Recovering from Photographic Disaster in the Woodridge Bog

Orchids of Manitoba, Wild flowers of Manitoba

 

This week I experienced a terrifying disaster.  I return to Adobe Lightroom the photographic editing program that I use. I discovered that more than 9,000 images were missing. How could that be?  It was impossible. So I thought. I had worked on those images and could not possibly have deleted them. Previews were available on my computer but that just meant I could see them. There was nothing I could do with them. I could not make copies, prints or slides from the previews. I could not share. I started to think of where the nearest bridge might be located so I could pitch myself over it. Suddenly all colour was drained from the world.

After initial panic I phoned the Adobe help line. They have wonderful support all the way from India. They had helped me through difficulties in the past. Surely they could do so again. Right?  Wrong!

After 2 days of “help” I reached the conclusion that the images were in fact gone. They had disappeared like South American rebels dropped from a government plane into the cold Atlantic ocean. They were officially disappeared!  Adobe blamed Nikon. Then they blamed me.  Unfortunately, is appears likely I was the culprit. Somehow I had mishandled them.

 

Then there was good news. About 8,500 images were merely on another hard drive. They were easily accessible. But I had lost all my images for the first 3 weeks of June when I had been on a number of vitally important photo jaunts. They were important to no one, but me. I could cry, but it did not seem disastrous enough anymore to go find a bridge.

Instead, I had headed out to the nearest bog to try and replace the photos I had negligently lost. In this case that mean the Woodridge bog. There I was not disappointed. First, I found the lovely Small Round-leaved orchid (Galearis rotundifolia). These are the gems of this bog. Conditions were perfect. No wind and no nasty sun that could penetrate the dark bog. Mosquitos were largely absent thanks to the extreme drought we have had in Manitoba this year.

These are very tricky flowers to try to photograph.  That is because the flowers are tiny and they are not flat. As a result with a macro lens the range of the flower that is in focus is extremely slim. You really have to pick the smallest aperture which necessitates a very slow shutter speed. That is why a lack of wind is essential. Then you have to choose what part of the flower that will be in focus. It is impossible to get it all in focus. So, like Sophie you have to choose which child to eliminate. That is not an easy task with such a gorgeous little flower.

The flowers were still in pretty good condition. They were just past prime. Sort of like the photographer. Or rather, no where near as past prime as him as evidenced by his gross negligence earlier. The bridge could wait for another day.

 

 

Does Canada want to know the truth about Residential Schools?

Indigenous--Indian Residential Schools

 

Dr. Peter Bryce who was non-indigenous prepared a series of annual reports for the federal government in the early part of the 20th century, warning them in one of those reports that the schools in Manitoba and the Northwest Territories had very high rates of tuberculosis because of overcrowding and poor ventilation. He found that nearly 25% of students in residential schools died there.  In some cases even more died. Dr. Bryce  knew there was a reason for this, but he did not, as Manitoba Judge Giesbrecht did, use it as an excuse for why so many indigenous children were dying. There was a reason why so many were dying. Dr. Bryce demanded that the government find an “immediate remedy.” But, of course, the government did not act. As Amy Dempsey reported in the Toronto Start and reprinted in the Winnipeg Free Press,

“Bryce felt certain that the public, hearing his account of conditions in residential schools, would demand change from the government. That didn’t happen. The story faded from the headlines and the public consciousness.”

 

Although the public lost interest, as they so often do unless the story leads to dramatic violence, it did catch the attention of government officials at the federal department of Indian Affairs like the by now infamous Duncan Campbell Scott, who ensured that life for Dr. Bryce became difficult at the department because he was standing in the way of civilizing the natives. As Dempsey said, “Bryce was sidelined for being a whistleblower and ultimately pushed out of public service.” As Dempsey also  reported,

“Bryce faced career repercussions for speaking out. The government suspended funding for his research, prevented him from speaking at international conferences, and blocked him from positions within the federal civil service. Forced into retirement in early 1920s, he wrote a tell-all book lamenting that this ‘trail of disease and death has gone on almost unchecked.’”

 

Bryce wrote that Duncan Campbell Scott, a high official with Indian Affairs, and others like him, were counting on the ignorance and disinterest of the Canadian public. They were right. Canada did not want to know the truth. And it certainly did not want the truth broadcast. It did what it could to shut him up. Will Canada continue to ignore what it has learned about its history, or will that now change? Time will tell. Each of us can make a difference to how Canada deals with what it has learned.

Cultural Genocide Part II

Genocide, Indigenous Genocide, Indigenous--Indian Residential Schools

 

When I went to school I was told that Prime Minister John A. MacDonald was one of the heroes of Canada. We thought he should have been awarded the status of saint John. He appointed himself as the Minister Responsible for Indians in his cabinet. If you think the expression “cultural genocide” is too strong to describe what Canada did with the imposition of its Indian Residential Schools on indigenous people consider this statement he made in the House of Commons in 1883:

“When the school is on the reserve the child lives with its parents, who are savages: he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write his habits, and training mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write.  It has been strongly impressed on myself, as the head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.”

