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Posted by: .
« on: October 02, 2023, 06:27:54 pm »

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trudeau-says-denialism-rising-nation-marks-holiday-indigenous-reconcilation-2023-09-30/

It's OK for denial to be white

Trudeau says 'denialism' rising as nation marks holiday for indigenous reconciliation

Quote

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday warned about the rise of "denialism" and said uncovering the truth was more important than ever as the nation gathered to honor the lost children and survivors of indigenous schools.

removed about 150,000 indigenous children from their families. Some were subjected to abuse, **** and malnutrition at schools in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 called "cultural genocide."


Posted by: rs
« on: October 01, 2023, 07:22:09 pm »

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/residential-school-deaths-are-significantly-higher-than-previously-reported

It's OK for denial to be white

Residential school deaths are significantly higher than previously reported


Quote

As communities have continued to push for searches across the country, the numbers have kept growing

Listening to the truths of residential school survivors was a stark reminder that we need to continue educating people about what happened at these schools, both for Indigenous and non-Indigenous folks. I also learned and reflected on the mortality at Indian Residential Schools across Canada.

Over 150,000 First Nation, Metis and Inuit children attended Indian Residential Schools and although the official records are incomplete, it is estimated that thousands of children died at those schools.

Between 1931 and 1996, there were 139 Indian Residential Schools operating in Canada. In 2019, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation shared the names of 2,800 children who had died in those schools. At that time, it was believed that there were still an additional 1,600 unnamed children.

As communities have continued to push for searches across the country, the numbers have kept growing. The most recent collective findings from community searches across the country (versus the official numbers of recorded deaths) suggest that the number of deaths may be much greater than those originally reported.

These new findings support the accounts residential school survivors have been sharing for decades and provides context into the severity of the genocide enacted on Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

In July 2022, Pope Francis affirmed these accounts and called the Indian Residential Schools an act of genocide.

However, in the midst of uncovering the truths through these searches, we are experiencing denialism. Despite the irrefutable evidence, there are still those who deny or refuse to acknowledge the abuse and deaths of Indigenous children in residential schools.

Indigenous scholars, leaders and survivors have long known that the number of deaths of children in residential schools was substantial. Now, as new research and data is produced, we will continue to see the official numbers grow.

it’s horrible to have to address denialism during this time of mourning and healing in our communities.




Posted by: I
« on: September 30, 2023, 08:44:29 pm »

https://globalnews.ca/news/9997057/all-canadians-need-to-confront-the-past-trudeau-in-saskatchewan-marking-truth-and-reconciliation-day/

‘All Canadians need to confront the past’: Trudeau in Sask. marking National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

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“This is a challenging day, it’s a day where all Canadians need to confront the fact that our past was not what we would want it to be,” Trudeau said. “There are many who’d like us to simply brush over the past and pretend it didn’t happen because they feel that talking about Truth and reconciliation, marking this day, somehow diminishes us.”

He said that recognizing the truth of the past is the only way to to make Canada “the country we know we can be.”

“Today is about the residential school survivors, their families and also the children that didn’t make it home,” she said.

Cook-Seasron, a third generation residential school survivor, went on to share stories of her experiences in school, including incidents of sexual assaults.

We were made to feel less-than, like we didn’t matter,” she said.

A bridge on Highway 2 that connects the Village of Air Ronge and the Town of La Ronge was renamed Reconciliation Bridge. A new sign was unveiled at a ceremony on September 30.

“‘Mitho Wechewitowin Asokun – Reconciliation Bridge’ stands as a powerful and perpetual symbol for our community and for all who pass through the La Ronge area,” Cook-Searson said.


“As we move forward, let this bridge serve as a beacon of hope, unity, and remembrance, embodying the spirit of togetherness essential for meaningful reconciliation as we step into the future,” she said.

“Collectively we must remain vigilant in acknowledging the impact of residential schools, while paying tribute to survivors and honouring the memory of those who never returned,” Lemaigre said.

“I pray it never happens again, now we’re fighting hard to heal, for people to understand, but I’m not sure if they will because the pain is so deep,” she said. Shepherd added that talking to other survivors who have have been through similar experiences was the start of her healing journey.




