4 Catholic Churches burned down (so far!) in BC

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Just because I understand & accept why some people are doing this doesn't mean I'm lining up to do it myself.

Those were the best gifs google image search had to offer up, so, I guess yeah - can't be bothered to use multiple search engines to see if maybe, just maybe, there's a slightly better gif or two.

Ok, in the spirit of your GIF, Blame Canada!!

And I do.

I see a whole lot of people who aren't native who feel entitled to comment on what's almost certainly an internal issue.

It doesn't matter what side you're on, the fact that you're utterly disconnected to the issue makes your opinions worth less than the time it takes to post them or the effort you invest in being snarky to each other.

Quoting a few chiefs making official comments doesn't entitle one to speak for Canada's indigenous community.

Having sympathy for why a member of that community might lash out doesn't mean that that view represents a monopoly on how people in these communities feel.

Can you guys cut it the f**k out? Neither of you is contributing anything positive and just because both of you enjoy the privilege of not having to take stuff like this personally doesn't mean that everyone here has that privilege.

Is it a whole lot of people, as stated in your first paragraph or just two people as indicated by "neither of you"?

I don't want to sideline the OP's thread, and certainly I'm halfway across the world myself, so my own knowledge about the specific background is limited and not based on experience. My own country has resolved and unresolved issues of its own. But I must admit that the discoveries of what happened under the auspices of the church schools was shocking.

'A whole lot' isn't just including WP, just in general.
'Neither of you' is referring to the two posters here.

OK... thanks.

I would suggest not reading what triggers you.
I’m not speaking for them ,but posting their words.One from a native news site.
It’s also not just a problem in Canada,
there are unmarked graves here and residential schools still in operation.
https://www.indianz.com/News/2021/07/08 ... stigation/

For what it's worth I'm not asking for any sort of intervention, just asking everyone who wants to comment to take a second to remember that the situation involves actual people who feel actual trauma as a result of how these schools operated and that this trauma doesn't always come with healthy or appropriate coping skills.

The rate of mental illness and substance abuse among survivors of these schools is elevated, even people who didn't personally go have seen how these institutions ruined the lives of those who were forced to go to them. The harm inflicted extends beyond just the immediate victims.

It's fair to criticize the arsons as wrong and the arsonists as criminals but some of the exaggerations over the nature of the crimes has sounded unreasonable and uninformed. If that initial harm inflicted against these communities has harmed some members so deeply that they're unable to see how their actions will end up harming their communities that a tragedy and dismissing the root cause like they're a monster instead of someone who's been deeply wounded and in need of healing demonstrates a deep lack of understanding about the situation.

That said, no one should be cheering on the arsons either, the people doing them aren't acting in an acceptable way and they're harming others even if some people do feel catharsis.

I would suggest not commenting on things you don't have enough depth of familiarity with to make reasonable comments on, but that's just me.

Copying a few comments devoid of context from a news site doesn't make you an expert on how indigenous Canadians feel.

Yes - so many wrongs - how would we have felt in their situation? Going a few kilometres in someone else's shoes would be instructive - hard to feel their kind of pain.

That said, please allow for dissenting opinions or those that take a look from a different angle. I don't believe anyone here condones what happened at these schools but might differ on how restitution should be achieved.

Of course not, but I can read what they say and learn from them.It was more than a few native news sites.
Are you native?Just curious.
I was in a group home and of course I didn’t experience the extent of the trauma they did.It also was not good and one of the reasons I have PTSD.Have you ever attended one of those?So I can understand how a survivor feels ,but I also will never experience having my language and religion stripped from me.

Yes, nothing worse than taking away a child's language, religion or culture and forcing them to accept your own as the conqueror. It's happened throughout history however, when the victors want to put their own stamp on society to consolidate their control. It happened here too. Suppression of culture is seen by some as "civilization". It's good to see how many folk today are proud of their indigenous heritage, and I've been watching a few YT videos about that.

Yes I am. My grandmother and all of her siblings attended a boarding school ran by the Catholic Church in the province of Quebec. I have other relatives who went to the residential schools in Quebec. I'll concede I'm not certain if the boarding school she went to was the same as a residential school and if that was a euphemism, or if it wasn't connected to that. She spoke French so that might be the distinction.

Think about it this way, you know how when an autistic criminal commits a terrible crime and some people here get outraged that autism comes up because it feels like it makes the entire community look bad?

Well, imagine now if the criminal action was a result of life-long abuse inflicted upon that person and that they may or may not be in a healthy enough state of mind to ignore that aspect of whether or not they can bear responsibility, their loved ones believe they need compassion and people seem to be screaming to throw the book at them before the situation is even understood fully.

If it was your loved one you'd feel a degree of 'whoa, this person needs compassion' and you'd be hurt if people ignored that to use your other loved ones condemnations of the acts as calls for punishment when ultimately they're also on the pro-compassion side.

Last edited by funeralxempire on 10 Jul 2021, 3:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.