 

The Prime Minister did not misspeak. He meant it. This was government policy. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission  explained this in this way:

“These measures were part of a coherent policy to eliminate Aboriginal people as distinct people and to assimilate them into the Canadian mainstream against their will. Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs Duncan Campbell Scott outlined the goals of that policy in 1920, when he told a parliamentary committee that “our object is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic.” Canada did not do this with “good intent” as some suggest.”

 

As the TRC said,

“the Canadian government pursued this policy of cultural genocide because it wished to divest itself of its legal and financial obligations to Aboriginal people and gain control over their land and resources. If every Aboriginal person had been “absorbed into the body politic,” there would be no reserves, no Treaties, and no Aboriginal rights.”

 In fact, then there would be no Aboriginals.  The genocide would be complete. The final solution would be realized.

 

How Patriotic are You?

Indigenous Genocide, Indigenous--Indian Residential Schools

 

This Lynne, one of the kindest gentlest people I know. I think you can figure out where she stands.

Today was Canada Day and I asked a number of my friends, ‘How patriotic are you?”  In other words, was it appropriate to celebrate Canada Day after all that has happened in on Canada in the last few weeks?  Who feels comfortable celebrating Canada Day.  Some say they were not comfortable with that. I know someone who said she will not celebrate Canada Day again. Others felt it was appropriate to celebrate, but with some important qualifications.

This is Jenn and Kel. They are funny, kind and empathetic.

I love my country. I always have and probably always will.  Yet, I am bothered by recent history I have learned, particularly since I read the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015. That disturbed me a lot. Since then I have tried to learn more about the history of the country I love. Some of that history is not something to be proud.  As a T-shirt said that I saw recently, “No pride in genocide.”  I do not like it when our country is lumped in with the genocides of Nazi Germany, Russia, China, Serbia, Rwanda, and the United States. That bothers me and I admit I was a bit reluctant to celebrate today.

My lovely wife Chris, reluctant to celebrate, but ready to enjoy life.

It really depends on your point of view. If you are looking at our country from a comfortable pew, as Pierre Burton called it, the country looks pretty good. We have a lot to be thankful for. We have freedom and opportunity to earn and enjoy a good life. Yet if you are looking from the line at our local soup kitchen or if you are one of the many indigenous children in care of the state where they put you in a foster home or even worse a hotel, things don’t look quite so good. They have less to be thankful for than I do. For indigenous children who suffer from intergenerational trauma life is not so good. Too often people from the comfort of good jobs, safe homes, and communities where we are respected find it easy to enjoy Canada. Sometimes we don’t see our own privilege.

Lynne and her radical husband ready to start the revolution–tomorrow.  2 of the finest.

If you think Canada is the best country what are you doing to make it so?  If you recognize that life could surely be a lot better for those less fortunate what are you doing to help them?

This is your faithful scribe, trying to meander towards truth and justice but finding it difficult.

When we celebrate Canada Day we must make sure that we do so with eyes wide open, not denying or ignoring the suffering of others. We must not avoid Canada’s sins.  They are more than blemishes. No matter what we think the evidence is clear: we can do better? We should do better.

Cultural Genocide Part I

Indigenous Genocide, Indigenous--Indian Residential Schools

 

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (‘TRC’) found that Canada was guilty of cultural genocide. Because of legal constraints, it was not allowed to say that Canadians were guilty of genocide. What does that mean? How did it reach that conclusion?

First of all, the TRC had meetings and events around the country. It gathered mountains of information. Anyone who wants to deny its conclusions had better come with mountains of data too.

The TRC pointed out that Canada ignoring the fact it had no such legal authority,

“Canada asserted control over aboriginal land. In some locations, Canada negotiated Treaties with First Nations; in others the land was simply occupied or seized. The negotiation of Treaties, while seemingly honourable and legal, was often marked by fraud and coercion, and Canada was, and remains, slow to implement their provisions and intent. On occasion, Canada forced First Nations to relocate their reserves from agriculturally valuable or resource-rich land onto remote and economically marginal reserves.”

 

For example, in Manitoba, at the behest of white farmers, moved a First Nation from rich farmland to much less desirable land One of the things that Canada did that attracted the attention of racists from as far away as South Africa and Nazi Germany was the “pass system.” Under that system indigenous people were not allowed to leave the reserve without permission from the federal government representatives—i.e. the Indian agent.

Canada also did its best to eliminate indigenous systems of government. They were so successful at this that many Canadians never realized that indigenous people had systems of government and law  before Europeans arrived. Canada did that because it wanted to control indigenous people. As the TRC said, “Canada replaced existing forms of Aboriginal government with relatively powerless band councils whose decisions it could override and whose leaders it could depose.” It did all that even though no mention of this was made when Canada negotiated treaties with First Nations. In fact, in many cases, as soon as treaties were signed Canada actively tried to get around those treaties. Where was the supposed “good intent” of Canada? The answer is clear—it was absent.

At the same, Canada “disempowered Aboriginal women, who had held significant influence and powerful roles in many First Nations, including the Mohawks, the Carrier, and Tlingit.” Canada preferred white male supremacy. After it emasculated aboriginal government, “Canada denied the right to participate fully in Canadian political, economic, and social life to those Aboriginal people who refused to abandon their Aboriginal identity.”

