From Truth to Reconciliation: Transforming the Legacy of Residential Schools. Ottawa: Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 2008. This books shows the difference experiences generated…
Not addressing the crisis in Canada has worsened the situation. For the Indigenous people, this has proven disastrous and has had deadly consequences. The impacts have been just as fatal. What is most appalling is how this deep-rooted racism and sexism has become the norm in Canadian justice? To me what happened to Tina is hardly justice.…
Canada is supposed to be a country built on the idea of sovereignty, peacefulness and acceptance, but when it comes down to the way we as a country treat the First Nations Peoples, we are far from any of those things. The argument on how the Natives helped build Canada throughout history is also a large part of where the hatred and ignorance towards Indigenous Peoples come from. Some believe that the Natives were harsh and unwelcoming to the Europeans, while other believe they were nothing but kind and helpful. When looking at this issue through both the Conservative and Liberal views, there is a very large contrast. The Conservative view argues that we must “ignore the complexity of Indigenous politics, economics, international relationships, kinship and social structures, technologies and traditional knowledge, and oral and written histories and cultures”, whereas the Liberal and progressive approach to Indigenous rights and issues argues that “Indegenous peoples are held up as key contributors and are part of what makes Canada such a distinct, successful, and special…
Mackenzie King helped Canada break free of Britain’s reins as Canada’s Government wanted to have a new national identity without being linked to the United Kingdom. Although Canada had gained independence in 1867, Canada was ruled by the commonwealth and was unable to make its own decisions until, Mackenzie King decided to do things differently when it came to World War II. Due to Canada having good relations internally with the minority (French Canadians), it changed the way people viewed Canada as a whole as they were seen as more of a diverse and democratic country. During World War II, Mackenzie King was instrumental in helping Canada receive their national identity. Even though Canada was considered it’s own nation, British rule was…
My favorite quote was by Scott Woods. A close second was Desmond Tutu’s, followed by Samuel L. Jackson’s. a. In Scott Woods’ quote, he dismantling the idea that racism is only “big R racism,” meaning that racism is only grand, hateful actions like the lynching of black people by KKK. Woods is saying that racism is not solely these incredibly hateful acts of violence, but racism persists through the institutions and systems created by the country.…
“(We have) more to do for the young woman in East St. Louis, and thousands more like her, who has the grades, has the drive, has the will, but doesn’t have the money to go to college (Obama, para 6).” Interestingly, he follows this statement with an attempt to dissatisfy one of the commonplace arguments against liberal policies. Mr. Obama says that these people do not ‘expect that government will solve all of their problems,’ but that they are willing to work hard in order to achieve their dreams. This seems to solidify Obama’s ethos with the audience, especially when combined with the specific scenarios that he uses to exemplify the need for his policies. The middle section of the speech is dedicated to the 2004 Presidential Election.…
They are not being given enough education regarding the overall history of how First Nations people came to be in this country. Cultural trauma fits the definition of Residential Schools because of the long term impact and marks that are left on children that attended the Residential school. Children who attended the Residential school experience different trauma in their lifetime. According to Chansonneuve (2005), Many survivors experience ongoing trauma from flashbacks. Although this is the body’s ways of signaling that healing is needed, too many survivors resort to substance abuse to numb these feelings instead of using…
“...historically in Canada, racism toward First Nations peoples has taken the form of paternalistic policies propagated to protect “childlike” peoples incapable of managing their own affairs” (Sharma, page 15). This assumes that Aboriginal peoples are incapable of being responsible for their own survival, giving into the perception that they are lazy or stupid, which is untrue. They are still heavily disadvantaged in Canadian society. At such a disadvantage, that “half of the status First Nations children live in poverty...children in reserves under federal jurisdiction were in the worst situation, often living with poor drinking water, and in run-down homes” (The Canadian Encyclopedia). This is basically the definition of an inadequate standard of living; bad drinking water, run-down, unsafe home, most likely too young to be able to work or gain compensation from the government.…
One hundred or so years ago, many believed that assimilation of First Nations in Canada was a good policy. No one was aware about the horrid conditions of residential schools at the time. 93,000 residential school students are still alive today. They are the limited survivors of a cultural genocide that many did not even realize had occurred in Canada until very recently. The last residential school did not close until 1996, and to this very day Indigenous society is taut with corruption as a result of centuries of horrors and traumatic experiences .…
After committing serious acts of injustice towards their own citizens, governments are often expected to acknowledge and apologize for their crimes. Whilst in this period of time, governments usually authorize a truth and reconciliation commission to resolve past conflict between the perpetrators and the victims. In Canadian history, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada was empowered by the Government of Canada, in order to heal past trauma of the nation, individuals, as well as groups that were the victims of the Indian residential school system. Many decades after the majority of the Indian residential schools were shut down, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was established in 2008, with their work being…
Through to you originally ends in Harper's point of view summing up a few recent events including: her acceptance into the choreography program at Ballard and the school nurse finally finding her to give her the physical she needs for graduation. Harper had been avoiding her throughout the whole story because she has a fear of doctors and does not want to get a physical. When the nurse finds her, Pen is passing by her in the hall and he pretends him and Harper are late to their meeting with a Yale recruiter and is able to fool the nurse into letting Harper go. Once they’re out of sight Harper tells him about her acceptance to Ballard and Penn tells her he has his surgery scheduled and that he may be going to college to play baseball after…
Bush’s speech comforted the devastated nation by telling us acts of heroism and by telling us that we were going to get the men who did it. He wanted to comfort the nation because we were all affected by the tragedy of September 11th. He knew that we were confused about who did this and why anyone would ever do this. He comforted us by saying that the world was with us, supporting us and that we would never forget our nation’s national anthem playing at places such as Buckingham Palace, the streets of Paris and Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. Knowing that the world’s prayers and support was with us reminded us that the entire world felt for us in the face of this tragedy.…
Based off the history of indigenous peoples in Canada, one thing is for certain; discriminatory and inhumane acts by European conquest, towards a unique culture has altered the Aboriginal way of life we see in Canada today. While the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), has been evolving and developing for multiple years, these 94 recommendations give important insight and suggestions in how the nation of Canada can move away from this unjust history, reconcile and work towards becoming a stronger nation. While it may seem that reparations are impractical from the devastations of such events as the Indian residential schools, the TRC has been a timely process with the intent to restore an altered Aboriginal life and strengthen ties with…
Discrimination Against Aboriginal People In Canada: The Fight Isn’t Over The lives of the Aboriginal people in Canada have never been the same since European settlers unjustifiably stole their native land right from under their feet. Life for Aboriginal people will always be affected by the European colonization of Canada, and discrimination against the first nations community still exists to this day.…
The Democratic National Committee invited Barack Obama to give the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention. This news came as a surprise as Obama had not yet gained national attention, and was not an obvious choice when compared to other candidates. After his inspiring speech however, Obama became well known throughout America which was good news for John Kerry, as Obama’s speech was intended to persuade voters to support Kerry as president. Obama uses rhetorical devices such as climax in structure, epistrophe, and metonymy to persuade skeptical voters to vote for John Kerry as their next president. Obama makes his speech more convincing by using climax to split his speech into multiple sections; the first section is used…