Posted by: guest98
« on: July 24, 2023, 03:00:30 pm »

https://www.cp24.com/world/a-long-journey-reconciliation-happening-day-by-day-one-year-after-pope-s-apology-1.6490843

'A long journey': Reconciliation happening day by day, one year after Pope's apology

Quote

Pope Francis said he was sorry for the Roman Catholic Church's role in the cultural destruction and forced assimilation of Indigenous people, which culminated in residential schools.

The apologies met a mixed response. Many Indigenous people said it was necessary, especially for residential school survivors, because it meant the head of the Catholic Church was finally recognizing harms were committed.

Some criticized Francis for not going far enough. Others thought Indigenous Peoples and organizations should disengage with the church altogether because they’d expended enough energy on it. Many called for actions, not words.

The abuse inside the schools was long kept quiet nationally, but Fontaine broke the silence in 1990 when he spoke about his own experiences at the Fort Alexander Residential School in Manitoba.

 Pope Francis asked Canadian Catholics to commit to four things: to ensure history is told in a truthful way; to support Indigenous language, culture and traditions; to be an ally in the pursuit of justice; and to appreciate Indigenous wisdom to care for the land and environment.

"It's easier to say it than to do it,” Bolen says.

Earlier this year, the Vatican formally denounced the 15th-century papal bulls used as the basis for the Doctrine of Discovery, which legitimized the seizure of Indigenous land.

 Francis said in his apology that the largest evil is indifference, so now it is up to the Catholic institution to work on dismantling 400 years of a colonial mindset toward Indigenous Peoples, Gareau says.

Gareau pointed to Vatican II, which significantly modernized church practices to meet cultural shifts in the early 1960s. Not everyone immediately embraced the structural changes, but it eventually revolutionized the church.

Francis has steered the ship in a direction toward reconciliation, Gareau says. But the church must now recognize Indigenous sovereignty, and that means engaging in diplomatic relations and returning land.

It also means changing the hearts and mind of Catholics and dismantling anti-Indigenous structural racism — work that cannot and should not rely on Indigenous people.
Posted by: guest98
« on: June 29, 2023, 03:28:53 pm »

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/search-suggests-88-potential-graves-at-residential-school-in-northern-alberta-1.6461054

Search suggests 88 potential graves at residential school in northern Alberta

Quote

 Sucker Creek First Nation Chief Roderick Willier remembers never feeling safe during the decade he spent at a residential school in northern Alberta.

"I always had to stay on high alert when I was there," Willier said, as he recalled his time between the age of seven and 17 at St. Bruno's Indian Residential School in Joussard, Alta., about 335 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

"I was always told, 'Oh, you got to be careful of them (at residential school)."'

University of Alberta researchers recently found evidence of 88 potential unmarked graves near the former school.

She said the team found signs of unmarked graves outside of the school cemetery area at two locations -- one of them close to the workshop on the school's grounds, the other near the priest's residence.

Posted by: guest98
« on: June 17, 2023, 05:26:45 pm »

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/denialists-tried-to-access-unmarked-gravesite-tkemlups-report-1.6879980

It's OK for denial to be "white"

Residential school denialists tried to dig up suspected unmarked graves in Kamloops, B.C., report finds

Quote

Residential school deniers tried to dig up suspected unmarked grave sites at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, not believing a May 2021 announcement from the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc that as many as 215 Indigenous children had been buried there, according to a new report.

"Denialists entered the site without permission. Some came in the middle of the night, carrying shovels; they said they wanted to 'see for themselves' if children are buried there," said a Friday report from Kimberly Murray, the independent special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves and burial sites associated with Indian Residential Schools.

She did not say who the denialists were or when they came to the site.

But the unauthorized visits to the site are the work of a "core group" of Canadians who continue to deny, defend or minimize the physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuse inflicted on Indigenous children in the Indian Residential School System "despite the indisputable evidence of survivors and their families," Murray said at a Friday news conference.

Other uninvited visitors, including denialists and some members of the media, were disrespectful of the site, breaching cultural protocols and taking videos and pictures of the burial area without permission, the report found.

Denialism and disrespect exacerbate the pain and trauma of survivors and community members trying to grieve and search the grave sites, Murray said.

Citing international experts, Murray called denialism "the last step in genocide."

