“Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during peace or war. They are
not isolated or sporadic events but are part either of a government policy or a wide practise of
atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority.”

With a sad and broken heart, I
approach you with this column
in light of the recent tragic discovery of
215 remains of aboriginal children on
the grounds of the St. Paul Residential
School in Kamloops. This is a topic
that I am unable to ignore and allow
to pass by without repeating the grim
statistics that every Canadian needs to
know. It is vital to understanding the
dilemma we all face, every creature
that is alive today. I do not want to
be different, but I am. I must bear the
agony of the families who suffered
at the hands of my mentally twisted
ancestors & also bear their shame and
guilt to the grave. I beg you to read
every word and take them to heart, for
we must revisit the wrongs that have
never been righted.

We currently complain about
restrictions to our lifestyles by the
pandemic. Read the following &
see if we really have anything to
complain about. I attended the “Truth
& Reconciliation Commission” forum
at A. L. Fortune Secondary School in
Enderby on April 4, 2012. Two things
struck me. First, the hair colour of
the attendees, mostly white and gray very few young people
there, even though the
hour was not late. The
second thing, perhaps
more poignant, was
that there were two
representatives from
one of the church
d e n o m i n a t i o n s
responsible for a
significant amount of the horror that
precipitated the meeting in the first
place. The question was asked why it
took so long for the government, police
and church officials to acknowledge
the crimes that were committed against
the indigenous peoples of Canada
in the form of residential schools,
the proliferation of disease, and the
determined vision of eliminating the
“Indian problem” through attrition of
its youth and therefore its regenerative
possibilities? Perhaps the only viable
answer to the question is apathy. Who
cares? Haven’t we all heard the phrase
from the old westerns, “The only
good Indian is a dead Indian.”? I am
astonished at the attitude of many of
my peers who, when asked what they
think about the native situation, are
quick to point
out that “they
are nothing but
trouble.” “Look
at all the money
they’ve been
given and how
they’ve wasted
it on drugs
and alcohol.”
“Look at the
mess they’ve
made of their
reservations.”
“They’re all school dropouts, lazy lay-a-bouts – no
good for anything.”

The white man destroyed the Indian
way of life, language and culture and
somehow made it the Indian’s fault.

By the turn of the last century,
Canada had passed legislation that
disenfranchised all Indian and Metis
people, deeming them of inferior
legal and social status. Imprisoned
them on reserves of barren land of
little commercial value to the white
man and thereby making them wards
of the state? By 1933 all aboriginal
children over the age of seven were in
legal custody of the residential school
principals, and their parents were
forced to relinquish legal custody
of their biological children or face
imprisonment. How many Canadians
are aware that of the 150,000 native
children who attended residential
school, many handcuffed & snatched
from their villages without their
parent’s knowledge, one-third were
never seen again? Of those 50,000,
many deaths and disappearances,
the location of their remains is still
unknown. How many are aware that
aboriginal children were deliberately
infected with diseases like tuberculosis
and smallpox & left to die untreated?
The Superintendent of Indian Affairs
in 1919 abolished the post of Medical
Inspector for the residential schools,
and within two years, the deaths tripled. Now take a moment to think
if these were your children, nieces,
nephews, cousins or just dear friends,
how you would feel.

In 1928 and 1933, the Alberta
and BC governments passed Sexual
Sterilization Acts allowing any
residential school student to be
sterilized with the approval only of
the principal. A minimum of 3,500
young native girls were mutilated. A
prominent United Church west coast
surgeon whom my mother thought
was a wonderful man is alleged to
have personally performed over 2,000
such surgeries. In 1938 the federal
government made an attempt to close
the residential schools and incorporate
the children into the public school
system. The effort was opposed by the
Roman Catholic and Protestant church
officials so vigorously that the bill was scrapped. The last residential school to
close was in Punnichy, Saskatchewan,
in 1996, just 25 years ago. So much for
the Christian influence.

Did you know that post-second
war testing of biological warfare and
mind control was carried out using
involuntary participation by students
of the residential schools until 1970?
And that the federal health department
denied groups of native students
vitamins and dental care, using them as
guinea pigs in order to study the effects?

Eyewitnesses to murders in the
residential schools have been “gagged.”
Mass burial graves are currently
being unearthed at residential sites
across Canada. Church lawyers are
finally admitting a cover-up of crimes
committed against residential school
students. Lawsuits brought against the
church and government officials by the survivors of the residential school
program have exceeded 10,000. Even
the International Human Rights Assoc.,
an offshoot of the United Nations, has
been silenced by strong pressure from
the Canadian government.

As a long-haul trucker with a career
of over fifty years, beginning in 1951, I
have circumvented all ten provinces and
two territories in Canada and dozens of
the Excited States & witnessed much of
what I am telling you today. My face
began to leak many times as I passed
by the bleak and empty residential
schools, standing as a mockery to the
plight of those who passed through
their doors and especially to those that
never returned from their sentence.
I have been haunted for years by the
memories. 

Be well and be safe. Perform a
random act of kindness daily … 10-4!