Canadian expatriate David Frum defends John A Macdonald against his detractors. I analyze Frum's case.
David Frum defends John A Macdonald
Settler Solidarity on Bill C-15
Former Truth and Reconciliation commissioners addressed a webinar attended by 1,000 settler allies on Bill C-15 and residential schools. I was a participant.
Please (unelected) Senators: pass Bill C-262
A group of Conservative Senators are attempting to prevent an important piece of legislation from becoming law. Bill C-262 would ensure Canadian laws are consistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This bill passed resoundingly the House of Commons on May 30 by a vote of 206-79, with only the Conservatives... Continue Reading →
Questions for the United We Roll convoy
The United We Roll convoy of trucks on its way from Alberta to Ottawa makes for good television coverage, but the deep sense of grievance and anger on display does beg questions. Here are some of them. What about global warming? Those in the convoy demand that Ottawa simply clear the way for the construction... Continue Reading →
Mark Abley channels Duncan Campbell Scott on Indigenous relations
Increasingly it is Indigenous writers who are telling the story of their peoples’ relations with European settlers, which is as it should be. I am thinking, for example, of Tanya Talaga’s Seven Fallen Feathers and her more recent book All Our Relations, which is based upon her Massey Lectures delivered on CBC Radio in November... Continue Reading →
Martin Luther King informs Gerald Stanley trial
I had just begun reading a biography of Martin Luther King when the not guilty verdict was rendered in the Gerald Stanley murder trial. As is now widely known, Stanley shot and killed an Indigenous youth named Colton Boushie at close range after a vehicle containing Boushie and four others entered Stanley’s farm yard near... Continue Reading →
Bill C-262: Canada must implement UN declaration on Indigenous rights
When they were campaigning for election in 2015 Justin Trudeau’s Liberals promised that they would adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, but it appears that they are now less eager to do so. Inherent rights It took 23 years of effort and negotiation for Indigenous peoples to have... Continue Reading →
Indigenous rights with a twist, a settler claims privilege
My wife Martha and I joined walkers in May for the final three days of a Pilgrimage for Indigenous Rights, a 600-kilometre trek from Kitchener, Ontario to Ottawa. The walkers encountered warm support from individuals and churches along the route but a few of us received one bit of push back from a middle-aged settler,... Continue Reading →
Pilgrimage for Indigenous Rights, a 600 km walk supports UN declaration
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) released its final report on Indian residential schools in June 2015. The TRC commissioners bluntly described those schools as instruments of “cultural genocide.” They were equally frank in describing the complicity of Canadian churches, which operated most of the schools on behalf of the federal government. Nevertheless,... Continue Reading →
Colten Boushie shooting in Saskatchewan fuels backlash
Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old First Nations man, was shot to death on Aug. 9. He was in a farm yard near Biggar, Sask., about 100 km west of Saskatoon. Gerald Stanley, a 54-year-old farmer, has now been charged with second-degree murder. According to Boushie’s family, he and four friends were returning from swimming at a... Continue Reading →
Pulpit and Politics 