug Ford is Sending Him Anti-Immigrant 'Dog Whistle' Messages | May 2018 |

Doug Ford Refuses To Denounce White Nationalist He Posed With At BBQ | Huff Post - Sept. 2018 |

    As I've written before, far-right Rebel Media fired Faith Goldy for going "too far" after she appeared on a neo-Nazi podcast. Goldy has also publicly recited the most popular white supremacist slogan, demanded a modern crusade against Muslims, champions ethno-nationalism, bemoans "white genocide" and called for Canada to become "96% euro Canadian."


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by Oui (Oui) on Thu Jun 10th, 2021 at 09:33:45 AM EST
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Knesset Deputy Speaker Fundraises for Jewish Terror Group in Canada | Tikun Olam - April 2014 |

Moshe Feiglin plans to travel to Toronto in ten days, where will fundraise for the Canadian offshoot of the Israeli terror group, Kahane Chai.  He will address a gala dinner for JDL Canada and then also speak at a Chabad synagogue in the city.

The Jewish Defense League is on the Treasury Department list of terror organizations.  Canada's far-right Harper government hasn't seen fit to give such a designation there.  In fact, all it took for the JDL to get an invitation to join Harper's last pilgrimage delegation to Israel was a fawning letter from its leader.

Kahane Chai, the political party Meir Kahane founded and served in Knesset, is listed as a terror organization in Israel and may not run candidates for the Knesset.  Though Jewish extremists have skirted the law by giving their parties different names while retaining the same violent ideology.  Feiglin is one of these and there are several others serving in both the Likud and other far-right fringe parties in the Knesset.

In addition to his Kahanist ideology, Feiglin is one of the Likud's most popular politicians.  He is one of the chief inciters of tension with Muslims, making regular pilgrimages for prayer to the Temple Mount, which is controlled by a Muslim religious committee.  The Likud MK believes, along with his extremist settler brethren, in destroying the Haram al-Sharif and rebuilding the Holy Temple in its place. 

From the diaries ...



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by Oui (Oui) on Tue Jun 8th, 2021 at 01:39:06 PM EST
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Canada's neoconservative turn
By Yves Engler - The Electronic Intifada on Feb. 26, 2010

    "An attack on Israel would be considered an attack on Canada."
    - Peter Kent, Junior Foreign minister, 12 February 2010

In my new book Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid I argue that the trajectory of this country's foreign policy has been clear. The culmination of six decades of one-sided support, and four years into the government of Conservative Party Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Canada is (at least diplomatically) the most pro-Israel country in the world.

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Since the book went to print a couple of months ago the Conservatives have launched a more extreme phase of Israel advocacy. Groups in any way associated with the Palestinian cause have been openly attacked and Ottawa has taken a more belligerent tone towards Iran.

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The Conservatives chose a different tactic with the arm's-length government agency Rights and Democracy. Instead of cutting its budget, they stacked the board with hard-line supporters of Israel. Last week, Maclean magazine reported that "The Rights and Democracy board is now predominantly composed of people who have devoted much of their life to an unequivocal position: that no legal challenge to Israel's human rights record is permissible, because any such challenge is part of a global harassment campaign against Israel's right to exist."

The new "Israel no matter what" board members hounded the organization's president, Remy Beauregard, until he died of a heart attack after a "vitriolic" meeting a month ago.

Documents show Foreign Affairs officials knew of troubles at Rights and Democracy | National Post - Feb. 2012 |

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by Oui (Oui) on Tue Jun 8th, 2021 at 03:33:39 PM EST
How Jean-Paul Sartre and Les Temps Modernes Supported Algeria's Struggle for Freedom

The mainstream political parties -- those of the Left at least as much as those of the Right -- insisted that Algeria was an integral part of French territory and that its independence was not a matter for discussion.

One essential element in the support of the mainstream left for colonialism was their belief in the idea of the "civilizing mission." According to this line of thought, France, as the homeland of the 1789 Revolution, had a duty to take the values of liberty, equality, and fraternity to other, more benighted territories. The idea survives today in Macron's France under the name of "republican values."

Nationalism: Survival of French Colonialism

Middle East with Lebanon
French territory in Maghreb - Algeria
SE Asia - Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam
Françafrique

French defeat at Dien Bien Phu - May 1954

Algerian War of Independence 1954-1962

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by Oui (Oui) on Wed Jun 9th, 2021 at 06:58:23 AM EST


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by Oui (Oui) on Thu Jun 10th, 2021 at 09:13:02 AM EST

Muslim truck attack victims given farewell with coffins draped in flags | JPost |

The hour-long ceremony started after the four coffins draped in Canadian flags rolled into the compound of the Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario, and ended with prayers and condolences offered by religious and community leaders.

The four victims, spanning three generations, were killed when Nathaniel (Nate) Veltman, 20, ran into them while they were out for an evening walk near their home in London, Ontario. A fifth family member, a 9-year-old boy, is recovering from his injuries in the hospital.

Police have said the attack was premeditated and allege the family was targeted because of their Islamic faith.

Qureshi calls for global action to arrest rising trend of Islamophobic attacks in the Western world | Dawn News |

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by Oui (Oui) on Sun Jun 13th, 2021 at 09:02:33 AM EST


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by Oui (Oui) on Thu Jun 24th, 2021 at 02:59:56 AM EST
Pope Francis to meet Indigenous survivors of Canadian schools abuses | The Guardian |

First Nations, Metis and Inuit groups to travel to Vatican amid calls for papal apology over children's deaths

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The government formally apologised for the policy and abuses in 2008. The Presbyterian, Anglican and United churches have apologised for their roles in the abuse.

The CCCB did not mention the demand for a papal apology in the statement, saying only that Francis was "deeply committed to hearing directly from Indigenous peoples".

It said he had personally invited the Indigenous delegations and would use the meetings for "expressing his heartfelt closeness, addressing the impact of colonisation and the role of the church in the residential school system, in the hopes of responding to the suffering of Indigenous peoples and the ongoing effects of intergenerational trauma."

A papal apology was one of 94 recommendations from Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but the CCCB said in 2018 that the pope could not personally apologise for the residential schools.

    "In a brief submitted to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in November 1993, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said that `various types of abuse experienced at some residential schools have moved us to a profound examination of conscience as a Church.'

    "Already in 1991, Canadian Catholic Bishops and leaders of men and women religious communities had issued a statement that `We are sorry and deeply regret the pain, suffering and alienation that so many experienced' at the Residential Schools."



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by Oui (Oui) on Wed Jun 30th, 2021 at 06:33:52 PM EST


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by Oui (Oui) on Fri Jul 2nd, 2021 at 11:43:42 AM EST

Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II statues toppled in Canada amid anger at deaths of Indigenous children | The Guardian |

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by Oui (Oui) on Fri Jul 2nd, 2021 at 11:45:11 AM EST


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by Oui (Oui) on Tue Jul 6th, 2021 at 05:16:48 PM EST

Survivors recall abuse after hundreds of remains found near Sask. residential school | CTV News - June 24, 2021 |

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by Oui (Oui) on Fri Jul 9th, 2021 at 08:54:37 AM EST


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