• nyan@lemmy.cafe
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    5 months ago

    All they found were possible signals from ground radar. Which can be created by any type of extra density in the ground. Somehow the media and one Indegenous spokeperson used the term “mass graves,” and everyone and their dog just parroted it into existence thanks to social media.

    Let’s look at some facts that hold even in cases where the records are missing and the witnesses are all dead, then.

    The heyday of the residential schools was the 1930s. Back then, there were no vaccines for childhood killer diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, and polio. Even well-treated white kids living at home often died from those. The kids at the residential schools were packed into dorms like sardines, often underfed, and under terrible stress even when they weren’t being actively abused and exploited. The conditions were perfect for the spread of disease, and perfect for a high mortality rate. Logically, many of those children must have died. Their bodies weren’t returned home, so they must have been buried at or near the schools (christianity and cremation had an uneasy relationship at the time, so alternative methods of dealing with the bodies are unlikely).

    We don’t know whether all of the specific ground radar anomalies that have been located so far represent graves, it’s true, but the graves are out there somewhere. They didn’t just vanish.

    (Whether burning down churches is an appropriate reaction to this history is a separate matter. I personally don’t believe that revenge is a useful thing, but I can understand the appeal of striking back in that way for people who don’t share that belief.)

    • FriendBesto@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      Okay, so what you are really saying is that you did NOT read the actual report? Yes or No? Did you even know it even existed? Yes or No?

      I do not blame you, most people have not. An they go blindly at what the main stream media says with 0 Academic research, although people should be more objective. Example: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/07/world/canada/mass-graves-residential-schools.html

      It says: “The remains of more than 1,000 people, mostly children, have been discovered on the grounds of three former residential schools in two Canadian provinces since May.” The claim that they were discovered is an absolute, blatant wrong or a lie by omission or the NYT are idiots. Spots on a ground radar reading dead children do not make. Does not stop them from making the false claim which then will be parroted down stream as fact. I do not expect people --most people-- who have not read the report or kept up with the objective facts to think otherwise. Despite it being not true. So people will see what I say and think that of course, the NYTimes has to be correct, when they are, in fact, not. I have no respect for Christianity or any religion, but I can see people’s pre-set dislike for Catholicism and its history of child molestation to blind them, too, from being objective. I mean, this is obvious to see to anyone that has eyes. I am not saying that there may not be graves, but that is no reason to straight up make up lies, either when there are no bodies after looking for them years based on imperfect ground radar readings.

      Worth noting something that never talks about is the fact that many children just ran away and many, no number to go by, died in the process. This does not get touch as as a factor but it does get mentioned in some literature, but not like people ever bother to look anything up or do their own research, since most people are okay with being spoon fed narratives because, why not?

      This one touches on the fact, there are surely dozens of others, some of which go into a tiny bit more detail, but this was the first one I found as I wrote this: https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2020/09/the-residential-school-system.html “Some children ran away from the schools in an effort to return home. Some died in the process.” Worth noting that if even, 1% died this way, that would be 1,500+ that would simply have vanished from history. Even at %.5, that would still be 750+ kids.

      This article from 2015 touches on only 12, and discusses 5: https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/truth-reconciliation-commission-final-report-escapees-1.3364325

      What you are creating is a strawman. The point of the of the issue, which is if they were mass graves… well, there were NOT. The actual Report makes no such claim. The report does not indicate ANY bodies, at all, 0, zip. Anyone who has worked or knows about how ground radars works KNOWS that some blip on the scan, that is very vague cannot and should not automatically be assume to be a body. Since there are many different factors that could create such anomalies. Jumping to the priest must have just killed them or cremating them or whichever other notion cannot be assume without thinking that children running way could also be a more likely reason. Albeit if I ever come across a solid stat of that number I will update it here at some point.

      Let’s go through some stats, shall we, it estimated that about or at least 150,000+ children attended residential schools. Officially about 4,100 - 4,600 Died. That’s about 2.95%. Horribly to say, but not high for the time period. Rate was higher in reservations. In general, child mortality in Canada between 1830, one third of all children did not make it to their 5th birthday. For the rest of the 19th century it was 1 in 4. Clearly poverty is a problem, it always has been. Poverty was higher in Reservations because well, how do they feed themselves, there are entire papers writing on the dwindling economies of Native people due to a large myriad of factors, but not like pre-colonization was an utopia of no high child mortality rates. Anyone who thinks that is living in a world of denial or Presentism, which is the notion that we should use the standards and worldviews of today to apply to what people did or thought centuries or even 70 years ago. Which I see a lot of people do regarding a lot of issues these days. Which is silly. Plus it leads me to believe that those people never really have picked up serious academic sources.

      It is a know fact, also stated in the report that those schools may have had some cemeteries, and a few (2) were found at an earlier date, albeit those were found in what could be considered local cemeteries. It could not be fully determined. Your so called-logic does not and will not explain the crazy mania that followed in 2020, years after the report had been available to the public years prior. Nobody cared. And when they finally did, they let rumors and incorrect statements build on a very anti-Canadian sentiment. The term “mass graves,” was incorrect and wrong for the whole time. The people that did not know anything devolved into a wave of virtue signaling and the people who knew better, said nothing. Including the Liberal Federal government, as a Liberal, that is a massive, almost extreme lack of honesty and transparency. Now, devolved to political bullshit since the Liberals will not correct their record, so it is mostly Conservative news that cover it, leaving other Lliberals under the assumption that it is a political hit job, or the like, which may be up to point. But the real fuck up here was the Liberals lying mostly by omission by not correcting the News, and under emphasizing a report that had come out around 2015 of their own accord. My guess, because they can get to virtue signal because they know most people will not seek primary sources. Because most people never do. Plus it is a complex and multifaceted issue.

      Problem about this, is that people who have not read the report pretend they know better and will usually devolve the point to politics or misguided takes on history due to emotion or virtue signalling. I saw Native websites building on fake or incorrect stories on non-existent dead bodies or graves, or made up narratives based on incorrect readings, which is wrong. That is not alright with me when the facts were known so much before hand.

      If people really give a shit, then we would be talking about the rampant sexual abuse that happen to Native children done by other, older native children at schools, more so than any done by the priests, but that would definitely would not fly well in our current woke culture where we don’t like to look at reality if it does reflect our already existing bias of: white man bad, held by many. Especially in some University circles.

      Apologies for the long post.