It's Indigenous History Month, and we're all supposed to be having a "difficult conversation" about Indian Residential School graves. That's the relatively easy conversation. The more convenient one.
What a heart rending story that Canadians need to hear. Excellent work. Thanks, Terry.
On an unrelated note, and at the risk of beating a dead horse, I listened to the Canadaland episode where Jesse and his genocide-denying friend Andrey Domise discuss your articles and I must say, I came away piping hot mad. It looks as though they didn't even read it! It's a (surely legally actionable) slanderous misrepresentation.
What a loathsome display from these two posh "progressive" elitists.
I just read some reviews of Poets Cove. Spectacular setting, but it seems to have lost it's luster since it opened. Poor maintenance and cleanliness are often reviewed as poor.
I used to visit Bedwell Harbour in the late 1950s with my parents, and it was a lovely spot, but looking at the Poet’s Cove development, I am appalled.
I have enjoyed reading The Year of the Graves series in the NP and the backstories. We cannot change the past but we can do better in the future, but that will only work well if we possess the correct information. I am glad that you are shining a light on both the press and governments and their mischaracterizations, and in the case of governments, the criminal behavior towards the indigenous. We must expect better from historians and the press.
Such a history…so rich and sad. My wife grew up in Caledonia next to the Six Nations and has many lovely and sad memories of living with the indigenous as a child. Where do we go to to settle this?
It remains my considered opinion that colonialism is a mental illness. At its core, the idea that it is just to violate others, for their own good, or so the story goes. Thus, the violating logic of economic development, cultural genocide, and the colonial relationship between the living and the dead. Thanks for this, sad as it may be, a reminder that the living tissue of people, place and story is the seed from which we are all germinated. Violently slashing at the root, in the name of progress, only begets the sweet madness of self-inflicted wounds.
We seem to be using words differently. I would assume "settlers in America" is an allusion to colonialism. Unless you are attempting to distinguish the post-Revolutionary American version from the British variant. However, assuming any form of colonialism short of killing people is to count as being 'saved' suggests that slavery, for example, would have to count as being 'saved'.
As for American armies in Canada, Indigenous Peoples' participation in the War of 1812 not only 'saved' Indigenous Peoples in Canada, it also 'saved' Canada, from the Americans. Indigenous Peoples were not fighting to be colonized by the British, they were fighting to maintain their status as independent allies.
Colonialism was a choice the British and Canadian governments made. It was not a necessity. It is not so difficult to imagine it having been otherwise, even if it seems to have been largely impossible for the authors and architects of the Indian Act and Residential Schools. The fact is Canadian history contains examples of both, of colonialism and of independence. There is no reason to assume we now face a future bound by the limited imagination of Canada's British and Confederation forebears.
Insults are not arguments. Rhetorical deflections are not evidence.
The claim is colonialism is a failure of the historical imagination because it rests upon a failed attempt to justify cultural genocide. The argument that British/Confederation colonialism was an attempt to save Indigenous Peoples from brutal annihilation at the hands of the Americans has no basis in the facts of Canadian history.
Treaties with Indigenous Peoples could have been the foundation for ongoing respectful alliances, which, in the era of Peace and Friendship Treaties, they often were. The era of land surrender treaties, beginning around 1850, to secure access to land for mining and settlement, was not undertaken to save the 'Indians' from death at the hands of the Americans. While the American Civil War worried the Confederation politicians, it was not out of concern for the 'Indians'. So again, the idea that 'saving' the 'Indians' from brutal Americans animated colonial developments in Canada sounds more like a strained ideological fantasy than an organization of historical facts.
What a heart rending story that Canadians need to hear. Excellent work. Thanks, Terry.
On an unrelated note, and at the risk of beating a dead horse, I listened to the Canadaland episode where Jesse and his genocide-denying friend Andrey Domise discuss your articles and I must say, I came away piping hot mad. It looks as though they didn't even read it! It's a (surely legally actionable) slanderous misrepresentation.
What a loathsome display from these two posh "progressive" elitists.
Jesse Brown is a multi, multi, multi millionaire. Canadaland is his personal vanity project.
I just read some reviews of Poets Cove. Spectacular setting, but it seems to have lost it's luster since it opened. Poor maintenance and cleanliness are often reviewed as poor.
I used to visit Bedwell Harbour in the late 1950s with my parents, and it was a lovely spot, but looking at the Poet’s Cove development, I am appalled.
Agreed. They've wrecked the place.
I have enjoyed reading The Year of the Graves series in the NP and the backstories. We cannot change the past but we can do better in the future, but that will only work well if we possess the correct information. I am glad that you are shining a light on both the press and governments and their mischaracterizations, and in the case of governments, the criminal behavior towards the indigenous. We must expect better from historians and the press.
Beautifully written but incredibly sad and shameful. The almighty dollar trumps all. God must cry over all this.
I wonder how many of these people know about Terry’s story:
https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Hotel_Review-g183804-d185766-Reviews-Poets_Cove_Resort_Spa-Pender_Island_British_Columbia.html#REVIEWS
Was this the outcome of the the 2006 trial?
http://www.hulquminum.bc.ca/pubs/Poets%20Cove%20Fined.pdf
Looks like.
Such a history…so rich and sad. My wife grew up in Caledonia next to the Six Nations and has many lovely and sad memories of living with the indigenous as a child. Where do we go to to settle this?
It remains my considered opinion that colonialism is a mental illness. At its core, the idea that it is just to violate others, for their own good, or so the story goes. Thus, the violating logic of economic development, cultural genocide, and the colonial relationship between the living and the dead. Thanks for this, sad as it may be, a reminder that the living tissue of people, place and story is the seed from which we are all germinated. Violently slashing at the root, in the name of progress, only begets the sweet madness of self-inflicted wounds.
We seem to be using words differently. I would assume "settlers in America" is an allusion to colonialism. Unless you are attempting to distinguish the post-Revolutionary American version from the British variant. However, assuming any form of colonialism short of killing people is to count as being 'saved' suggests that slavery, for example, would have to count as being 'saved'.
As for American armies in Canada, Indigenous Peoples' participation in the War of 1812 not only 'saved' Indigenous Peoples in Canada, it also 'saved' Canada, from the Americans. Indigenous Peoples were not fighting to be colonized by the British, they were fighting to maintain their status as independent allies.
Colonialism was a choice the British and Canadian governments made. It was not a necessity. It is not so difficult to imagine it having been otherwise, even if it seems to have been largely impossible for the authors and architects of the Indian Act and Residential Schools. The fact is Canadian history contains examples of both, of colonialism and of independence. There is no reason to assume we now face a future bound by the limited imagination of Canada's British and Confederation forebears.
Insults are not arguments. Rhetorical deflections are not evidence.
The claim is colonialism is a failure of the historical imagination because it rests upon a failed attempt to justify cultural genocide. The argument that British/Confederation colonialism was an attempt to save Indigenous Peoples from brutal annihilation at the hands of the Americans has no basis in the facts of Canadian history.
Treaties with Indigenous Peoples could have been the foundation for ongoing respectful alliances, which, in the era of Peace and Friendship Treaties, they often were. The era of land surrender treaties, beginning around 1850, to secure access to land for mining and settlement, was not undertaken to save the 'Indians' from death at the hands of the Americans. While the American Civil War worried the Confederation politicians, it was not out of concern for the 'Indians'. So again, the idea that 'saving' the 'Indians' from brutal Americans animated colonial developments in Canada sounds more like a strained ideological fantasy than an organization of historical facts.