Book debunks Canadian "unmarked graves" story

A new book challenges the prevailing media and government narrative that Canada's residential schools were death camps where tens of thousands of indigenous children were abused, murdered, and secretly buried in unmarked graves. 

Grave Error: Correcting the False Narrative of Canada’s “Missing Children” | C2C Journal | Tom Flanagan:

December 7, 2023 - "The new book Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools) constitutes a response to the moral panic unleashed in Canada on May 27, 2021, when the Chief of the Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc (aka, the Kamloops Indian Band) announced that ground-penetrating radar (GPR) had located the remains of 215 'missing children' in an apple orchard on the grounds of the local residential school. Politicians and media seized on this initial announcement.... The storyline of “mass unmarked graves” and “burials of missing children” quickly ricocheted around Canada and much of the world.... Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set the tone for the federal government’s response on May 30 when he ordered Canadian flags to be flown at half-mast on all federal buildings to honour the '215 children whose lives were taken at the Kamloops residential school.' By this act, possible burial sites were elevated to the status of confirmed victims of foul play....

"Over time, a more fully-developed and persistent narrative has grown out of that initial announcement from Kamloops ... to create a storyline about the inherently genocidal nature of Indian Residential ools that has since been widely accepted and largely unchallenged. But regardless of how many times it is repeated by Indigenous leaders, political activists, academics and media commentators, the entire narrative is largely if not completely false....

"Slowly at first, but now with gathering confidence, substantial pushback to this narrative has appeared, driven by a small group of professionals, including judges, lawyers, professors, journalists and researchers.... Grave Error is a collection of some of the best pushback essays published by these brave researchers in response to the Kamloops mythology. They analyze and critique the false narrative of unmarked graves, missing children, forced attendance and genocidal conditions at Indian Residential Schools. The book’s title summarizes the authors’ view of the Kamloops narrative. It is wrong. And not just wrong, but egregiously wrong. Because of this, it fully deserves our sardonic title, which normally might have more in common with a tabloid newspaper headline. Our book shows in detail just why and where the narrative is wrong....

"The editors of Grave Error are C.P. Champion and myself. In addition to an introduction and conclusion, it contains 18 chapters plus a foreword by Conrad Black and cover endorsement by columnist Barbara Kay. The first contribution is 'In Kamloops, Not One Body Has Been Found,' by Montreal historian Jacques Rouillard. This essay, originally posted on The Dorchester Review website, is now closing in on 300,000 views. It has done more than any other single publication to punch holes in the false narrative of unmarked graves and missing children. The author has updated his version in Grave Error to cover other false claims related to GPR since Kamloops. Other contributors include retired professors [Rodney] Clifton and Ian Gentles, retired judge Brian Giesbrecht, well-known author and editor Jonathan Kay and inimitable academic provocateur Frances Widdowson.... 

"Their contributions to this volume confront all the main fallacies head-on. Widdowson shows how the legend of murdered children and unmarked graves was spread by defrocked United Church minister Kevin Annett before it popped up again at Kamloops. [Hymie] Rubenstein and collaborators examine the evidence proffered in support of unmarked graves, such as the results of GPR, and find there is nothing – repeat nothing – there. One author, who published anonymously because of his fear of retaliation, shows how the GPR results at Kamloops probably are radar reflections of buried tile that was part of the school’s sewage disposal system.... 

"Other contributors include Kay, who explains how the media got the story so completely wrong, generating the worst fake news in Canadian history. Gentles examines health conditions in the schools and shows that children were better off there than at home on reserves. Former Manitoba judge Giesbrecht demonstrates that attendance in residential schools was not compelled in any meaningful sense of the term. My contribution criticizes the prolific but weak body of research purporting to show that attendance at residential schools created a historical trauma that is responsible for the subsequent social pathologies to which native people are subject. And Clifton shows from personal experience how benign and positive conditions in the schools could be. In full, our book demonstrates that all the major elements of the Kamloops narrative are either false or highly exaggerated. No unmarked graves have been discovered at Kamloops or elsewhere – not one....

"Perhaps sensing the weakness of their evidence-free position, purveyors of the Indian Residential Schools-as-genocide narrative have begun to double-down on their own claims, demanding that any criticism of their ideology be made illegal.... Winnipeg NDP MP Leah Gazan ... introduced the original House of Commons resolution declaring Indian Residential Schools to be genocidal. Then federal government ministers got involved. Marc Miller, then Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, took specific offence at Rouillard’s initial, ground-breaking essay, claiming on Twitter (now X) that it is 'part of a pattern of denialism and distortion' about residential schools in Canada. David Lametti, then the Minister of Justice, followed suit with a vague threat that Ottawa might consider “outlawing” residential school denialism. Denialism is generally defined as any debate that contradicts the official narrative as outlined at the beginning of this article.