"Denialism is violence. Denialism is calculated. Denialism is harmful. Denialism is hate," Murray said.

Since findings from Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc were leaked in May 2021, the community and others have faced an outpouring of denialism from some Canadians and media outlets.

A May 2022 New York Post headline called the suspected unmarked graves the "biggest fake news story in Canada."

Kúkpi7 Rosanne Casimir, elected chief of Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc, says she stopped being able to use social media without "heavy filters" due to the hate and racism that inundated her and others in the community in the wake of the findings, according to Murray's Friday report.

After the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan announced at least 751 potential unmarked graves near the former Marieval Indian Residential School, the most located at a single site, Barbara Lavallee, residential school survivor and lead researcher for the Nation said the community was also targeted with denialism.

"Many communities have had to adopt security measures to keep trespassers off the burial grounds," Murray said on Friday.

Posted by: guest98
« on: May 31, 2023, 02:18:45 pm »

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/little-grand-rapids-roman-catholic-church-sexual-assault-1.6859874

Little Grand Rapids wants Roman Catholic church to leave amid sexual assault allegations, chief says

Quote

The chief of a remote First Nation in eastern Manitoba says community members want the Roman Catholic church to leave in the wake of disturbing allegations a priest who works there sexually assaulted one child, and potentially several others as well.

"I brought that up to the band meeting about our priest and the community right away said, 'you know what, we don't want that person here in the community, we don't want him to come back and we don't want the church here,'" Owen said in a phone interview.

The meeting followed the RCMP announcing allegations that an eight-year-old girl was touched inappropriately Saturday while she was alone with Father Arul Savari at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Little Grand Rapids.

Savari was charged with five offences — including sexual assault and sexual interference — after RCMP received a report the girl was sexually assaulted while helping clean the church.

The girl told investigators when she tried to leave, the priest forced her to stay in the building, Mounties said. When she was able to get away, she ran home and told her mom, who reported the incident to police.

"It's hard to imagine. I'm kind of lost for words," Owen said, noting people in the community are just learning the details of the allegations.

"It's shocking and I think the church, the Roman Catholic church, should be coming to Little Grand Rapids to apologize."

RCMP said Tuesday additional youth members of the religious community have already been identified as potential victims, and there may be more who have yet to come forward. Officers didn't say exactly how many victims have come forward so far.

In a statement Tuesday, Southern Chiefs' Organization Grand Chief Jerry Daniels said they stand with the girl who was harmed.

"First Nations have sadly experienced predatory behaviour for generations when it comes to the churches," Daniels said in a news release. "The leaders of the Catholic church have much work to do in repairing relationships with our nations."

"We still have residential school survivors that suffered similar abuses, and this ... may be very triggering to those survivors," Merrick said. "My heart is with the people of Little Grand Rapids and Pauingassi at this time of sorrow."


York Catholic school board votes against flying Pride flag
Quote
The York Catholic District School Board in Ontario has voted against flying the Pride flag at its Catholic Education Centre in June. The decision came after advocates and critics clashed for months over the issue.

https://youtu.be/4YThI08WOa8


Posted by: guest98
« on: May 28, 2023, 03:22:39 pm »

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/saskatoon-catholic-school-superintendent-tells-principals-to-keep-kids-away-from-rainbow-tent-at-festival-1.6855825

Advocates criticize Saskatoon Catholic Schools directive to keep kids from Rainbow Tent at children's festival
Rainbow Tent meant to promote inclusivity and diversity: Nutrien Childen's Festival organizer

Quote

An email the superintendent of education for Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools (GSCS) sent to his elementary school principals has sparked outrage.

Tom Hickey directed the principals to keep students away from the Rainbow Tent at this year's Nutrien Children's Festival of Saskatchewan. Advocates say the directive sends a regressive message.

The Rainbow Tent will offer programming "from Drag Queen Storytime to inclusive dress up performances filled with colour and fun," according to the festival's website.

Hickey wrote to principals that "engagement and participation by our students in that particular offering would not be supported" because of the description on the festival website.

"Please be assured that GSCS schools are still welcome to attend the Children's Festival," Hickey wrote. "However we ask that you speak with the teachers who may be taking students and inform them that the Rainbow Tent shouldn't be part of their visit."

