Dear Editor:
RE: ‘It is what it is’, Dec. 22.
The letter from Don Kruger begged a response. My initial response was anger but yelling at one another has not resolved anything (see the past three years).
I do think a couple of points in Kruger’s letter deserve a direct response. Residential schools did not go wrong just in the implementation. Yes, the abuse at the hands of religious groups was horrific and has clearly caused intergenerational trauma, but the very idea of residential schools was evil.
Is Kruger suggesting that it would have been completely okay ripping young children from their families and bringing them to a school far from home to eliminate their culture if only they had been treated well there?
Government employees took these children from their homes, often forcibly. The goal was to isolate children from their families and eliminate any vestiges of Indigenous culture. For this the politicians were the villains. It is also worth noting that the politicians who “supervised” the residential schools let the abuse of “religious educators” continue for decades so they are not absolved of guilt associated with the abuse.
Imagine if today we decided that the children of a particular religious or ethnic group should be forcibly removed from their families to be indoctrinated into the correct culture or religion.
Kruger also asserts that “media and politicians have decided that the views of Indigenous activists should be protected, with the public’s views being ignored.” I expect that a far larger group of Canadians would agree with me than with Kruger. I wonder who in this conversation is distorting history.
I dare say Kruger should take another look at history. People are imperfect. History should document both their positive and negative contributions rather than whitewashing the bad in the interest of feeling good. Perhaps we should make it a practice to stop putting up statues to many historical figures or vet those people more thoroughly.
Kruger is correct. We need to recognize different views but he also denigrates other views. He also misrepresents history. We can differ in interpretation but we cannot differ on the facts. We can and should acknowledge the evil of residential schools. We have many shameful examples in our history. The internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War is another.
There is much in Canadian history to be proud of, but that should not overshadow the discussion and recognition of the evil that governments and politicians brought onto fellow Canadians. My view should not be ignored either.
Michael von Massow,
Elora