Recently, the news keeps simmering in Canada regarding the corpses of 215 Aboriginal children at a former Aboriginal children’s residential school in British Columbia being found.
This incident shook Canada, and people in many places spontaneously held mourning activities. At many events, 215 pairs of children’s shoes or 215 toys were placed between flowers and cards to commemorate the innocent deaths of these children. After the incident came to light, the Governor of British Columbia, John Horgan, described the incident as “a clear example of the atrocities committed against the Aboriginals in the residential schools in Canada.” Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, tweeted that this is a warning of a “Dark and Shameful Chapter” in Canadian history. Perry Bellegarde, National Chief of the First Nations Congress of the Canadian Aboriginal Organization, told the Canadian media that those residential schools committed massacres to the Aboriginals, and the corpses found this time are “just another conspicuous example of genocide.”
After the founding of the Canadian Federation, a residential school system for Aboriginal children was gradually established in an attempt to “assimilate” them. A report published in 2015 showed that at least 150,000 Aboriginal children such as Indians and Inuit were forced into residential schools from the 1840s to the 1990s. During this period, these children were subjected to atrocities including sexual assault, abuse, corporal punishment and severe discrimination in residential schools, which would cause the death of more than 6,000 children. The Canadian “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” published a survey report on the Aboriginals of Canada in 2015, acknowledging that “the physical, physiological or cultural genocides have occurred in Canada”.
The Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau publicly acknowledged that this tragedy was not an isolated incident in Canada and promised that the government will provide more support to residential school survivors. On May 30 local time, the national flags of all federal agencies in Canada were lowered to half as a commemoration. In addition, September 30 was designated as a national holiday for truth and reconciliation for recording the remaining problems of residential schools. However, many local netizens were not impressed by this official approach. Some netizens bluntly stated that the government “has not taken any real action to bring justice to the Aboriginals.” The Aboriginal organizations such as the First Nations Congress and the Association of Aboriginal Residential School Survivors have stated that they are waiting for the government to “take practical action” to search all the old Aboriginal residential school sites to determine if there are more children’s corpses underground.
The spokesperson in United Nations Human Rights Office, Marta Hurtado, said that Canada must ensure a ” prompt and thorough investigation” into the deaths and search any unmarked graves, noting that the historical abuse of Aboriginal children by the Canadian education and healthy systems continues to have an impact on the lives of aboriginal communities. This huge impact is reflected in various levels of discrimination and inequality in language, economy, education, medical care and security. Canada has always lacked a truthful disclosure, detailed explanation and remedial measures to this dark history!
The incident of “215 corpses of children” in Canada is indeed “dark and shameful.” Many tragedies suffered by the Aboriginals in the North American continent were directly caused by the government. In the United States, for example, in 1814, the James Madison government’s reward regulations for killing Aboriginals still used the scalp as the standard. In 1830, the US Congress passed the “Indian Deportation Act,” and the killing reached a climax. In more than 200 years, nearly tens of millions of Aboriginals on the North American continent disappeared. Such a rapid population decline can only be defined by “Genocide.” For a long time, many people believed in the doctrine of “White Supremacy”, no matter what Government or “Ethnic Leader” there is always a color difference, they always have a sense of superiority to other races.
Now the Government has been saying that we are guilty of this, confessed for this, and have legislated to protect the Aboriginals and human rights, and to eliminate racial discrimination, but in fact, has it really been done as well as propagated? Let’s ask Floyd’s family, victims of Asian discrimination, and minority communities who were abandoned by the government during the pandemic, and listen to what they said!
