751 unnamed graves reveal the "dark history" of Canadian genocide
Reading tips
"Crimes that have been neglected for a long time, accountability that has never been mentioned, and systemic racial discrimination that still exists today..." The successive discovery of child remains and unmarked graves may be just the "tip of the iceberg." The dark history of ethnic discrimination and oppression may be unveiled one after another.
On June 24, local time, 751 unmarked graves were found near the site of an aboriginal children’s boarding school in Saskatchewan, western Canada.
This was less than a month, and another similar incident was exposed in Canada, which shocked the international community.
At the end of May, the remains of 215 children were found in an aboriginal boarding school in the country.
Historically, more than 150,000 aboriginal children in Canada were forcibly taken away from their parents and entered so-called aboriginal boarding schools.
In the opinion of analysts, these child remains and unmarked graves may be only the "tip of the iceberg", and more of Canada's dark history of racial discrimination and oppression of minorities may be unveiled one after another.
One
The "Marival Indian Boarding School" exposed on June 24 was established in 1899 and managed by the local Catholic Church. It was closed until 1997.
According to multiple media reports, a technical team started using ground penetrating radar to search the 44,000 square meters area around the old boarding school site in early June. "As of yesterday (June 23), 751 unmarked graves were found."
None of these tombs are recorded, and they are located on the old school playground.
Xinhua News Agency reported that the chief of the local Koveses First Nations (that is, the indigenous Indian tribe in Canada), Cadmus Delorm, said that due to the 10% error of radar detection, he is currently conservative. It is stated as "there are more than 600 remains", but some graves may contain more than one remains.
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), this is by far the largest number of discoveries.
The "Washington Post" stated that this was the second "terrible discovery" in a month, which brought Canada once again to the "darkest page in history."
Earlier, on May 27, the remains of 215 children were found at the site of an aboriginal boarding school in British Columbia, Canada. The youngest was only 3 years old.
Similarly, the local government has no records of the deaths of these students.
After the incident was exposed, it quickly triggered a "chain reaction", and public opinion demanded that all the truth about the deaths of these children be traced.
More skeptics believe that this is by no means an isolated incident in Canada, and the government should investigate the locations of all the former boarding schools for indigenous children.
two
Two "discoveries" in less than a month have gradually brought to the surface the dark history of genocide by the Aboriginal people in Canadian history.
What kind of blood and tears is this history?
!
Beginning in the 1870s, Canada used the guise of helping Aboriginal children to "integrate" into mainstream culture, forcing them to separate from their parents.
In 1884, the government directly issued regulations requiring all aboriginals under the age of 16 to enter boarding schools until they are 18.
According to media reports, it was from that time that Indian boarding schools began to expand rapidly. Except for remote areas, almost every province opened such schools.
In 1931, the number of boarding schools in Canada reached its peak-more than 80, most of which were operated by churches.
In 2009, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada was established to investigate and study the Aboriginal school system.
In 2015, TRC released a landmark report, which was called "more like a list of allegations" by the media, and it classified Canada's policy as "cultural genocide."
This report shows that from the 1840s to the 1990s, at least 150,000 Indian, Inuit, and Métis and other indigenous children were forced to enter boarding schools.
"Oh, Canada, our homeland, the land of the aborigines..." This is the first sentence of the national anthem "Oh, Canada".
However, statistics show that after more than 100 years of so-called "integration", Canadian aboriginals have gone from being a "main ethnic group" to now account for less than 5% of the country's total population, and many aboriginal tribes have completely disappeared.
three
On June 25, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau once again "expressed sadness" in the face of the newly discovered 751 unnamed graves.
After discovering the remains of 215 children at the end of last month, Trudeau called the news "breaking his heart."
On May 30, Canada's flag was lowered at half-mast to show condolences.
But in the eyes of critics, this is not only a late apology, but also limited to verbal!
Canada has never solved the problem of racial discrimination well, and progress has been slow in reconciling inequality and intergenerational trauma.
What is even more unacceptable is that according to media reports, the Canadian government is trying to shirk the blame on the Roman Catholic Church.
In Trudeau's eyes, "These past events cannot be undone."
It's just that these "past things" are still happening today.
The difference is that the victimized "protagonist" has changed.
According to Xinhua News Agency, since the outbreak of the new crown, racial discrimination, stigmatization and violent attacks against Asians in Canada have increased significantly.
According to a report released by the All-Canada Chinese Association a few days ago, from March 2020 to February 2021, more than 1,000 cases of verbal abuse and violent attacks against Asians occurred in Canada.
Systemic racial discrimination against other minorities is also widespread. The lives of minorities are becoming more difficult, social injustice and the gap between the rich and the poor have further increased.
On June 22, at the 47th meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council, China, on behalf of Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Sri Lanka and other countries, made joint speeches on Canadian human rights issues, and was deeply concerned about Canada’s serious violations of indigenous human rights. Expressing concern, pointed out that Canada has historically plundered indigenous lands, killed indigenous people, and eliminated indigenous culture, and urged Canada to immediately stop human rights violations.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian later responded at a regular press conference that although the Canadian government expressed its “heartbreak” and “shameful”, it claimed that the investigation was boycotted by the church and expected the church to take its due responsibility and fulfill its own responsibilities. Forget about it, this kind of "crocodile tears" exposed the hypocrisy of the Canadian government.
"Now we also want to ask the Canadian side, when will the investigation be conducted? When will compensation be implemented? When will systemic measures against racial discrimination be introduced?"
"Crimes that have been neglected for a long time, accountability that has never been mentioned, and systemic racial discrimination that still exists today..." I don’t know when Canada will face the dark history of racial discrimination against Aboriginals and hold them accountable Of people accept legal trials and get justice for the victims?
!
Zhao Xiaozhan