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Indigenous & Latina Women & Children's Human
Rights News from the Americas |
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Last Updated November 25,
2005 |
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Racist Impunity's Long History
in Canada
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Thousands of girls and boys
were raped and tortured, and
many
were murdered, in Canada's
aboriginal boarding schools,
most of which shut down in
the 1970's. |
The unchecked criminal violence
suffered by these girls and boys
has become a major cause of
rampant child prostitution and
other serious social ills among
several generations of Canada's
First Nations
(Native/indigenous) peoples.
This violence is called
genocide.
Over 90,000 survivors of the
Canadian church and government
run aboriginal boarding schools
exist. Their stories are
finally being heard by the
public, despite efforts by those
in power to silence any
discussion of the issues.
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Soul Wound:
The
legacy of Native American
Schools
A 2001 report by the Truth
Commission into Genocide in
Canada documents the
responsibility of the Roman
Catholic Church, the United
Church of Canada, the
Anglican Church of Canada,
and the federal government
in the deaths of more
than 50,000 Native
children in the Canadian
residential school system.
The report says church
officials killed children by
beating, poisoning, electric
shock, starvation, prolonged
exposure to sub-zero cold
while naked, and medical
experimentation, including
the removal of organs and
radiation exposure. In
1928 Alberta passed
legislation allowing school
officials to forcibly
sterilize Native girls;
British Columbia followed
suit in 1933. There is no
accurate toll of forced
sterilizations because
hospital staff destroyed
records in 1995 after police
launched an investigation.
But according to the
testimony of a nurse in
Alberta, doctors sterilized
entire groups of Native
children when they reached
puberty. The report also
says that Canadian
clergy, police, and business
and government officials
“rented out” children from
residential schools to
pedophile rings.
....Arnold Sylvester, who
like Dennis Charlie attended
Kuper Island school between
1939 and 1945, corroborates
this account.
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“The
priests dug up the
secret gravesite in a
real hurry around 1972,
when the school closed.
No-one was allowed to
watch them dig up those
remains. I think it’s
because that was a
specially secret
graveyard where the
bodies of the pregnant
girls were buried. Some
of the girls who got
pregnant from the
priests were actually
killed because they
threatened to talk. They
were sometimes shipped
out and sometimes just
disappeared. We weren’t
allowed to talk about
this.”
(Testimony of
Arnold Sylvester to
Kevin Annett, Duncan,
BC, August 13, 1998).
From:
Hidden from History: The
Canadian Holacaust
(Microsoft Word
Document). |
"These crimes are alleged to
have occurred for more than
a century in the
state-sponsored and
church-run Indian
Residential Schools which
legally interred every
Indian child across Canada
between the years 1890 and
1984. During this period,
more than 50,000 children
died in these schools,
according to the statistics
of [the Canadian] Department
of Indian Affairs. Most of
the bodies of these dead
children have never been
located or recovered.
May
20, 2004, a representative
of three major indigenous
groups in Guatemala presents
a formal protest letter to
the Canadian Embassy in
Guatemala City.
"Mass
murder was done to my people
and we demand to know where
the churches buried the
children who never came home
from the residential
schools. Innocent children
were tortured, sterilized,
and murdered. Their spirits
will never rest until their
remains are brought home to
their own territory."
-
pyouth_union
(pseudonym) |
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Within Canada, indigenous women and
children are sexually exploited with impunity.
The notorious residential school system is the most visible
marker of sexual and physical violation perpetrated by a society
against innocent girls and boys, for the 'crime' of being a
"First Nations" person. |
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Love and Death in
the Valley is a
contemporary David and Goliath tale that
will inspire and challenge the reader.
It is the personal story of Reverend
Kevin Annett, the minister who single-
handedly exposed the murder and genocide
of aboriginal people by the government
of Canada and his employer, the United
Church of Canada. This book is his own
gripping and passionate account of his
heroic efforts against insurmountable
odds to document hidden crimes among
west coast native people after he began
a ministry among them in Port Alberni,
British Columbia in 1992.
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Sacred Lives
Canadian Aboriginal Children and
Youth Speak Out About Sexual Exploitation
By Save the Children
Canada (See below)
Ninety percent of child
prostitutes in Canada are indigenous (first nations). |
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Flowers on my grave
: how an Ojibwa boy's death helped break
the silence on child abuse.
Includes
bibliography and references.
ISBN
0002554291 (A Phyllis Bruce Book,
HarperCollins Publishers re: Lester
Disarrays, 1974-1988.