Skylar Forsberg, one of the Rainbow Tent performers, says she was livid about the email.

"The Rainbow Tent is about inclusion. It's about showing people that we're in this together and that we're not going to back down just because some people are having a little hissy fit about some drag queens wanting to perform in the park," Forsberg said.

"It's about entertainment and coming on down and having some fun."

"A lot of people in the Catholic school system are hidden and they shouldn't be hidden," Forsberg said.

Posted by: guest98
« on: May 26, 2023, 03:34:02 pm »

Bolivian protesters vandalize churches, burn priest effigy amid anger over sex abuse allegations
Quote
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of La Paz, Bolivia on Thursday to demand justice over sexual abuse allegations within the country's Catholic Church institution.

Burning an effigy of a priest, angry protesters gathered outside two churches to demand action. Placards read things like "jail for pedos," and "A church that covers up (for rapist priests) is just as much a rapist."

Outrage against abuse allegations was sparked by the reported publication of a late Jesuit priest's diary in the Spanish newspaper El Pais, which contained multiple confessions of the sexual abuse of children in the schools he ran in Bolivia. It alleged Church officials knew about the abuse but did nothing.

Since April, some 200 people have come forward to say they suffered abuse in religious-run schools in the country.


https://youtu.be/VahwMsuQbrU

The Catholic "church" is a world poison.
Posted by: guest98
« on: May 26, 2023, 03:30:55 pm »

Saskatoon Catholic school administrators under fire for leaked homophobic emails

https://youtu.be/svcwlJrZ0SI
Posted by: guest98
« on: May 26, 2023, 03:06:23 pm »

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/priest-sexual-assault-allegations-archdiocese-st-boniface-winnipeg-1.6854754

Winnipeg man who alleges 2 Catholic priests sexually abused him as a child sues Archdiocese of St. Boniface

Quote

A man who alleges two Catholic priests sexually abused him as a child three decades ago is taking the Archdiocese of St. Boniface to court.

The Winnipeg man, now 44, is suing the Archdiocese of St. Boniface, the archbishop of St. Boniface and the Red River Valley School Division.

The man alleges the abuses happened in 1990 and 1991 when he was a student at St. Jean Baptiste Elementary, then a part of the Red River Valley School Division.

The lawsuit accuses two priests — Leo Couture and Rene Touchette — of sexual assault.

Both men were priests at the St. Jean Baptise church and had "unfettered access to students" at the school, the lawsuit alleges.

The plaintiff was "dependent on, took instruction from and was required to submit to" both men, the court filing says.

The plaintiff alleges Touchette and Couture asked him to help with church duties during lunch and after school on multiple occasions starting when he was 10 or 11.

During those times, he alleges the priests took him to a convent building adjacent to St. Jean Baptiste Elementary and forced him to strip and try on different pants.

The priests exposed themselves, forced him to touch them sexually and "violently and forcefully" molested and sodomized him, court documents say.

The assaults allegedly happened half a dozen times in 1990 and 1991.

"As a result, the plaintiff sustained physical injuries, significant emotional and psychological pain and trauma and mental distress," the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit suggests Touchette was moved "from one church to another," and that there were complaints from other victims. Complaints were also made about Couture, the lawsuit says.

The man is seeking unspecified damages for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, humiliation, loss of dignity, sleep issues, emotional stress and impacts on family and social relationships.


The Catholic "church" is nothing more then a club of child molesters and child abusers.
Posted by: guest98
« on: May 23, 2023, 02:39:02 pm »

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65652001

Illinois report details scale of Catholic clergy sex abuse

Quote

Hundreds of Catholic priests and church officials in the US state of Illinois have been named in a report detailing sexual abuse by clergy.

The state's top prosecutor said 451 clergy in Illinois had sexually abused nearly 2,000 children since 1950.

The church had acknowledged only 103 individual abusers before the start of the investigation in 2018.

Nearly every survivor interviewed struggled with mental health issues after the abuse, the report said.

Several US states launched investigations into Catholic sexual abuse after a Pennsylvania grand jury report in 2018 found that 300 priests had abused more than 1,000 children over a period of 70 years. 

