President Donald J. Trump announced a new policy initiative aimed to dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech. TRANSCRIPT: President Donald J. Trump — Free Speech Policy Initiative
If we don’t have FREE SPEECH, then we just don’t have a FREE COUNTRY. It’s as simple as that. If this most fundamental right is allowed to perish, then the rest of our rights and liberties will topple just like dominos one by one. They’ll go down.
That’s why today, I am announcing my plan to shatter the left-wing censorship regime, and to reclaim the right to Free Speech for all Americans. And reclaim is a very important word in this case because they’ve taken it away.
In recent weeks, bombshell reports have confirmed that a sinister group of Deep State bureaucrats, Silicon Valley tyrants, left-wing activists, and depraved corporate news media have been conspiring to manipulate and silence the American People. They have collaborated to suppress vital information on everything from elections to public health.
The censorship cartel must be dismantled and destroyed — and it must happen immediately. And here is my plan:
FIRST, within hours of my inauguration, I will sign an executive order banning any federal department or agency from colluding with any organization, business, or person, to censor, limit, categorize, or impede the lawful speech of American citizens. I will then ban federal money from being used to label domestic speech as “mis-” or “dis-information”. And I will begin the process of identifying and firing every federal bureaucrat who has engaged in domestic censorship—directly or indirectly—whether they are the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI, the DOJ, no matter who they are.
SECOND, I will order the Department of Justice to investigate all parties involved in the new online censorship regime, which is absolutely destructive and terrible, and to aggressively prosecute any and all crimes identified. These include possible violations of federal civil rights law, campaign finance laws, federal election law, securities law, and anti-trust laws, the Hatch Act and a host of other potential criminal, civil, regulatory, and constitutional offenses. To assist in these efforts, I am urging House Republicans to immediately send preservation letters — and we have to do this right now — to the Biden administration, the Biden campaign, and every Silicon Valley tech giant, ordering them not to destroy evidence of censorship.
THIRD, upon my inauguration as president, I will ask Congress to send a bill to my desk revising Section 230 to get big online platforms out of censorship business. From now on, digital platforms should only qualify for immunity protection under Section 230 if they meet high standards of neutrality, transparency, fairness, and non-discrimination. We should require these platforms to INCREASE their efforts to take down UNLAWFUL content, such as child exploitation and promoting terrorism, while dramatically curtailing their power to arbitrarily restrict lawful speech.
FOURTH, we need to break up the entire toxic censorship industry that has arisen under the false guise of tackling so-called “mis-” and “dis-information.” The federal government should immediately stop funding all non-profits and academic programs that support this authoritarian project. If any U.S. university is discovered to have engaged in censorship activities or election interferences in the past—such as flagging social media content for removal [and] blacklisting—those universities should lose federal research dollars and federal student loan support for a period of five years, and maybe more. We should also enact new laws laying out clear criminal penalties for federal bureaucrats who partner with private entities to do an end-run around the Constitution and deprive Americans of their First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights. In other words, deprive them of their vote. And once you lose those elections and once you lose your borders like we have, you no longer have a country. Furthermore, to confront the problems of major platforms being infiltrated by legions of former Deep Staters and intelligence officials, there should be a 7-year cooling-off period before any employee of the FBI, CIA, NSA, DNI, DHS, or DOD is allowed to take a job at a company possessing vast quantities of U.S. user data.
FIFTH, the time has finally come for Congress to pass a digital Bill of Rights. This should include a right to digital due process—in other words, government officials should need a COURT ORDER to take down online content, not send information requests such as the FBI was sending to Twitter.
Furthermore, when users of big online platforms have their content or accounts removed, throttled, shadow-banned, or otherwise restricted no matter what name they use, they should have the right to be informed that it’s happening, the right to a specific explanation of the reason why, and the right to a timely appeal. In addition, all users over the age of 18 should have the right to opt-out of content moderation and curation entirely, and receive an unmanipulated stream of information if they so choose.
The fight for Free Speech is a matter of victory or death for America—and for the survival of Western Civilization itself. When I am President, this whole rotten system of censorship and information control will be ripped out of the system at large. There won’t be anything left.
By restoring free speech, we will begin to reclaim our democracy, and save our nation. Thank you, and God Bless America.
Clayton McAllister, a truck driver from London, Ontario, attended The Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa, joining many others in a movement that began in early 2022. The convoy was organized by truck drivers protesting the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers and other pandemic restrictions.