Teichroeb, Ruth
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Victims of
benevolence: discipline & death at the
Williams Lake Indian residential school,
1891-1920
Williams Lake, British Columbia. Cariboo
Tribal Council. Includes bibliographical
notes.
ISBN
0969663900. Library of Congress call no.
E 96.6 .W54 F87 1992. |
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On the Rape of Indigenous Children with Impunity
Sexual abuse of First Nations [Canadian indigenous] children is at
crisis proportions. This form of violence is a legacy of colonialism. As
previously mentioned, residential schools held First Nations children
captives. These children were terrorized sexually with no avenues of
escape. When they were allowed to visit their families during holidays,
these children often felt increasing loneliness and despair due to a
widening sense of cultural estrangement, and abandonment.
From:
Lynne, Jackie 1998 "Colonialism and the Sexual Exploitation of Canada's
First Nations women," paper presented at the American Psychological
Association 106th Annual Convention, San Francisco, California, August
17, 1998. Jackie Lynne is a
social worker based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
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"...There are a huge number of court cases
coming through in this area. The
abuse of children was so widespread,
that it has formed part of Canada's
general history. With newspaper
reports of payments to
exceed one billion
dollars.
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News
Articles
Added
Nov. 25,
2005
Canada
Indigenous
summit
ends -
Canada to
pay US $1.7
billion to
thousands of
child sexual
assault and
torture
victims of
Canada's
forced
Native
boarding
school
system.
Kelowna,
British
Columbia
province -
Prime
Minister
Paul Martin
said Ottawa
will spend
more than $5
billion on a
massive
program
intended to
improve the
lives of
native
people.
$US 1.7
billion will
be used to
pay
thousands of
former
pupils at
130 forced
boarding
schools who
were
subjected to
physical and
sexual abuse
spanning 70
years.
Beverly
Jacobs, the
president of
the Native
Women's
Association,
said there's
nothing in
this
agreement to
curb the
alarming
rate of
violence
against
women.
Premier
Martin has
promised to
hold a
future
summit on
native
women's
issues.
- CBC News
Canada
Nov. 25,
2005
Added
Nov. 25,
2005
Indepth:
Aboriginal
Canadians
- CBC News
Canada
Nov. 25,
2005
Added
Nov. 25,
2005
Abuse payout
for Native
Canadians.
- BBC News
United
Kingdom
Nov. 25,
2005
- BBC
News
United
Kingdom
Added
Nov. 25,
2005
Abuse in
Canada
28 Dec.
28, 2000
- BBC News
United
Kingdom
Added
Nov. 25,
2005
Canada
Indigenous
summit
begins
Kelowna,
British
Columbia --
Indigenous
leaders are
negotiating
with
Canadian
officials
regarding a
multibillion-dollar
plan to
fight
poverty
and settle
damage
claims for
mistreatment.
Some 100,000
children
were
required to
attend such
residential
schools over
the past
century, and
the sad
history of
their abuse
has long
been cited
by Indian
leaders as
the root
cause of
epidemic
rates of
alcoholism
and drug
addiction on
reserves.
-
Associated
press
Nov. 25,
2005
May 31, 2005
Canada
Government
Funds $5
Million
Study of
Violence
Against
Native
Women.
October 6,
2004
Aboriginals
will Occupy
Churches and
Government
Offices
Across
Canada to
Recover
Remains of
their
People.
October 4,
2004
Amnesty
Slams Canada
for Ignoring
Murders of
500
Indigenous
Women Over
Last 30
Years.
October 4,
2004
"Discrimination
and Violence
Against
Indigenous
Women in
Canada" -
Amnesty's
Report
Summary.
December 4,
2003
Vancouver
British
Columbia -
38-year-old
Vancouver
sex
offender,
Martin
Tremblay,
was
sentenced in
BC Supreme
Court today.
Tremblay
received 3
and
1/2 years in
custody and
18 months
probation
for sexually
assaulting
and
videotaping
5 Aboriginal
girls aged
13-15 at the
time.
December 4,
2003 Press
Release
- Justice
for Girls |
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The
Untold Story of the Genocide of
Aboriginal Peoples by Church and
State in Canada
by
(Rev.) Kevin Annett
Microsoft Word version of the full
report:
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HIDDEN FROM
HISTORY
The Canadian
Holocaust
The Untold
Story of the Genocide of
Aboriginal Peoples by Church
and State in Canada
A Summary of an
Ongoing, Independent Inquiry
into Canadian Native
“Residential Schools” and
their Legacy |
Kevin
Arnett's Web Pages on the
Canadian Indigenous
Genocide:
http://canadiangenocide.nativeweb.org/index.html
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