FROLITICKS

Satirical commentary on Canadian and American current political issues

Jun 25

Far More Political And Societal Division Among Americans Than Among Canadians

by bcurry

In July in both the U.S. and Canada, people will be respectively celebrating the birth of their countries.  However, these past few years have demonstrated a concerning growth in divisive politics, much more so in the U.S. than in Canada.  Most recently, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade allowing states to ban abortion.  This is despite the fact that polls have shown that only one in ten Americans want an absolute ban on abortion.  In Canada, the right to abortion is supported by all major political parties and the vast majority of Canadians.  When it comes to restrictions on accessibility to guns, the majority of Americans support increasing restrictions to gun ownership, while the gun lobby holds sway in Congress and many states.  Supported by the majority in Canada, there are restrictions on guns, especially handguns and military-style weapons — a number of the latter are outright banned.  Although numerous American organizations and groups have lobbied to eliminate the death penalty in half of the states where it exists, Canada did away with the death penalty decades ago.  It is now believed that the recent Supreme Court’s decision could also lead to a reconsideration of Americans’ right to same sex marriage, something which has been legalized in Canada for sometime now.

A new poll of Canadians by the U.K.’s well known pollster Lord Michael Ashcroft showed that Canada, rather than the polarized society on display in America, is described as a nation that is proud and hopeful.  He concluded that most Canadians are a lot more confident, empathetic, proud and trusting of their own democracy and national identity, frequently seeking a middle ground on controversial issues.  Fully seven in ten Canadians think Canada is one of the best places to live and multiculturalism is a healthy and important element of Canadian society and thus encourages immigration to the country.  Yes, there are some small vocal dissident groups who surface from time to time in Canada, but nowhere near the numbers of American right-wing and social conservative groups who even emerged to contest the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.  Thankfully, there is no equivalent to Donald Trump in Canada.

The current infringement on the rights of American women with the overturning of Roe vs. Wade will further increase the division among Americans across the country.  This will become a highly contentious issue in the upcoming November elections, with pro-life and pro-choice candidates slugging it out on the hastings.  When a draft copy of the decision was leaked in May, even Donald Trump began telling friends and advisers that it would anger suburban women, a group who helped tilt the 2020 race to President Joe Biden.  He felt that would lead to a backlash against Republicans in the November midterm elections.  However, as per the New York Times, with the decision Trump put out a statement taking a victory lap, including applauding himself for sticking by his choice of nominees.  On top of which, the court’s decision is unfortunately expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care.  In addition, for those women who can afford to come to Canada, Canadian abortion services are currently examining the potential impact in welcoming these Americans.

With respect to another grouping, our indigenous people of North America, both the U.S. and Canada in the past had used residential schools in an attempt to assimilate indigenous populations by eliminating their culture and languages.  However, unlike in the U.S., Canadians began a national reconciliation process reflecting honestly on the darkest parts of history and attempting to move forward to correct past abuses.  Canadians of all backgrounds have come forward to fully support the truth and reconciliation initiatives at all levels of society.  The same issue has barely been recognized in the States.

All in all, one cannot but conclude that there is far more political and societal division among Americans than among Canadians.  The next decade could prove to be one of the most explosive in American history, with the current polarization of American society almost as great as that preceding the American Civil War between the North and South over the abolition of slavery.  Only time will tell.  Not a great time to be living in the States!

Canada Donald Trump Extremist Groups Gun Control Indigenous Issues Populism Populism in Canada Presidential Election 2020 Republican Party US US Politics Women's Issues

Leave a comment »
Jun 26

Tragic Use of Residential Schools for Indigenous Populations in North America is Part of Our History

by bcurry

History has shown us that once colonies have led to the creation of nation states, such as Canada and the United States, the next step has been to introduce policies aimed at “assimilating” native populations into the cultures of the ruling masses.  If peoples refused to assimilate, they were often separated and segregated from the rest of society, or sometimes even killed.  Part of assimilation often included the introduction of Christianity via the use of missionaries and the use of the church in running residential schools, as was the case in Canada and in French colonial times.

After a law was enacted in the early 1800’s in the U.S., residential boarding schools were established across the nation and used to house relocated Indigenous children, suppressing American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian cultures.  Records from 1819 to 1969 were kept by the Department of the Interior, which had oversight of the facilities.  Hundreds of thousands Native American children were forcibly taken from their communities to be culturally assimilated in the schools, suppressing the use of their native languages and customs.  Hundreds of children died while in custody, such that the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition was partly formed to help find the graves of the ‘missing children’.  The federal Department of the Interior is consulting with tribes on how to protect burial sites and use other information it had gathered.

Around 1883 in Canada, Indigenous children in many parts of the country were forced to attend residential schools in a forced assimilation program.  Most of these schools were operated by churches.  All of them banned the use of Indigenous languages and cultural practices, often through violence.  Disease, as well as sexual, physical and emotional abuse, were widespread. An estimated 150,000 children passed through the schools between their opening and their closing in 1996.  A National Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up as part of the federal government’s apology and settlement over the schools, concluded that at least 4,100 students died while attending them.  Recently, using ground-penetrating radar, mass graves containing the remains of what are believed to be mainly Indigenous children have been found in unmarked graves on the site of a former residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan.  Governments have now introduced funding and initiatives to retrieve residential school records, some of which are in the hands of churches, in order to identify the children buried in these unmarked graves.  However, as part of the reconciliation effort, Indigenous leaders believe that the government still has a long way to go.

This troubling history deserves more attention to raise our awareness and to educate others about the atrocities that Indigenous people experienced, especially through the teaching in our schools of the history of North American Indigenous peoples and their past and present treatment by Canadian and American administrations.  History is history and cannot be changed or erased.  Moreover, societies must learn from their history so that they can better understand their society today and work together to heal and move forward.  This upcoming Canada Day and Independence Day, both Canadians and Americans should take time to inform themselves about this tragic period of history and reflect on its dreadful impact on our Indigenous peoples.  We owe it to these children, their families and the survivors of residential schools.

Canada Indigenous Issues Native Issues US

Leave a comment »
Blog at WordPress.com.