As participants drove to Ottawa in late January to demand an end to the mandates and a restoration of personal freedoms, the protest quickly gained momentum. Big rig trucks blocked downtown Ottawa streets, creating significant disruptions and attracting widespread attention. The demonstration lasted for weeks before the government invoked the Emergencies Act in mid-February, granting law enforcement sweeping powers to clear protestors and remove the blockades.
McAllister did not attend the protest as a truck driver, but went to show support for the truckers’ cause. Driving his pickup truck and trailer loaded with donated food and supplies, he planned to stay for only two days. However, after witnessing the mainstream media’s portrayal of protestors as “terrorists,” McAllister felt compelled to remain longer. He argued that this characterization was “not the case at all.”
Arrested shortly after the Emergencies Act was invoked, McAllister faced charges of mischief, resisting arrest, and disturbing the peace. Recalling the day of his arrest, he described how, after police began moving in, he lay down in front of them in the snow before being taken into custody. He was placed in a paddy wagon and left there for eight hours, denied access to a lawyer. Eventually, he was driven out of town and dropped off at a gas station with his phone battery almost dead.
Adding to the ordeal, police seized the keys to McAllister’s truck, which was parked in downtown Ottawa, leaving him unable to retrieve it. Two days later, he watched on TV as officers smashed the windows of his truck before it was towed away. Later, McAllister discovered that all of his bank accounts had been frozen.
Nearly two and a half years later, McAllister received a major victory when the Crown notified his lawyer that all charges against him would be withdrawn. Initially, the Crown offered McAllister a peace bond, with a restriction preventing him from attending any protest, gathering, or rally with more than 25 people for one year.
McAllister rejected the offer, standing firm on his belief that “I’m not giving in to being silenced—that’s the main principle I’m fighting for.” The Crown returned with a revised offer—a peace bond without protest restrictions, provided McAllister wrote a 100-word paragraph explaining the difference between a political protest and criminal mischief. McAllister accepted this offer.
In February of this year, federal court judge Justice Richard G. Mosley ruled that the invocation of the Emergencies Act was unconstitutional. This landmark decision triggered a wave of lawsuits against the federal government, with McAllister joining 19 other plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking $2 million in damages each. The federal government has filed an appeal challenging Justice Mosley’s decision.
McAllister’s lawyer, Ian McCuaig, spoke with The Canadian Independent, expressing satisfaction with the verdict and noting that “Mr. McAllister is happy, and that is a measure of success.” McCuaig emphasized McAllister’s strong defense, which centered on multiple Charter violations.
He argued that McAllister’s rights had been repeatedly breached, including violations of his section 10 rights, as he was denied access to a lawyer and had his property unlawfully seized. Additionally, McCuaig cited unlawful detention and a breach of section 7, pointing out that McAllister had been “driven against his will to a remote location and abandoned.” These violations, McCuaig contended, made “a compelling argument for a stay of proceedings.”
McCuaig also highlighted the importance of the outcome in preserving McAllister’s section 2 rights, which guarantee freedom of movement and association. “His right to engage in protected expression was not compromised,” McCuaig said, adding, “That was a priority for me, as someone who values those rights dearly.”
More Court Postponements: Update on David Lindsay’s Legal Cases
to me
Hi everyone. Legal work and deadlines this week have really prevented me from any full newsletter unfortunately. My expected hearing to be released was not heard this week. It was set over again, to November 25 for a possible hearing. I may not know until the Friday of the week before, again. By this time, I will have served approximately 109 of 120 day sentence. The status of the appeal and how that is to proceed, has been set over to January 6, 2025 for a one hour case management hearing, at 9:00 a.m. The Kelowna rally case continues on Dec. 3, 4, 5 at 10:00 a.m. each day. I hope and pray the weather holds out for tomorrow’s rally too!! Blessings everyone – more next week.
for final hearing on my SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) application to strike the City’s Petition against us. (See the B.C. Protection of Public Participation Act)
Please remember other innocent people who have stood up for our rights and freedoms against our tyrannical governments during COVID-19 and to the present, who are now in the midst of their ongoing, oppressive trials:
Tamara Lich
Chris Barber
The Coutts prisoners: Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert
In a mixed set of updates here. The Bank of Canada (B of C) has recently announced plans to suspend introduction of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) to the public.
While this may sound victorious on its face, and there is much positive to say when such plans are shelved or put on hold, please remember the use of the word “suspend” as opposed to “cancel”.
Has the B of C simply decided to wait on the outcomes and research from other countries and then simply tag along?
