Residential school survivors in Canada get different support than other victims
Posted in The Barrie Examiner and the Peterborough Examiner
"Canada's First Nations peoples must be seen as human beings" / "Only our abuse is denied"
BUD WHITEYE - Editorial - July 20, 2007 @ 07:00
In August, Indian residential school victims will become eligible to apply for a "common experience" payout resulting from a class action lawsuit launched about 10 years ago. In the lawsuit, victims are to receive $10,000 for the first year they spent in the away-from-home schools and another $3,000 for each other year spent there.
Last week, the Roman Catholic Church in and around Los Angeles settled a lawsuit worth $660 million as a result of priests molesting church members when they were children. I searched, but I could not find one letter to an editor against that settlement. Indeed, there are letters that say how horrible those actions are by their moral leaders.
On the other hand, I have read letter after letter railing against the settlement with the native Indians in Canada. Letters that say much of what the Canadian residential schools' victims complain about is made up to get money from the government. In fact, I gave a talk early in 2003 where one of the white ladies in attendance said to another that what I said never happened, but that I made up everything I just shared that morning just before we sat down to share in a lunch.
How could she break bread with me, yet hate me so much as to say I could make up such a horror story and try to saddle her with the punitive costs? This lady never raised her hand to ask questions when I mentioned I would take them. All on her own, she made it her duty to put people "straight." How many others like her are out there?
In Los Angeles, the number of victims ended up being around 500. Their settlement would give them about $1,200,000 each; the lawsuit against the Christian Brothers of Newfoundland's Mt Cashel Orphanage settled out-of-court for $11.5 million, giving the 40 victims who filed about $287,000 each.
The First Nations victims have to settle for, on average, $20,000; 14 times less what the Christian Brothers victims are entitled, or any chance at compensation will be lost forever.
So many, many non-natives, including some very close friends of mine, have said no amount of money will take away the hurt caused by the despicable, filthy acts of those in charge at the many residential schools for Indian children across Canada. But we will never be seen as victims of anything until we are first seen as human beings. That day has not yet arrived.
Had we been seen as humans, we would not be in this situation. Today, people are complaining about paying out a mere $20,000 for animalistic acts against humanity, and the First Nations fighting for a semblance of justice as victims of those acts.
The possibility for the two of us (native and non-native) to see things from totally different perspectives - by being raised so differently - is not considered by those making condescending remarks.
Many, if not all, Indian children do not have the generation after generation of parents, grandparents and on back for 150 years of being doctors, lawyers, farmers, labourers or fishermen and such. In fact, until recently, the Indian children legacy was largely kids of kids who attended one residential school or another. The only job trail offered up was part-time farm worker, the rest were muskrat hunting and selling homemade baskets by the roadside.
Shortly after the residential schools closed, the job-hunting Indian youth couldn't even mention his background, hoping that part would be overlooked, but his "tan" gave him/her away. And, one of the great Canadian ironies of all time is that the "Indian" was removed from his home to make him a better person; more educated, more civilized. Yet, who knows anybody who has applied for a job where the mere mention of "residential school" got you that job.
But, to get rid of most of this animosity displayed in letters to editors and op-ed pieces, the First Nations must be seen as humans, not something less or far different.
Bud Whiteye is a member of the Walpole Island First Nation and is a communications consultant for the Heritage Centre at Walpole Island. Comments can be sent to writersgroup@ospreymedia.ca