<story><title>Canada: Hundreds of unmarked graves found at residential school</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57592243</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>defaultname</author><text>&amp;quot;people wouldn&amp;#x27;t go near certain areas because they knew what was there&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Right. Everyone knew. There have been a number of inquiries on this. The deaths at residential schools has never been a mystery. There is nothing new being unveiled.&lt;p&gt;This is an absolute tragedy, but there is a bit of a lie happening in the presentation of it, with each &amp;quot;discovery&amp;quot; being treated like it is unveiling some dark secret. No, it is a dark, but very well known, truth that has been in the open for the entirety of the program. And the truth is that mortality across the entire demographics of Canada was bad in that time period (3 out of 10 children under 5 died across the country), so it isn&amp;#x27;t entirely atypical.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;we need real change in Canadian society&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;What does this even mean? Should the country abolish the residential school system, despite it being long abolished?</text></item><item><author>neom</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m mad as hell about this. My father was the executive director of Anishinaabe Community Counseling, a mental health services non-profit set up by the federal and provincial government in North Western Ontario. I spent a lot of time on and around the reserves, and it&amp;#x27;s not like this stuff was unknown. People told stories often about the residential schools, people wouldn&amp;#x27;t go near certain areas because they knew what was there. I can&amp;#x27;t believe I&amp;#x27;m saying this, but as a Canadian I would echo Chinas call for a full human rights inquiry at the international level. If Canada is seriously about truth and reconciliation, we need to do more than just continue to publish reports acknowledging the wrongs committed, we need real change in Canadian society. The recommendations put forward by the government never go far enough, and frankly, the Indian Act is stain on our country.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>8note</author><text>The residential schools are gone, but their goal -- getting rid of indigenous culture so that they stop being a hindrance to resource exploitation on their land -- is still going strong.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.johnralstonsaul.com&amp;#x2F;non-fiction-books&amp;#x2F;a-fair-country&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.johnralstonsaul.com&amp;#x2F;non-fiction-books&amp;#x2F;a-fair-cou...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Has some good ideas for a mental model shift</text></comment>
<story><title>Canada: Hundreds of unmarked graves found at residential school</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57592243</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>defaultname</author><text>&amp;quot;people wouldn&amp;#x27;t go near certain areas because they knew what was there&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Right. Everyone knew. There have been a number of inquiries on this. The deaths at residential schools has never been a mystery. There is nothing new being unveiled.&lt;p&gt;This is an absolute tragedy, but there is a bit of a lie happening in the presentation of it, with each &amp;quot;discovery&amp;quot; being treated like it is unveiling some dark secret. No, it is a dark, but very well known, truth that has been in the open for the entirety of the program. And the truth is that mortality across the entire demographics of Canada was bad in that time period (3 out of 10 children under 5 died across the country), so it isn&amp;#x27;t entirely atypical.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;we need real change in Canadian society&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;What does this even mean? Should the country abolish the residential school system, despite it being long abolished?</text></item><item><author>neom</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m mad as hell about this. My father was the executive director of Anishinaabe Community Counseling, a mental health services non-profit set up by the federal and provincial government in North Western Ontario. I spent a lot of time on and around the reserves, and it&amp;#x27;s not like this stuff was unknown. People told stories often about the residential schools, people wouldn&amp;#x27;t go near certain areas because they knew what was there. I can&amp;#x27;t believe I&amp;#x27;m saying this, but as a Canadian I would echo Chinas call for a full human rights inquiry at the international level. If Canada is seriously about truth and reconciliation, we need to do more than just continue to publish reports acknowledging the wrongs committed, we need real change in Canadian society. The recommendations put forward by the government never go far enough, and frankly, the Indian Act is stain on our country.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>II2II</author><text>&amp;gt; This is an absolute tragedy, but there is a bit of a lie happening in the presentation of it, with each &amp;quot;discovery&amp;quot; being treated like it is unveiling some dark secret. No, it is a dark, but very well known, truth that has been in the open for the entirety of the program. And the truth is that mortality across the entire demographics of Canada was bad in that time period (3 out of 10 children under 5 died across the country), so it isn&amp;#x27;t entirely atypical.&lt;p&gt;I understand and am partially sympathetic with what you are saying, but I don&amp;#x27;t think this is the time to bring up those concerns.&lt;p&gt;At the moment, Canadians have to reckon with yet another impact of the residential school system: many children died under the government&amp;#x27;s custody (even if it was indirect, through various churches).  It doesn&amp;#x27;t matter if the mortality rate was similar to other demographics, since the decisions of the government placed aboriginal children in those schools which was the precondition to the specific cause of death.  The &amp;quot;abolition&amp;quot; of the residential school system doesn&amp;#x27;t really mean anything, since many youth are still forced to leave their communities and are frequently placed in the care of complete strangers if they aspire to accomplish something that most Canadians take for granted: earning a high school diploma.&lt;p&gt;While the willful ignorance of these &amp;quot;very well known&amp;quot; deaths is difficult to excuse, the willful ignorance of the continuance of some of the hallmarks of the residential school system is difficult to forgive.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: for clarity.</text></comment>