"So here we are. A false narrative about genocide in residential schools has become firmly established in the public domain without any requirement for actual proof or due diligence. Media and government have eagerly collaborated in perpetuating this falsehood. And anyone who questions any part of the story is labelled a “denialist,” and possibly threatened with criminal prosecution. To such a world, Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools) offers exactly what we have been missing so far – clarity, rigour and evidence."

Read more: https://c2cjournal.ca/2023/12/grave-error-correcting-the-false-narrative-of-canadas-missing-children/

This is a low point in the history of Parliament (interview with Tom Flanagan) | The Candice Malcolm Show, True North | December 6, 2023: 

Ontario First Nations sue over carbon tax

Ontario First Nations leaders are asking the Federal Court to exempt their communities from Canada's federal carbon tax.

First Nations sue over 'discriminatory' carbon tax — will Guilbeault resign? | National Post | Tasha Kheiriddin

December 1, 2023 - "A month after the federal government exempted home heating oil from its punitive carbon tax, another group is demanding a carve-out — and putting the government in a thorny position. The Chiefs of Ontario and Attawapiskat First Nation have filed a lawsuit against the federal government over what they allege is 'discriminatory and anti-reconciliatory application of the Greenhouse Gas and Pollution Pricing Act (GGPPA)' to First Nations. 

"Their main arguments resemble those advanced by rural communities, notably a lack of options when it comes to fuel for things like transportation or industry. The twist is that while non-indigenous taxpayers get 90 per cent of charges refunded through tax rebates, this is not the case for First Nations members, because property and income on reserve are tax exempt, and most Indigenous people do not use the income tax system. Faced with this discrepancy, Ottawa promised to return 0.7 per cent of the total charges collected in Ontario to that province’s First Nations, but the chiefs say this number is arbitrary and inadequate.... 

"The chiefs are now demanding a judicial review of this policy — something they say would have been unnecessary if federal officials had bothered to engage with them.The chiefs’ claim is accompanied by an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in which they characterize the fuel charge cost to First Nations citizens as .'another cash grab for Canada, removing several million dollars a year from those least responsible for the climate crisis'....

"Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault  is now in the embarrassing position of defending a tax that hurts Indigenous people, while having given non-indigenous Canadians a break on their heating oil — all for political reasons. It also puts the minister in a no-win situation because of his pledge that, 'As long as I’m the environment minister, there will be no more exemptions to carbon pricing.' In other words: If the government doesn’t give First Nations a break, it’s breaking its promise on reconciliation. But if it does give them an exemption, the minister is breaking his promise not to allow additional carve-outs and should resign."

The chiefs’ lawsuit is just the latest assault on the government’s green energy policies. Last week, the government of Saskatchewan brought in Bill 151, which exempts SaskEnergy officials from federal punishment for defying federal law and gives the energy minister the power not to pay carbon tax. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has vowed that on Jan. 1, 2024 the Crown corporation will not remit carbon tax on home heating fuel to Ottawa.... 

And then there’s Alberta. On Monday, Premier Danielle Smith’s government introduced a resolution that instructs governments and provincial utilities entities to ignore the federal government’s proposed Clean Electricity Regulations when they come into force “to the extent legally permissible.” The regulations would require Canada’s electricity grid to generate net zero emissions by 2035 — something Smith says is both impossible and undesirable in her oil-producing jurisdiction.

"With the carbon tax bleeding from a thousand cuts, and Canadians increasingly opposed to it, you would think the government would do the sensible thing, and put it on the scrapheap where it belongs. Then again, voters might just do that for them."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/tasha-kheiriddin-first-nations-sue-over-discriminatory-carbon-tax-will-guilbeault-resign

Chiefs of Ontario launch judicial review of Carbon Tax | APTN News | December 5,2023:

No remains found at Manitoba residential school

No human remains were unearthed during an archaeological excavation at a former residential school in Pine Creek, Manitoba.

Manitoba residential school excavation turns up nothing | True North | Quinn Patrick:

August 21, 2023 - "No human remains were found in the excavation of a church basement in Pine Creek, Manitoba, which was formerly part of a residential school run by the Catholic Church from 1890 to 1969. The four-week excavation was conducted after Minegoziibe Anishinabe, a first nations tribe northwest of Winnipeg, hired a team of archaeologists to dig up the church basement following 14 abnormalities that were detected in the soil by ground-penetrating radar equipment. The archaeologists were from the University of Brandon and have regularly assisted police on excavations throughout Manitoba.

