A response to Jonathan Kay’s article; ‘Canada’s Grave Error’
On the last day of a work trip to the UK, my friend Wendy gifted me a copy of ‘The Critic (April 2023)’ because of an article about Residential Schools in Canada.
I was unfamiliar with this publication and can only go by the copy in hand, but somewhat unsurprisingly the the lead articles include why BBC Singers are; ‘the envy of the world’ (I’ve never heard of them) and a two page rant from Helen Joyce about Trans people.
Oh, Helen, you are so hard done by being critiqued for spewing ideology.
Thus positioned, Mr. Kay of the Canadian National Post, is calling into question the existence of unmarked graves near residential schools and the use of the word genocide with regard to the assimilation system in Canada.
Starting out, Kay somehow conflates the acknowledgement of a history of enslavement on Canadian soil with Canada not yet being a country. If one needs to repel such an obtuse statement, suffice to say the United Canadas did exist and slavery as an institution was legal in jurisdictions that formed Canada. So please stop splitting hairs before you address a deeply shameful and shockingly recent element of Canada’s history.
I was among the many of Canadians who felt deep guilt and despair when unmarked graves were found in Kamloops and subsequently around many residential schools. Is every anomaly revealed by radar a human body? Probably not, that is why, Mr. Kay, the numbers have been adjusted. Is there, however, clear evidence that children forced into the government-sanctioned, church run Indian School System killed or died from neglect? Absolutely
Tuberculosis was a major killer. So were clergy. Rape was widespread. This is so overwhelmingly documented and proven that years before the Kamloops community went looking for their children, Canada went through an important process of Truth and Reconciliation. Read it sometime.
I expect Kay is not a scientist and nor am I, but there is clear science to expose human, organic matter in the earth. Children who never returned home, were likely interned and much of their remains would have been consumed by the ground. Much older photos of school grounds show random crosses. As a protest sign in Vancouver clearly explains; ‘no matter the numbers, there should never, ever be cemeteries at schools.’
The finding of unmarked graves close to a school where many - perhaps hundreds of children were unaccounted for is consistent. The number of indigenous children killed by these state sponsored, church run schools is likely higher than we have yet accounted for - not a false flag claim of an extreme leftest Prime Minister.
This article simply makes unsubstantiated noise suggesting a Prime Minister who takes some ownership for this horrific history is a failure in doing so, highlights all the hallmarks of the angry, Jordan Peterson fringe of Canadian academia. Apparently Mr. Kay has found a home in a right wing, culture wars British journal where he may ‘simply ask questions’ in that all too familiar Murdoch Media manner.
3 Comments
…but there weren’t any bodies? They weren’t unmarked graves – there would have been some signs of a body if they were.
You should try to be a bit more open-minded, old son.
There is clear evidence of organic / human matter. There were no graves .. that’s he point
No there isn’t that is the point. Also, every child going to school was documented, as were the deaths of children who attended the schools, as the schools received public funding based on student populations. Some died in hospital, some at school and some at home. The records are there in public and school archives. Read the book, it gets at the facts rather than the assumptions.