Canada needs to be shamed on the world stage...
Whenever I post here I often make a deal of being in Canada because the majority of the demographics here is American. So I'm usually hyper aware of being an outsider here. Especially since this board mostly pertains to US politics, a topic that I am passionate about, but by the very nature of my geographic separation it's a topic that I'm foreign to. But it's one that impacts all of us.
And another topic that effects all of us is racism. Which is actually very pertinent to America's current POTUS in disgrace. Racism poisons everything. And I want to say as a Canadian that I am ashamed of my country. I am not a patriotic person. I never have been. To me patriotism is highly suspect and speaks to wanting to take ownership of something you never worked to gain. By being patriotic you get to bathe in the glory of all your founding fathers by dint of simply being randomly born in a particular geographic location. And taking such pride leaves you open to being blinded to the complex, multifaceted, and deeply flawed nature of your own country. And every country is complex, and layered, and deeply flawed. There is not a country in existence without an ugly history.
For too long Canada has ridden the coat tails on the world stage of being the friendly nation. The nation of Mounties, and Beavers, Universal Health care (to Americans), Niagara falls, and maple syrup. Yes I know those who care to dig under the surface know more, but most don't.
Well it's also a nation that until as recently as the 1970s, and 80s had an active program of cultural genocide against the indigenous peoples of this land. Sure we all know of the horrors that the original settlers committed in whipping out the native peoples of this land. But I'm talking about nineteen fucking ninety six 1996! That's the year the last of the residential schools here closed doors.
Read about it!:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system
The residential school system was a systematic effort by the government of Canada to wipe out the cultures of the indigenous peoples of this land. To destroy their language, to tear families apart, to "assimilate" them into white culture. To wipe clean their "dirty" race. It was done of course under the guise of a paternalistic government taking kids away from homes to be raised "properly". These were christian run schools where kids were sexually, physically and emotionally abused. 6000+ children died in these schools! And 150,000 kids were processed through them. Generations of broken people! Many of them were barely treated as human beings!
It's only been in the past 10 years or so that we as a nation have started to come to terms with this cultural genocide as it has been very correctly called. If you listen to public radio here it's become a constant topic of conversation. But of course it's something that nowhere near enough has been done about.
And of course there is the whole other issue of the horribly broken reservation system we have in place here which while technically speaking may have been well meaning, mainly serves to keep indigenous people as second class citizens. While some of these reservations have been success stories, many many of them are hell. Poor communities with terribly high rates of extreme alcoholism, abuse, suicide and more. Just recently has come to light the fact that some of the really remote rural reservations have teen suicide epidemics. I'm talking multiple strings of suicide of kids as young as 13 and younger!
I know that in America you have much the same problems with indigenous communities. But it's not as widely known that Canada not only has them too but I would arguing that things here are unquestionably worse.
We have been rightly airing this dirty laundry on TV and on public radio here, but I think it's something that the world needs to see.
= new reply since forum marked as read