"In his response to the dig’s results, Chief Derek Nepinak said it takes, 'nothing away from the difficult truths experienced by our families who attended the residential school in Pine Creek'.... Nepinak has asked that people continue to search for truth and not compare the results of their excavation to others across Canada. 'This does not mark the end of our truth-finding project,' said Nepinak.

"This isn’t the only residential school excavation that have concluded with no findings of human remains. 

• In August, 2021, a team of researchers in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia conducted an excavation at the former Shubenacadie Residential School in search of clandestine burials but to no avail. 
• In October of 2021, an excavation was conducted for unmarked graves on the site of former Camsell Hospital in Edmonton. The hospital used to treat Indigenous people who suffered from tuberculosis and some believed that the dig would uncover patients that had been buried there, however no such evidence was discovered.

"The calls for these and other excavations at former residential schools came in early 2021 after First Nations in Kamloops, B.C. claimed that the remains of 215 children were buried at the Kamloops Indian Residential School based on soil disturbances detected by radar. The Kamloops First Nations said that they couldn’t say for sure just how many potential burials are at the school with certainty because they have no intention of conducting an excavation at the site."

Read more: https://tnc.news/2023/08/21/manitoba-residential-school-excavation/ 

The Pine Creek Burial Boondoggle Needs Celebrating | True North | Hymie Rubenstein:

August 22, 2023 - "To its credit, and unlike any other such search for the remains of students associated with the former boarding schools, the RCMP was called in last October to assist with the investigation. Given all the accusations of school abuse, some passed down from generation to generation, band leaders, elders, knowledge keepers, and former boarding school students must have been devasted by the RCMP announcement on July 21 that:

The investigation into possible criminality in relation to potential burials at Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Roman Catholic Church has moved into a new phase. After a year of interviewing community members, conducting surveys, and following up on leads, the RCMP has not uncovered evidence at this time related to criminal activity specific to the reflections detected at the site. 

In consultation with the community and partners, a way forward has been found. A community-led forensic anthropological dig in the basement of the church is taking place. If anything is located that is possibly related to criminal activity, the RCMP has plans in place and investigators assigned to continue the investigation.

Read more: https://tnc.news/2023/08/22/rubenstein-pine-creek-celebrating/

Excavation of residential school site finds nothing | True North | August 21, 2023: 

Why are Canada's forests burning?

Smoky New York isn’t climate change — it’s bad forest management | New York Post - Miranda Devine:

June 7, 2023 - "Canadian wildfire smoke currently turning the [New York City] sky orange is taking our tolerance to new levels. By Wednesday we were registering the wors[t] air pollution of any major city in the world and COVID mask maniacs were back in their element. But don’t fall for the propaganda that climate change is to blame.

"The situation in Canada is similar to that in Australia, where green ideology and chronic government underfunding mean that the forests currently ablaze have not been managed properly for years. Instead of dead wood and undergrowth being removed regularly using low-intensity controlled or 'prescribed' burns, forests have become overgrown tinderboxes. Fire trails that used to allow first responders easy access to the forest have closed over as vast tracts of land are locked away from humans. Logging and other commercial practices that used to self-interestedly tend to forest health have been phased out. 

"Back in 2016 when Parks Canada had planned just 12 prescribed burns for the year, Mark Heathcott, the agency’s retired fire management coordinator of 23 years, warned about the importance of the practice to prevent future wildfires. 

"In 2020, a paper in the journal Progress in Disaster Science warned: 'Wildfire management agencies in Canada are at a tipping point. Presuppression and suppression costs are increasing but program budgets are not.'

"Canadian indigenous groups also have complained that bureaucratic obstacles hinder their ability to perform the controlled burns they have used for centuries to reduce fuel load, flush out food and regenerate forests.

"[G]reen activists using illogical emotional arguments about wildlife habitats have caused governments to underfund and curtail the scientific use of prescribed burning to mitigate wildfire risk. The ensuing incineration of forests and critters by super-hot runaway wildfires is infinitely worse for wildlife habitats. 

"But for climate alarmists, the assault on New Yorkers' air quality is a positive outcome that they can spin to prove their case. They’re like the arsonist who sets fire to a building and then profits from the clean-up."

Read more: https://nypost.com/2023/06/07/smoky-new-york-isnt-climate-change-its-bad-forest-management/

Over 400 wildfires burning across Canada, half out of control | CBC News: The National | June 8, 2023:

No bodies found yet at alleged mass grave sites

In the two years since the first shocking reports of mass graves at Canadian residential schools, not a single actual unmarked grave is known to have been found.

