Taiaiake Alfred, a professor of indigenous governance at the University of Victoria, said the word genocide is a “powerful emotional trigger,” but that it nevertheless applies to Canadian Indians, now and in the past. He cited United Nations criteria for the crime, which include committing any of the following with intent to destroy a group, in whole or in part: killing their members, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent births, or forcibly transferring children to another group.”
“Our genocide, even if we accept that it’s historical and ended technically with the residential schools, there’s been no adequate reparations. There’s been no reparations at all, really. The individuals themselves have been compensated to some degree, but when it comes down to it, the collectivities, the communities that were affected in terms of their ability to sustain themselves into the future, are not being provided with any kind of adequate redress,” Prof. Taiaiake said.
From the National Post
No comments:
Post a Comment