The Catholic "church" needs to be totally destroyed. They don't follow the teachings of Jesus, who is returning soon. 
Posted by: 90sRetroFan
« on: November 28, 2022, 07:55:41 pm »

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/america-is-always-written-as-the-hero-native-american-boarding-schools-are-a-dark-period-in-us-history-that-not-enough-people-know-about-163018941.html

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Families were forced to send their children to these schools by the government and the Catholic church. By 1926, nearly 83% of all Native children were enrolled in one of these schools. Children were made to eliminate their entire cultural identities; schools cut their braids, had them wear uniforms, removed traditional foods from their diets and even assigned them new “white” names.

It was not until 1978, when the Indian Child Welfare Act passed, that Native American parents could even have a legal say as to whether their children could attend an off-reservation school.

Nikki Apostolou, a member of the Kanien’keha community whose great-grandfather attended one of the schools, explained to In The Know: “Many [of these schools] were promoted and operated under the belief that they were helping Native children to become better integrated into Christian, modern society.”
...
Phyllis “Jack” Webstad, who is Northern Secwpemc (Shuswap) from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation, was initially enrolled at a residential school when she was 6 years old in 1973. She shared that her grandmother had bought her a “shiny orange shirt” to get her excited for the first day of school. But when Webstad arrived, boarding school officials immediately stripped her of her clothes.

https://www.orangeshirtday.org/phyllis-story.html

Quote
When I got to the Mission, they stripped me, and took away my clothes, including the orange shirt! I never wore it again. I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t give it back to me, it was mine! The color orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared.

NEVER FORGIVE. NEVER FORGET.
Posted by: 90sRetroFan
« on: November 25, 2022, 07:14:42 pm »

https://us.yahoo.com/news/many-native-american-children-died-130057643.html

Quote
For thousands of Indigenous children in Arizona and beyond, school didn’t mean learning and growth – it meant pain and suffering.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, churches worked with the U.S. government to create hundreds of boarding schools for Native American children. During this time, Native children were coerced or forcibly removed from their families and communities. They were taken to institutions that were focused on dismantling their culture and family unit in the name of “assimilation” into white American culture.
...
while the harms of the boarding school era are well-known to Indigenous communities, there had never been federal documentation of these horrors.

The report aimed to examine the scope of the Indian boarding school system with a specific focus on the locations, burial sites and possible identification of children. It was also notable because for the first time, the federal government acknowledged “that the United States directly targeted American Natives, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiian children in pursuit of a policy of cultural assimilation.”
...
According to the Interior report, Arizona held the second largest number of boarding schools in the nation, with 47 schools throughout our state. You can see evidence of this horrible legacy today – Indian School Road was named as such because it led to a Native boarding school right in central Phoenix

Bonus Counterculture-era movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg1cEKgIHoI
Posted by: 90sRetroFan
« on: August 15, 2022, 12:21:57 am »

https://us.yahoo.com/news/road-healing-event-draws-more-123700351.html

Quote
Until now, former students of the institutions were largely ignored, surviving separation from family, culture and language, and navigating through generations of trauma left by the legacy of the boarding schools.

Kim Fyke, an elder of Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians, donned a shirt that read "survivor of the holy schools."

Fyke, 61, is a survivor of Holy Childhood, one of the longest-operated Indian boarding schools in Michigan. The institution once housed thousands of Native American students from throughout the Great Lakes region.

She described physical and sexual abuse at the hands of school employees. School leaders knew of the abuse but did nothing to stop it, she said.

"I was once locked in a cooler at the institution, beaten, and deprived of all love ... I want answers why, why did they do this to little children?"

Because they are Westerners.

Quote
"We are still suffering from the generational legacies left from these schools ... I've lost so many people to these institutions."
...
The United States operated 408 Indian boarding schools between 1819 and 1969, according to the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report.

More than 150 were run by churches, about half each by Catholic and Protestant groups, according to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.

In addition to the Federal Indian Boarding Schools, the Department of Interior also identified more than 1,000 additional federal and non-federal institutions that didn't fall under its definition, like Indian day schools, sanitariums, asylums, orphanages, and stand-alone dormitories that worked similarly in assimilating Native children.

By 1926, nearly 83 percent of Native American school-age children attended boarding schools. Many were sexually abused, beaten for speaking their language, and stripped of their culture and traditions.