Canada’s grave errors | The Critic - Jonathan Kay: 

April 2023 - 'Since 2017, the sesquicentennial of Canadian confederation, the country has been convulsed by a process of 'reconciliation' regarding Indigenous peoples.... Canada’s historical treatment of its Inuit, First Nations, and Métis populations often was marked by bad faith, racism and brutality. To this day, many Indigenous communities suffer high rates of poverty, suicide and substance abuse. Dozens lack even clean drinking water, a problem that has outlived the best intentions of a succession of federal governments, Liberal and Conservative alike. Even the most patriotic Canadian must admit that our record on this file constitutes a stain on the public conscience. 

"Of particular note is the history of Canada’s residential schools, church-run institutions that were conceived in the nineteenth century as a means to teach English, French and job skills to indigenous students. Had this system been run on a purely voluntary basis, such a project might have been broadly defensible. But from 1920 onwards, attendance was mandatory. And so tens of thousands of homesick indigenous children were forced to attend European-style institutions far away from their home communities.... At least 3,200 Indigenous children perished after having been sent to these schools, out of a total enrolment of about 150,000. (Many believe the real victim tally is twice as high.) The main cause of death, tuberculosis, also ravaged white communities until well into the twentieth century. But even so, the death rate was markedly higher at residential schools than at other institutions. And the dark legacy of these schools was quite properly made the subject of a high-profile national commission, which reported its conclusions in 2015

"Knowledge of this backstory is required to understand what happened in the spring of 2021, when a First Nations community in Kamloops, British Columbia announced that a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey of the grounds of a former residential school indicated the presence of 215 presumed unmarked child graves. The story was instantly treated as a bombshell by the Canadian press corps, and by leading international media outlets as well. 

"Most spectacularly, the New York Times reported that the First Nation in question, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc (previously known as the Kamloops Indian Band), had claimed the discovery of a 'mass grave'. In fact, the band’s leader explicitly disavowed the idea that any 'mass grave' had been found. Despite this, the original story remains on the New York Times site in uncorrected form to this day. The same is true of an equally botched New York Times story headlined 'How thousands of Indigenous children vanished in Canada' by the same reporter.

"In retrospect, it seems obvious that these claims of unmarked graves should have been taken with a grain of salt — since GPR data of this type does not directly indicate the presence of graves, much less caskets or actual bodies; but rather of soil dislocations that may also be associated with tree roots, irrigation ditches or previous efforts to locate graves.... I would like to report that I was one of those few wise owls who knew, right from the start, that the story didn’t add up. But I wasn’t. Media figures, government officials, and First Nations leaders all seemed certain that these were indeed actual graves ... of murdered children. During ... late May and early June 2021, mainstream media sources even repeated urban legends about babies thrown into furnaces and clandestine midnight burials. Surely, I thought, all of these public figures wouldn’t embrace such claims if real proof weren’t about to be sprung from the soil. After all, the GPR data indicated exactly where the remains of these supposedly murdered children were lying. All that was required was a forensic examination, something one might expect to occur within weeks....

"It’s been almost two years since those first shocking headlines broke. During this period, not a single actual unmarked grave is known to have been found — either at Kamloops, or any of the other First Nations communities that subsequently conducted their own GPR surveys. Not one. And yet, the credulous narrative that first emerged has continued to dominate Canadian discourse....

"In January 2022, a small conservative publication called The Dorchester Review published an essay entitled 'In Kamloops, Not One Body Has Been Found'. While the reporting it contained was entirely factual, [Justin] Trudeau’s Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, his schoolboy pal Marc Miller, accused the author of engaging in 'denialism'— a word clearly chosen to suggest a parallel with Holocaust denial. Frances Widdowson, a Canadian professor, was fired by her university after pointing out that no graves had been discovered.

"Not until May 2022, on the one-year anniversary of the original unmarked-graves story, did a large national media outlet, the National Post, publish a comprehensive account of how the Canadian media had been duped. And even then, the chairperson of the Canada Council for the Arts publicly demanded that other journalists shun both the author, Terry Glavin, and his journalism. This propaganda campaign worked. To this day, no other major Canadian outlet has dared follow the Post’s example, even as foreign publications such as the New York Post offer candid reports. 

