Enclosed for your information is a copy of an editorial on the
plight of aboriginal people in Canada.
re-printed without permission from THE EDMONTON JOURNAL, Saturday,
June 29, 1991
EDITORIAL
CONFRONTING OUR PAST
The forced relocation of Inuit from coastal Quebec to the High
Arctic desert in the 1950s is one of the sorriest chapters in
Canada's aboriginal history.
As long as 11 years ago, a federal minister, David Crombie,
acknowledged the wrong. He said that the Inuit had been moved to
assert Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic.
The goal may have been well-intentioned, the methods were not. The
transplant was a wrenching and harrowing experience for the Inuit.
They were transported to an alien landscape, with no means of
support. Disease, shock, and the endless Arctic night took a
terrible toll.
In emotional testimony before the Commons aboriginal affairs
committee last spring, Inuit told of ill-treatment, broken
promises, shattered lives.
They asked for formal recognition of what had been done to them,
and compensation.
The all-party committee heartily agreed. The Mulroney government
did not, and does not still.
This is a wrong that can and should be righted. Native Affairs
Minister Tom Siddon, who has yet to prove himself a strong or deft
minister, seems once again to be led astray by bureaucrats.
His department commissioned a study to show that sovereignty was
not the reason the Inuit were moved. Yet now, a Trent University
researcher has shown the federal study was seriously flawed,
biased, and selective. It seems that the department essentially
hired a fancy consultant to reach pre-determined conclusions.
Preserving the myth that bureaucrats are infallible seems more
important to Siddon than apologizing for a historic wrong.
In testimony before the committee, Siddon's deputy minister, Harry
Swain, insisted sovereignty was never the issue. Reminded by MPs
of Crombie's belief, Swain then switched to defending the decision
to relocate -- on the basis that the Inuit were facing starvation.
Yet the Inuit who were moved deny they were going hungry -- they
ate fish and birds, not caribou. They say they did not understand
what was being done to them, and why.
A country cannot truly know itself until it confronts its past, and
comes to terms with its wrongs. That self knowledge, more than
money, is at issue here. Siddon should take the honorable course,
and act on the aboriginal affairs committee's recommendation for
recognition and compensation.
--- FD 1.99c
* Origin: Lubicon News Station: Edmonton, Alberta Canada (89:701/432)
--
Terri Kelly - via IMEx node 89:681/1
Terri.Kelly@f432.n701.z89.onebdos.UUCP