In this past summer, the B of C was recommending Canada provide its own CBDC for digital payments. This apparently has been suspended or now put on hold. We can only hope for some permanency to this decision.
We need a Constitutional amendment that 100% absolutely provides for the mandatory use and acceptance of cash for all transactions – in any amount. So, if you wish to pay $1 000 000.00 for a house in $100/bills, you should be allowed to so do. That is privacy.
Conversely, Google has announced that the Google Wallet can now function as digital ID, based on the selling point of course, of convenience to the exclusion of all privacy. Once privacy is lost, so is freedom.
“Imagine starting a vacation like this,” Google Wallet executive Alan Stapelberg wrote in a blog post last week. “You arrive at the airport and breeze through security by tapping your phone to a reader, scanning your boarding pass and ID. While waiting to board, you grab a drink at an airport bar, tapping your phone to prove your age. When you arrive at your destination, you find your rental car and leave the lot without stopping for an in-person ID check because you already provided the necessary information in the rental car app. You check into your hotel online and your key is issued straight to your digital wallet. You do all of this with your phone — no physical wallet required.”
It is starting – Use cash as much as possible – use credit cards or digital only if there is no other alternative.
The Bank of Canada is admittedly planning for digital currency. It claims that it will not replace cash – BUT – and here is the caveat, it will continue to use cash “notes for as long as Canadians want them.”
In other words, if you don’t use cash, you will lose it. Reading between the lines, it is clear that the Gov’t will simply issue press releases and polls showing most Canadians don’t use and/or don’t want cash, and then the Bank of Canada will claim it has to eliminate cash because few people are using it or want it, and it is, ironically, too costly to maintain printing the notes and coins.
Bill Still, the US Patriot and author of the incredible documentary, The Money Masters, outlines the results of recent polls showing that 86% of Canadians fear the digital dollar!!! Wow.
87% of Canadians have heard or are aware of the Bank of Canada’s CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency), and 82% are strongly opposed to it!!
Companies will not use digital currency if we are not using digital currency!
It will cost them too much in lost business.
Here are two awesome posters that you can distribute to all businesses to put on their entrance doors, advocating for the use of cash. Print on 8 1/2 x 11 glossy hard stock for best results.
For Business owners:
The dangers of digital gov’t ID and currencies are here… you need to use cash as much as possible. As recognized by Freedom Rising, there are many inherent dangers of using digital currency. What do you do, not if, but when:
The internet is down
There is a power outage
The card reader malfunctions
Your phone battery dies or doesn’t work for other reasons
WE SUGGEST YOU CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING AS WELL:
Your phone is stolen
Your passwords are co-opted
Your credit/debit card strip is damaged – needs replacing
There are errors in relation to the quantum of $$ on your card
Gov’t limits your purchases/CRA liens the balance on your card
AND MANY OTHER DANGERS
CLEAR has promoted the non-use of digital currencies and credit/debit cards as much as possible, for years.
Suggested Solution:
Withdraw money on Saturday/Sunday from the bank or bank machine, and then leave your money at home if you are scared to carry it with you, and just carry the amounts of cash for each day’s purchases for the week.
NO MORE CARDS!!!! NO EXCUSES!
USE CASH $$$$$$$$$
Do you want to be the next person to be “unbanked” because of your political beliefs????
Another sample: (thanks Adele)
Get these cards below at the CLEAR booth to give out every time you use cash – or print your own to hand out!
Make Business sized cards to hand out at all your cash purchases!
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Kindness of the week
To Dr. Trozzi who has kindly taken time from his busy schedule to speak to us here in Kelowna on Saturday!
Sadly, it appears that Alta. Premier Smith has caved. The proposed amendments to the Alta. Bill of Rights, appears to be structured in a similar manner as the Charter – with a clause similar to s. 1 of the Charter, as follows:
(2) The rights and freedoms recognized and declared by this Act are subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic Alberta.
(3) For greater certainty, a reasonable limit on the rights and freedoms recognized and declared by this Act that is prescribed by law and demonstrably justified under subsection (2) is not an infringement or denial of those rights and freedoms.
This will render the Bill of Rights virtually meaningless, despite the recent changes.
Interestingly, when one types in “Bill 24 Alberta”, the first site that pops up, is “An Act to support gay straight alliances” – and the Alberta Bill of Rights is further down the list.
Google truly has beem Socialistically compromised.
