Good afternoon Steemians,
For the most part, I try to keep political issues and opinions away from my blog but this is the straw that breaks the camel's back. I had a day to sit over this issue and how to approach the subject. For centuries indigenous communities across Canada has been plagued with racial injustice of various degree starting with the settlements of British colonies starting from the 17th and 18th century. Many genocides and displacement has occurred. Now I understand this his part of our dirty Canadian history and we must come to terms with that and forgive the past so we can move on as a country, as a united people.
Most Canadians see it as a thing of the past and we can't be held accountable for the actions of our ancestors. This is true to a point but reality is, many injustice against native communities continues to this day. Residential schools were established by christian colonies, for those of you who don't know what they are, they are schools that were set up to convert what they called "savages" to their way of thinking where indigenous children were ripped from the arms of their parents to be placed in these schools to teach "colonist values" and eradicate their native culture, belief system, language etc...basically turn them into thinking like white folks. In these schools, indigenous children were beaten, starved, abused and tortured. An estimated 50 000 children died in these schools that operated here in Canada until the late 1980's. The surviving children grew up damaged beyond belief due to the social conditioning and ordeal they have survived. They were never provided with mental health resources to recover from the ordeal. They never got justice, nobody was jailed for these crimes against children, if anything, many monuments and public government establishments went to be named after the perpetrators causing further sense of loss and devastation for the communities.
Other children, in the 1960's got unjustifiably taken from their families in what is now called "the 60's scoop" to be sold to white folks as adopted children or as part of the foster care system placed in white families where many of these children died from abuse. Even taken outside of the country to never have contact with their families ever again. Some were institutionalized and forced into sterilization without their consent.
Many tribes had their ancestral land taken from their communities and were relocated due to resources the government wanted access to, for example clean drinking water. The government made a bunch of fake promises and never delivered and cutting them off from what is considered basic human rights in Canada and cutting them off from society that continues today and has been so for at least 100 years. Shaol Lake 40 community is the perfect example but it isn't unique to their community. They live 40 Km outside of one of Canada's major urban center of Winnipeg. Most residents did not have access to clean water and don't even had a road and bridge to connect them to the mainland so that they can get food ,supplies and adequate medical care or schooling along with other services that should be provided until 2017 . They had to take a boat to Winnipeg all because the government wanted access to the fresh water lake on their ancestral land to supply the city with water...Yes this is in Canada... folks being kept under third world conditions in a developed nation. They have been trying to get the public and government's attention for decades with no results. Elected officials keep promising to help them and never deliver It's disgusting. Across many communities, they are forced to live in shacks that would be deamed inhabitable by most Canadian regulation standards.
Kept living in inhumane circumstances and disconnected and denied access to the basics has left it's scars onto the communities and their people and many are loosing all hope turning to violence, mass suicides among the youth , family violence and a life of crime, drugs and alcohol abuse to try to cope. Many who leave end up homeless in major cities because of the racism they face and continued denial of basic infrastructure most Canadians would have access to.
To add to the insult, we have a problem of missing and murdered indigenous women. Many go missing to never be heard from again, some have their bodies wash up from the river or found dead on the side of the road. These women never get justice, for the most part these cases are not even taken seriously by most law enforcement and many of these cases remain unsolved with the killers still on the loose victimizing other indigenous women and girls and continue tearing families and communities apart.
This is just a few examples of the injustice that goes on today nowhere near all of it. For some reason most Canadians don't seem to acknowledge there is a problem or they say it's their fault for living the way they do. That is the most insensitive thing one could ever say about a fellow Canadian. For many of my generation both from indegenous and colonist , when we were younger had hopes of reconciliation and that we could all live reunited as a people in a country that prides in their values of diversity. As time goes on the thought of a united people is dwindling. Until many of the current issues are resolved , I would say it will be impossible.
My rant was brought on today because of a recent controversial court decision in the Province of Saskatchewan. Here is the story.
A young indigenous man, Colten and his friends were trespassing on a farmers property who thought they were trying to steal a local farmers suv but his friends claim they were trying to get help with a flat tire, the farmer came out and fired 2 warning shots and instructing them to leave the property. Then a struggle occurred and shot the young man in the head killing him claiming the gun accidentally went off and shot the young man in the head as a result.
Fire arm experts determined the gun was in good working order and the only way it could have been fired is by pulling the trigger.
In some countries, you might be like whatever that's how she goes. Not here in Canada, you call the cops and let them be the voice and arm of the law, we do not approve of this style of vigilante justice. The farmer was on trial for second degree murder, the other option was manslaughter. Well the farmer was found not guilty within one day of jury delegation. When the jury was put together, all indigenous were turned away and not allowed to be part of the jury. Only whites were invited to the jury. The court system who is known to have behaviors of discrimination let a murderer walk free probably because he was white and the victim was indigenous. I do agree that the young man shouldn't have been trespassing and attempting to steal a vehicle but murder isn't the answer and the farmer should have been sentenced accordingly since he didn't follow the law either. Yet he will go unpunished. If the tables were reversed, and an idigenous man would have murdered a white man, there would have been serious consequences and major jail time.
This is just one more example of the injustice that plague this country. I know we are not the only country with this problem, it occurs all over the world. Lets put all our differences aside, we are all equal, we are all humans, we all bleed the same color, we are all made of flesh. Lets love one and other for our cultural differences rather than make wars and continue fighting among ourselves like this. Lets all unite and be brothers and sisters for the sake of humanity. Lets help each other accomplish great things and heal this planet and it's citizens together.
Lets end racism together
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/oct/21/winnipeg-election-indigenous-divide-aboriginal
