The former schools could be made into museums. I guess it’s a tricky balance whether to raze those buildings or leave them as stark reminders of what happened.
"We are deeply concerned about the serious human rights violations against the Indigenous people in Canada. Historically, Canada robbed the Indigenous people of the land, killed them and eradicated their culture," said Jiang Duan, a senior official at China's mission to the UN in Geneva.
"We call for a thorough and impartial investigation into all cases where crimes were committed against Indigenous people, especially the children," Jiang said, citing the preliminary discovery last month...
Clearly a response to distract from the international community's request to investigate Xinjiang, but their point stands.
It would be a national shame, but perhaps the awakening Canadians need, if the United Nations investigated Canada itself.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to CroFlames For This Useful Post:
The remains should be reburied with dignity in a cemetery.
The sites themselves should be demolished.
A monument built on the spot memorializing the victims, bonus if it is designed by an FN artist.
Do you think there is any value in preserving the sites themselves as museums and historical interpretation centres where, for example, kids can visit on school field trips when learning about this shameful part of our country's history? Sort of like how the Auschwitz complex is still mostly intact as a place for somber reflection at the cruelty humanity is capable of and a reminder that we must never allow that to happen again.
Do you think there is any value in preserving the sites themselves as museums and historical interpretation centres where, for example, kids can visit on school field trips when learning about this shameful part of our country's history? Sort of like how the Auschwitz complex is still mostly intact as a place for somber reflection at the cruelty humanity is capable of and a reminder that we must never allow that to happen again.
Yes, it crossed my mind. Ultimately, I would ask what the survivors and relatives want, and do that.
If I were a survivor, I think I'd like to see all the buildings demolished and memorials put in place, but that's just me.
They used the the old residential school in Mission as a treatment center for youth addictions, unfortunatly the staff in the center had been students in the residential school and basically started running the treatment center in the same way the old res' school was run, eat your dinner or go stand in the corner etc, it all went quite pear shaped in the end, this was a decade ago or so.
I don't think it should be up to "us" to decide what is done with past residential school sites. I think we should go by the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Museums and Archives
67. We call upon the federal government to provide funding to the Canadian Museums Association to undertake, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, a national review of museum policies and best practices to determine the level of compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to make recommendations.
68. We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, and the Canadian Museums Association to mark the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation in 2017 by establishing a dedicated national funding program for commemoration projects on the theme of reconciliation.
69. We call upon Library and Archives Canada to:
i. Fully adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, as related to Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why, with regard to human rights violations committed against
them in the residential schools.
ii. Ensure that its record holdings related to residential schools are accessible to the public.
iii. Commit more resources to its public education materials and programming on residential schools.
70. We call upon the federal government to provide funding to the Canadian Association of Archivists to undertake, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, a national review of archival policies and best practices to:
i. Determine the level of compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, as related to Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why, with regard to human rights violations committed against them in the residential schools.
ii. Produce a report with recommendations for full implementation of these international mechanisms as a reconciliation framework for Canadian archives.
As to what to do with any remains found now or in the future, again the calls to action specify the following:
Missing Children and Burial Information
71. We call upon all chief coroners and provincial vital statistics agencies that have not provided to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada their records on the deaths of Aboriginal children in the care of residential school authorities to make these documents available to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
72. We call upon the federal government to allocate sufficient resources to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to allow it to develop and maintain the National Residential School Student Death Register established by the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of Canada.
73. We call upon the federal government to work with churches, Aboriginal communities, and former residential school students to establish and maintain an online registry of residential school cemeteries, including, where possible, plot maps showing the location of deceased residential school children.
74. We call upon the federal government to work with the churches and Aboriginal community leaders to inform the families of children who died at residential schools of the child’s burial location, and to respond to families’ wishes for appropriate commemoration ceremonies and markers, and reburial in home communities where requested.
75. We call upon the federal government to work with provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, churches, Aboriginal communities, former residential school students, and current landowners to develop and implement strategies and procedures for the ongoing identification, documentation, maintenance, commemoration, and protection of residential school cemeteries or other sites at which residential school children were buried. This is to include the provision of Calls to Action| 9 appropriate memorial ceremonies and commemorative markers to honour the deceased children.
76. We call upon the parties engaged in the work of documenting, maintaining, commemorating, and protecting residential school cemeteries to adopt strategies in accordance with the following principles:
i. The Aboriginal community most affected shall lead the development of such strategies.
ii. Information shall be sought from residential school Survivors and other Knowledge Keepers in the development of such strategies.
iii. Aboriginal protocols shall be respected before any potentially invasive technical inspection and investigation of a cemetery site.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to redforever For This Useful Post:
Am I allowed to touch on religion in this thread? Will anyone call for me to be banned if critical of religion? Holy s**t.
I'll express my disgust for religion here because I feel it's pertinent, I feel it's what empowered these repugnant people. It's what convinces the flock that priests are the conduit to the almighty, that they possess supernatural powers to communicate with an imaginary being.
Isn't that the crux of it? Pretending to have special knowledge to frighten people, to commit crimes and get away with them?
Religion is absolutely deserving of ridicule and those who defend the church, faith and religion need to do some serious reflection.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bs&Cs
Though it's worth noting that just because Church leadership has acted in such an obviously deplorable manner, labelling the entirety of the Christian faith as being mere superstition believed in by rubes is indeed the kind or edgelord nonsense you'd hear come from the mouths of high schoolers.
Only the church leadership? How about the hundreds of priests that have raped and abused children? Yeah, those same disgusting people who claim to speak for God and can reveal his will.
Faith is just an excuse to believe in flat out absurdity with zero evidence, it's such an embarrassing weakness of mankind. Yeah, nonsense?
The Following User Says Thank You to Engine09 For This Useful Post:
Am I allowed to touch on religion in this thread? Will anyone call for me to be banned if critical of religion? Holy s**t.
I'll express my disgust for religion here because I feel it's pertinent, I feel it's what empowered these repugnant people. It's what convinces the flock that priests are the conduit to the almighty, that they possess supernatural powers to communicate with an imaginary being.
Isn't that the crux of it? Pretending to have special knowledge to frighten people, to commit crimes and get away with them?
Religion is absolutely deserving of ridicule and those who defend the church, faith and religion need to do some serious reflection.
Only the church leadership? How about the hundreds of priests that have raped and abused children? Yeah, those same disgusting people who claim to speak for God and can reveal his will.
Faith is just an excuse to believe in flat out absurdity with zero evidence, it's such an embarrassing weakness of mankind. Yeah, nonsense?
Did I say anything about individuals? The post was in reply to a comment on the role of the Church during the second world war. I thought it pertinent to say that I am not a supporter of theirs considering the nature of the thread. That said... Yes I hold the Church leadership to a higher level of responsibility than individual priests. The Church cannot help if a priest commits a crime. They can help foster an environment where criminals never have to answer for their crimes, and help perpetrate cover ups. Which they did/do.
Let me ask you. Do you have similar views on law enforcement, education and medicine? Pedophiles also flock to positions in those sectors- and in statistically larger numbers. Why do you think that is? This post just reveals a major lack of empathy and understanding for why people have faith. I mean, you don't even seem to understand what a priest actually does in their role.