BC Voting: Drea provides an excellent analysis of the election and use of Dominion tabulators. I agree with the analysis of the person interviewed, we need to go back to the old method of counting. There simply wasn’t any problems, concerns, or doubts that exist today, since these electronic machines were first introduced.
British Columbia has a history of voter fraud – RCMP
Tommy Robinson has been jailed in England for 18 months for contempt of court, for speaking out about the harms being done by at least one immigrant in society, contrary to a judge’s order not to so do.
England truly has lost its way. We must rememeber, that the common law recognizes no other system of law and if usurped, will always return to the common law.
Freedom of expression is seriously under attack, as illustrated by Kelowna’s attempts to close down our local rallies here. Being in the public now is more important than ever.
More Gov’t promoted media lies are about to come. The Federal Gov’t is now going to create its own news articles for selected media outlets of its choosing to promote.
A Canadian federal agency has outlined plans to create news articles for selected media outlets, with all stories reviewed and fact-checked by federal employees before publication.
At least four Ontario hospitals are re-instituing mask mandates until February 2025, if not longer. More hospitals are considering doing likewise, despite the fact that they do not work. So why the mandatory use? Simply to see who will comply.
In addition to our own mask brochure, here is a further list of studies proving masks do not prevent viral transmission:
Two recent polls in BC’s own ragbloid, Castanet provide telling insights into our true beliefs.
55.6% said they would not get the latest COVID-19 vaccine – only 39.33% said they would. At least locally, just over 1/3 will get vaccinated – much less than advertised by Bonnie the Commie! The Interior truly has the lowest vaccination rates – in part thanks to the efforts of everyone attending our rallies!
And a whopping 88.08% of people agreed that they agree to lower immigration, and only 7.74% disagreed with the recent lower of immigration rates by the Fed Gov’t.
NOTE: This reminds me of a video interview The Commie did during the COVID-19 scam, claiming we were only a fringe minority, only to have the news network show pictures of about 1500 people at our rally! Bonnie truly is a liar.
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The truth about people who were tricked into sex changes in their youth. It is not pretty.
“How will I come back from this?’: Detransitioners abandoned by medical and trans communities”
Bill Whatcott engaging in Godly election interference at an Appleton WI polling station, located in an apostate Lutheran Church. Bill is helping Americans make an informed decision when they cast their ballots.
Dear Friends,
Today, I was blessed to be able to witness at a polling center and help Americans cast their ballots in a morally informed manner. The US election is taking place today.
My efforts to help out in a positive way was met with mixed results. Two poll workers came out and seemed disturbed by my signs. They were polite enough, but quite insistent I stay away from the polling station. I informed them I checked where I was allowed to stand and that I was legally entitled to stand where I was. They shook their heads and headed back into the polling station.
A couple minutes later a deranged female leftist and what was I assume was her boyfriend stopped their car in the middle of the road (I assume this act was illegal as a whole bunch of cars were suddenly forced to stop behind them), they photographed me, F bombed me, and started screaming I was a criminal intimidating voters and that my mother should have aborted me. I wished them well, told them God did not approve of Kamala Harris and Tampon Tim and they quickly moved on as all the cars behind them started honking their horns.
One elderly lady who wore an ID and I think either worked at the polls or volunteered with the apostate church came out and started what I thought was an amicable enough chat. She commented she was informed by some of the people coming inside to vote that I was out on the sidewalk protesting. I informed her I wasn’t protesting, so much as trying to give accurate election information to voters, so they could make an informed decision and cast a moral vote. To my surprise and seemingly out of nowhere the elderly woman hissed at me “Go F— yourself.” Then she turned around and went back inside the polling station. Yikes!
One woman told me I was a moron and that I informed her vote with my signs and that after reading them she was voting for Kamala Harris and Tampon Tim. Oh well…….
Others were quite polite. I got a few thumbs up by drivers driving by and looking at my signs. One voter told me he appreciated me being there and that he too was pro-life. A fellow in a pick up truck rolled down his window, smiled, and wished me a wonderful day. One young lady pulled her car into the polling station parking lot, stopped in front of my display and gave me a thumbs up before going in to vote.
The polling station was contained in this apostate Lutheran Church. Note the Marxist, gender confused, sodomite flag adorning the church
Listening to various radio stations while I am driving across the United States I can see there are huge concerns across the USA there will be widespread election fraud perpetrated by the political left again.
