It’s irritating that politicians or third-party groups think people can be easily manipulated.
About the only thing as irritating is that there will always be a few people —no matter where they live — who will let themselves be manipulated by hearing only what they want to hear.
These thoughts cross one’s mind in the wake of the controversy over the Winnipeg-based Frontier Centre for Pubic Policy’s short-lived paid advertisements on rural radio stations on the “myth” that Indian residential schools were a bad experience for every student who attended.
Most of you will quickly recognize the two-part nature of this one-sided assessment.
Obviously, not every First Nation person that went through residential schools was affected in the same way. Some will acknowledge they did get a quality education.
One might venture as far, in assessing the ads, as to say that because the residential school experience was limited to a smaller percentage of the First Nation population, it can’t be solely attributed to every issue experienced by First Nation person today.
But what right does anyone have calling the devastating impact a “myth?”
The fact is there were substantial examples of physical and sexual abuse — among the worst, occurred in this province involving Anglican Gordon Reserve School director William Penniston Starr, who was criminally convicted of vial acts.
There is simply no question this single individual had a profound impact on, not only his victims, but the entire Gordon First Nation population, who have dealt with pain and hurt in their community for generations. In turn, this actually defined relations between the First Nation and the nearby community of Punnichy for decades.
Obviously, not all residential school leaders perpetrated such specific sexual abuses, but plenty of them faced physical abuse at the hands of supposed religious teachers. This also had a profound effect on them, their relationship with the white community and their long-term ability to successfully parent.
It is a fact verified by their graves that many hundreds of these children died in the care of schools. It is also a fact that they were denied their religion and culture and even the right to speak their languages. Against their will and the will of their families, they were removed from their homes for long stretches.
It is a fact that some of these children died while trying to get home to see their families and that families and others on reserves would try to hide these children.
One can chalk it up to the values and norms of the day, but that does not excuse the problems passed on from generation to generation. Nor does it make the long-term repercussions any less lasting.
So for the Frontier Centre to ask whether Canadians are “being told the whole truth about residential schools” illicits the question: Was the right-wing think tank choosing to tell the whole story?
One can only speculate as to why the centre chose to do so.
The advertisement was said to be promotion for an article on the centre’s website entitled “Myth versus Evidence: Your Choice.” The piece was authored by Mark DeWolf, who says he was a non-Indigenous residential school student.
After the controversy erupted, the article was removed from the Frontier Centre website.
Well-known radio voice Roger Currie, who voiced the two-minute-long advertisement, denounced the content, saying it “certainly doesn’t represent my views.” And the radio station chain pulled ads.
But, again, why was this notion being promoted in the first place?
That they seemed specifically aimed at a rural audience strongly suggests they were designed to promote this view at a time of considerable racial tension in rural Saskatchewan.
The ads likely didn’t work on most people.
But its sad the Frontier Centre would try, and that maybe it did work of a few people.
