Burning churches not the solution
By Letter to the Editor on July 9, 2021.
Editor:
Before vaccines and antibiotics were invented, many children died in families, orphanages and in residential schools.
I’m certain that you can find unmarked graves anywhere in Canada, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous because grave markers don’t last forever. That is not a tragedy.
The real tragedy is that Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and mistreated.
However, we cannot change the past and burning and vandalizing churches and statues will not bring back the children.
These actions only build resentment and animosity and do not promote reconciliation.
David Giesbrecht
Lethbridge
-1
Re above: “I’m certain that you can find unmarked graves anywhere in Canada, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous because grave markers don’t last forever. That is not a tragedy.”
The most unkind torture is to deny someone who was tortured. The same goes for a holocaust or a genocide.
One should never draw a conclusion until you have seen the facts. IE. cause of death.
both of you are being presumptive.
There’s a woman who died on the streets of alcoholism because she never got over the time in Residential School when the priest impregnated her at 14, and the Nuns forced her to go to term with it.
They killed the baby in the next room and made her walk it to the incinerator almost immediately after she delivered it.
Before she ran away from school, she would sit by the incinerator and apologize to the baby she burned.
The Catholic Church is a shelter for pedophiles, and also the only “real” christian church. Every one that follows is completely made up. A fabrication of man.
These are just buildings. Buildings that shelter serial pedophiles.
and you get negs on this entry – for real? it is astounding, and even sick, how people will choose to block out truths and facts so as to sustain their prejudices. thank you for the entry. however, i expect that you are not ok with the burning of the churches; the entry can be read that you feel the arson is justified.
It would appear that Mr. Giesbrecht has not read any of the reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Had he done so, he would understand that not only did thousands of children die in Canada’s Residential Schools, but that mortality rates among residential school students were considerably higher than comparable age cohorts in the general population. That means there had to be something going on in the residential schools that was not as prevalent in the general population.
Again, had our scribe read the reports of the TRC, he would also understand that disproportionately high mortality rates in Canada’s Residential Schools were largely due to poor nutrition, a low level of health care, inadequate infection control, and unhealthy living conditions such as overcrowding. He would have also learned that in many cases parents were not notified of their child’s death, nor were remains returned to their families for burial because the Federal Government did not provide the necessary funds to facilitate those transfers.
And yet he writes that those deaths were not tragic.
I think the Author misses the point, Burning Churches was never the solution. Burning Churches was to get your attention, that appears to have worked. I would suggest if the Vatican continues to side step/waffle and hope things go away, the odds of more Churches burning rises with the waffle level.
I do not condone, but I do understand. The Church has known of these atrocities for decades. So one could assume this is an over reaction to unmarked graves, but one could also say this was the last straw. I suggest the latter.
I didn’t miss that point. It’s just that I chose to focus on what I saw as a particularly objectionable statement in the letter.
You aren’t the Author. I had to click reply to you because I had no comment box. Hence why I stated the Author missed the point.