I find it strange that Democrats are obsessed with folks getting mail in ballots, folks being able to vote without ID, and voters not even needing to prove their residence when voting. No one complains that folks need ID and an address to open a bank account. One cannot drive a car without having a driver’s license. It makes no sense running something as important as an election without insisting people who want to vote be able to prove who they are and that they are legally allowed to vote.
Anyways, tonight I will be at an election watch party with the Constitution Party in Milwaukee. I can’t vote, but I contributed. We can all pray that America’s election is free and fair. No fraud, no violence. My favourite party (most aligned with my world view) is the Constitution Party, but I will definitely be happy if Donald Trump wins tonight.
Tomorrow I am off to Columbus Ohio and then on to Boston Massachusetts before coming back to Canada as per my bail conditions.
If you would like to help with the numerous expenses related to my upcoming travels to Toronto to face my multiple hearings and second so-called “hate crime” trial you can donate here:https://www.lifefunder.com/whatcott
In Christ’s Service, Bill Whatcott
“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.” Proverbs 29:2
On Monday October 28th I went to Colorado Sprinds to visit Matt Barber and was blessed (It was a surprise for me) to appear on the PIJN (Pray in Jesus’ Name) news network with host Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt AKA “Dr Chaps.” We discussed my upcoming second “hate crime” trial (I was acquitted once already in Dec 2021) in March 2026. We also discussed the general state of free speech and religious freedom in Canada, which to be honest has been palpably declining for the last few decades and appears to me to have significantly declined at an accelerated rate since Trudeau became Prime Minister in Canada in 2018.
I was told the interview will air in a couple weeks. PIJN is on eight different cable and satellite networks, as well as 17 online platforms. Dr Chaps is unambiguously Christian in his worldview and vocally opposed to sodomy, killing babies, and transgenderism, so his program is banned by the CRTC from airing in Canada. However, if my Canadian friends desire to watch the interview you will be able to access some of the online networks (at least until Trudeau’s so-called “Online Harms” law takes effect) that carry Dr. Chaps program.
Dr Gordon Klingenschmitt (L), Matt Barber (C) and Bill Whatcott (R) at Dr Chaps’ studio in Colorado Springs CO
Today, I am in Bowman ND with a lovely Catholic family who left Canada three years ago and who definitely feel more free and prosperous here in the United States. They have 8 kids and are a home schooling family. The oldest 15 year old shot his first deer last week and he made me and his siblings breakfast this morning after we all participated in family prayer and Bible study time.
This afternoon I will be heading to Fargo ND to visit a good friend of mine Rob Rudnick who served with Operation Rescue, protested in front of numerous abortuaries across the United States and travelled to Canada to help me a few times. Tomorrow, I will drive on to visit my former Pastor when I lived in Surrey and his family. They left Surrey BC and he now Pastor’s a church in Wisconsin.
For those who would like to help Bill with his court and life expenses as he attends court and awaits his second “hate crime” trial for ministering the Gospel at the Toronto Homosexual unGodly Pride parade you can donate here: https://www.lifefunder.com/whatcott
If you want to know how evil Google is, they just banned our Natural News app from Google Play, claiming that if your content OPPOSES CHILD MUTILATIONS, that’s “health misinformation.” They also claim that advocating for good nutrition is a “harmful, unapproved treatment” and that telling the truth about vaccine damage is “misleading.” Google is pure evil. Demons in charge there. This is why everyone needs to DE-GOOGLE your life, get Google out of your entire sphere of operations and stop using Google Android phones that rely on the Play Store. Get de-Googled phones with freedom-oriented operating systems instead, like the ones at AbovePhone.com
Progressives who want to criminalize discussion of residential schools are embarrassing Canada
Published Oct 26, 2024 •
417 Comments
New Democrat MP Leah Gazan speaks during a press conference in Ottawa, on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. Photo by Spencer Colby/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Once again, commentators in friendly countries throughout the western world are expressing sincere alarm over whether Canada has succumbed to terminal wokeness and is voluntarily and by force of law strangling free speech and ceasing to be, by traditional definition, a free country. Leah Gazan, a Manitoba New Democratic MP, who has been a tireless propagator of the defamatory fraud that French and English Canadians attempted to perform an act of genocide against Canada’s indigenous people, is at it again. Her private member’s bill, supported by the NDP, proposes to make it a crime to question, dispute, minimize or justify the activities of the so-called Indian residential schools which she continues falsely to represent as a genocidal enterprise.
