Page 2 of 3 [ 35 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3  Next

ruveyn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Age: 87
Gender: Male
Posts: 31,502
Location: New Jersey

06 Jul 2012, 11:41 am

Vigilans wrote:
Happy birthday to my country


The Elder Bush used to speak about a Kinder Gentler America. Canada is just that.

Canada is what we would have become if we did not suffer from the curse of slavery, genocide of the aboriginal nations and the Civil War.

ruveyn



Vigilans
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Jun 2008
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 12,181
Location: Montreal

06 Jul 2012, 12:02 pm

visagrunt wrote:
enrico_dandolo wrote:
Oh, then... mea culpa for misunderstanding your point, and we both agree.


The fault was mine for being ambiguous.

(Wow, we're getting very Canadian, now!)


*visagrunt steps on my foot by accident* Me: "Oops, sorry!" :P


_________________
Opportunities multiply as they are seized. -Sun Tzu
Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many -Machiavelli
You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do


visagrunt
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 Oct 2009
Age: 56
Gender: Male
Posts: 6,118
Location: Vancouver, BC

06 Jul 2012, 1:15 pm

ruveyn wrote:
The Elder Bush used to speak about a Kinder Gentler America. Canada is just that.

Canada is what we would have become if we did not suffer from the curse of slavery, genocide of the aboriginal nations and the Civil War.

ruveyn


While we have been largely spared slavery and civil war (though we did have a couple of rebellions in 1837), we have our very own shame when it comes to aboriginal people in this country. You may have had Indian Wars--but we had Indian Residential Schools and the forced relocation of communities.


_________________
--James


enrico_dandolo
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Nov 2011
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 866

06 Jul 2012, 1:40 pm

visagrunt wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
The Elder Bush used to speak about a Kinder Gentler America. Canada is just that.

Canada is what we would have become if we did not suffer from the curse of slavery, genocide of the aboriginal nations and the Civil War.

ruveyn


While we have been largely spared slavery and civil war (though we did have a couple of rebellions in 1837), we have our very own shame when it comes to aboriginal people in this country. You may have had Indian Wars--but we had Indian Residential Schools and the forced relocation of communities.

Well, it is still the difference between mistreatment and borderline genocide.



Chevand
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Jul 2008
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 580
Location: Vancouver, BC

06 Jul 2012, 2:23 pm

visagrunt wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
The Elder Bush used to speak about a Kinder Gentler America. Canada is just that.

Canada is what we would have become if we did not suffer from the curse of slavery, genocide of the aboriginal nations and the Civil War.

ruveyn


While we have been largely spared slavery and civil war (though we did have a couple of rebellions in 1837), we have our very own shame when it comes to aboriginal people in this country. You may have had Indian Wars--but we had Indian Residential Schools and the forced relocation of communities.


This was one of the first new things that I picked up from moving here. Coming from Florida, I had never heard of the residential schools. While finishing my college education here, though, I heard quite a bit. I took a course on Aboriginal Art as one of my humanities because the aesthetic really interested me. That was the first I learned of Canada's history with the First Nations. In my studio classes I had a classmate who was Métis, and I can remember sitting through more than a few critiques as she showed off work centering around how it had impacted her family. I also recall very vividly attending a lecture delivered by Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, a local First Nations artist whose art has been exhibited numerous times at the Vancouver Art Gallery, and who has a... shall we say, very passionate way of speaking about the injustices done to his people.

So I can't argue with you that the residential schools seem to have been a primarily Canadian phenomenon. However, the forcible relocation of communities strike me as being not altogether dissimilar from another historical event which, growing up near Atlanta, I did hear about quite a bit when I was in high school-- that being the Trail of Tears, and the relocation of native Cherokees to their modern-day reservation in what is now Oklahoma.


_________________
Mediocrity is a petty vice; aspiring to it is a grievous sin.