Of course, most horrendously Canada took brutal measures to separate children from their parents and family and sent them to foreign schools, often in distant places, where they were forbidden to speak their language, wear their favoured clothes, while they were falsely taught that their parents were ignorant and uncultured brutes. Only ignorant and uncultured brutes would do that!

Then those schools turned out to be places of horrendous physical, sexual, and emotional abuse where the law protected the abusers and disregarded the abused. As the TRC concluded, “This was not done to educate them, but primarily to break their link to their culture and identity.

That was what the residential school system was all about.

A national Crime: the Bryce Report

Indigenous--Indian Residential Schools

 

There are some bright lights in this dark story. Dr. Peter Bryce, a physician working for the federal government, at great cost to his own career, spoke out about the horrendous conditions in Canada’s Indian Residential Schools. Eventually that led him into conflict with government officials who did not want the bad news so he was driven out of government.

When Dr. Peter Bryce was preparing his report for the federal government in 1906 he had given the principals of various residential schools a questionnaire regarding the health of their aboriginal students. He got responses from 15 different schools and found that of the 1,537 pupils in their schools “nearly 25 percent are dead.” Remember these were young children who had a long life expectancy and 25% were dead!  Dr. Bryce also reported about 1 of those schools where 69% of the ex-pupils were dead.

Dr. Bryce recommended that the federal government take over the schools, as clearly the churches had failed. It could hardly have been clearer that this was the right conclusion. Yet the federal government, notwithstanding death rates of 25% fatalities decided that the plan should be rejected because “it was viewed as too costly.” The lives of aboriginal children were not worth much.

Briefly, the federal government actually increased funding to the schools, but that fell by the wayside during the Depression. Soon the schools were again underfunded. As the TRC reported, “underfunding created by the cuts guaranteed that students would be poorly fed, clothed, and housed.  As a result, children were highly susceptible to tuberculosis.”

In one report Dr. Bryce said, “We have created a situation so dangerous to health that that I was often surprised that the results were not even worse than they had statistically proven to be.”  25% fatality rate is not high enough?

Dr. Bryce called residential schools “a national crime.”  Some have called it genocide. Who disagrees with that?

 

Ideal for diseases; for children not quite

Indigenous--Indian Residential Schools

 

According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC ) report of 2021,

“For Aboriginal children, the relocation to residential schools was generally no healthier than their homes had been on the reserves. In 1897, Indian Affairs official Martin Benson reported that the industrial schools in Manitoba and the Northwest Territories had been hurriedly constructed of poor materials, badly laid out, without provision for lighting, heating, or ventilation.” In addition, drainage was poor, and water and fuel supplies were inadequate. Conditions were not any better in the church-built schools.”

 

The TRC reported how schools were selected without proper regard for either water supply or drainage. “Students’ health depended on clean water, good sanitation, and adequate ventilation.  But little was done to improve the poor living conditions that were identified at the beginning of the twentieth century.” Schools also were frequently not just dilapidated but “acute fire hazards,” according to R.A Hoey, not some left wing radical, but a man who had served as Indian Affairs Superintendent of Welfare and Training.  He said schools were generally of faulty construction and often failed to meet the minimum standards in the construction of public buildings, particularly institutions for the education of children.”

These were dreadful conditions for children to live in, but they were ideal conditions for diseases such as tuberculosis and others to flourish. Then, we must remember, Canada required many indigenous people to send their children to these schools. They could be imprisoned for disobeying this requirement. Children were often rudely yanked out of loving homes and sent to these fire traps “for their own good.”  What kind of good is that?

Imagine taking children from homes where they were loved to what were called residential schools or even industrial schools. Think about it.

 

Wisdom From Lori

Indigenous--Indian Residential Schools

 

Judge Brian Giesbrecht said it was time for indigenous people to move on. I know that sentiment is shared by many Canadians. It is very common among privileged Canadians.

Such statements are not just disingenuous, but also plain old fashioned ignorant. Compare this with the wisdom, understanding and deep empathy of my cousin Lori—one of the good people who are not blinded by privilege—who posted it on my blog. I am reposting it because I fear too many did not read it.

 

“Even though my maternal family was starved, beaten and most of them, including my grandfather, killed by Stalin, and, my grandmother, mother and her siblings , mere children, were forced to walk from Ukraine through Poland to reach Germany where they were imprisoned in forced labour and concentration camps and starved again, and even though the Canadian government who took them in as immigrants and made them pay back their passage, and the Canadian Government took away my people’s right to speak their own language and ignored their signed treaty to provide schooling in their own language, which led to me never being able to learn and speak my own language, and even though those events have coloured every minute of my entire life, I cannot pretend to understand the enormity of the experiences of indigenous Canadian people who endured these sorts of tortures and more, AND DID NOT HAVE THE ADVANTAGE OF WHITE SKIN or European heritage to give them even one advantage in their recovery from their experiences.
I can understand and support the healing efforts now being made by indigenous culture, and hope that someday we will stand together as a world culture without doing evil to one another.”

 

I wish more people like Judge Giesbrecht and other white people were as wise as Lori.