No one disputes that there were many tragic and frightful occurrences in the schools, but there is no doubt that the purpose and intent of them was to assist native children in escaping poverty and illiteracy and giving them a route to a normal and prosperous life. Nor is there any dispute that can withstand even cursory scrutiny that many of the approximately 150,000 students in those schools did in fact go on to much more successful lives than they might have led without having attended them. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission resisted with evident reluctance the rampaging temptation to try to swaddle this macabre fable in the winding sheet of genocide, but it did come to a number of conclusions that were not justified by the large volumes of accompanying documentation and the report has effectively failed as a basis of reconciliation.
There is a general consensus among thoughtful Canadians that as a society we have not adequately addressed the needs, and rightful ambitions and grievances of Indigenous communities. This has not been for many years a question of inadequate funding. Tens of billions of dollars have been poured into a cornucopia of programs designed to compensate and durably improve the lives of Indigenous communities. The residential schools themselves began contemporaneously with legislation seeking to assure that all children in Canada were educated, and the indigenous populations were so dispersed that it was fiscally impractical to build the number of day-schools that would have been required to educate large numbers of them. Tuberculosis was a widespread problem in society and not just in native communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, even amongst prosperous families. Schools in general, including elite boarding schools, had an excessive amount of corporal punishment in that era and there was undoubtedly, in almost all western countries, inadequate monitoring of the deviant and even sadistic behaviour of some teachers.
The commitment, by Canadian governments and churches of $7 billion of reparations for claimed victims of the residential schools is excessive and if these awards and concessions had been coordinated properly, they would have been conditional on the native victimhood industry ceasing to press on what has been an open door of Canadian majority guilt while steadily escalating its outrageous demands. The former minister of justice of Canada, Jody Wilson-Raybould, went so far as to order that no claims made by native individuals or organizations against the government of Canada should be litigated: they should instead be settled by negotiation. Canada is not and has never been a uniquely deliberately or systematically unjust jurisdiction. But in these matters it has consistently been a stupid jurisdiction, and remains so.
The respected Americas commentator of the Wall Street Journal, Mary Anastasia O’Grady, recently wrote, as a number of Canadians have, (including me), that the unmarked graves scandal, after more than three years, has yet to be supported with one scintilla of probative evidence. If Canada is to be taken seriously in the world or even by itself, it must arm itself with the self-respect to investigate such controversies promptly and thoroughly, to redress matters fully and generously when that is appropriate, and to revise or debunk the allegations when that is justified. As I have written here and elsewhere before, our own government is complicit in blood libels against the founding European nations of this country. That is not the purpose of government.
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Given that our entire society has effectively capitulated to ever more extreme complaints, who seem to be cranking up to claim the estimated 200,000 mostly nomadic Indigenous people who roamed around the 3,800,000 square miles of what is now Canada when the Europeans arrived 500 years ago, were invaded and occupied in a manner legally indistinguishable from the conquest of Poland by Hitler and Stalin in 1939. What is needed is a comprehensive assessment of the past and plan of action for the future, worked out by impartial and altruistic people in intimate discussion and agreement with a representative group of Canada’s many extremely talented and successful native people.
Illustrative of the sort of semi-formalized misinformation and cant and emotionalism that obstructs serious discussion of these matters was an email sent to the eminent writer and journalist Robert MacBain (and shared with me), whose most recent book was on the tragic death of the young native boy Charlie Wenjack, from the fund that has been established in the boy’s honour. The email claimed that Charlie was “taken from his family at nine years old and forced to attend” the residential school at Kenora, Ontario; that he “had run away from the school to reunite with his family 600 km away,” and “succumbed to starvation and exposure,” and that his death “became the first to spark a formal investigation into the treatment of indigenous children in residential schools.”
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It claimed that the school changed the boy’s name from Chainie to Charlie, and has given mass circulation to drawings of Catholic nuns delousing Charlie and other Ojibway boys. It is clearly alleged that Charlie was sexually abused by the school staff. All of these assertions are false, as Robert MacBain meticulously demonstrated, Charlie attended a Presbyterian school, not a Catholic school with nuns, and there is incontrovertible evidence that all these claims are bunk. Clergy are caricatured as hideous and brutal people, and perhaps a few of them were, but the Kenora school has many positive and grateful alumni.
Until we demand and elicit the truth about all these issues, we will have no defence against the self-defamation of our country and its history and no adequate response to the Indigenous people who have so long awaited one. Canada is becoming a laughing stock in the world. This entire issue goes to the heart and moral core of this country and it has to be faced and resolved, and not by repealing free speech and criminalizing legitimate discussion of it.