Justin Trudeau at alleged mass grave site, 2021.
PHOTO BY LIAM RICHARDS/POOL VIA REUTERS

"The personal intervention of not one but two Canadian federal officials in a bid to suppress accurate reporting provides an unusually vivid insight into the surreal state of Canadian politics under Trudeau, a man who’s made theatrical displays of national shame central to his political brand. The Prime Minister had planned an election for late 2021, and seized on the unmarked-graves story as yet another opportunity to get on one knee for the cameras. In June 2021, most notably, he hauled along a personal photographer to an Indigenous community in Saskatchewan so that he might capture the scene of Trudeau placing a teddy bear ... on the site of a former residential school. 

"For Trudeau to now candidly admit that all of this political theatre had been performed on the pretext of an overhyped story would, of course, be mortifying — especially after he ordered flags lowered on federal buildings for more than five months.... Canada is, to my knowledge, the only country on earth where the PM showcases his role as leader of a self-confessed genocide state even while preparing to campaign for his own re-election.

"How will this all end? Possibly with bodies. Until the mid twentieth century, many poor Canadians, indigenous and non-indigenous alike, were buried in simple graves marked with wooden crosses that soon succumbed to the elements... While such a finding would hardly prove the lurid claim that legions of indigenous children were slaughtered and dispatched to secret burial sites, I imagine that this is exactly how such a discovery would be breathlessly reported.... But the equally likely result is that nothing at all will happen. There will be no bodies, but also no truthful national reckoning about our social panic, because everyone involved — politicians, academics, journalists — would be made to look foolish if the truth were to be widely and candidly admitted. And so they will all continue to go double or quits on a narrative that’s been growing more doubtful by the day since mid-2021."

Read more: https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/april-2023/canadas-grave-errors/

Reprinted by permission of Mr. Kay.

First Nations oppose Canadian gov't gun ban

On Thursday, the Assembly of First Nations unanimously paased an emergency resolution opposing the Trudeau government's gun-ban Bill C-27.

AFN passes emergency resolution to oppose federal gun control legislation | CBC News - Ka’nhehsí:io Deer:

December 8, 2022 - "Chiefs and proxies in attendance at the Assembly of First Nations' (AFN) special chiefs assembly in Ottawa Thursday passed an emergency resolution to oppose Bill C-21, a bill initially proposed to ban handguns that the federal government is attempting to amend with a new list of long guns to be banned. First Nations leaders say the amendments to potentially criminalize long guns infringes on First Nations and treaty rights to hunt and harvest.

"'Our people always lived off the land,' said Frank McKay, proxy for Koocheching First Nation, Ont., to the assembly on Thursday. 'We don't do sports hunting, we use it for sustenance.' Kitigan Zibi Chief Dylan Whiteduck said the Quebec caucus also opposed the legislation when it met Wednesday. 'It's a tool. It's not a weapon,' he said.

"The resolution directs the AFN to call upon the federal government to conduct proper consultation with First Nations. It also calls for amendments to the bill to remove the list of long guns commonly used by First Nations hunters.

"'Our young hunters that are growing up, they just don't send them up to the bush with a gun. There's a whole process that has to do with our customs, our values, our traditions," said Chief Tammy Cook of Lac La Ronge Indian Band in Saskatchewan. 'No government has a right to take that away from us and regulate that. That is our job as mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers, and hunters'....

"Several ministers were invited to address the assembly on Thursday including Public Safety Minister Marc Medicino, Justice Minister David Lametti, Indigenous Services Minister Patti Hajdu, and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller. None of them addressed the chiefs and proxies' concerns over the legislation. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who spoke at the assembly, said Monday that a review of the legislation will not target legitimate gun use."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/afn-resolution-gun-control-legislation-1.6679444

Oglala Sioux vote to legalize cannabis

Oglala Sioux Tribe Legalizes Medicinal and Recreational Cannabis | MG Magazine - Danny Reed:

March 13, 2020 - "A referendum to legalize both medicinal and recreational cannabis use has been approved in South Dakota.... This week the Oglala Sioux Tribe, one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people, voted to pass a referendum that would allow cannabis on the Pine Ridge Reservation ... which, according to the Associated Press, will make it the 'only tribe to set up a cannabis market in a state where it’s otherwise illegal.'

"In its next steps, the Tribe Council will work on establishing cannabis laws and setting up a regulatory framework. According to initial plans, the tribe will not be directly involved in production or retail, but will issue licenses and institute a retail tax. The council is expected to formally discuss regulations on March 31....

"The Oglala may soon offer the only legal THC products available anywhere in the region. Cannabis is illegal not only in South Dakota, but in neighboring states as well....

"Tribe President Julian Bear Runner sees cannabis legalization as a way for the tribe to shed some of its problems related to violence and meth addiction. Without adequate federal funding, Bear Runner believes the tribe needs to think outside of the box to raise enough revenue.....

"The official results of this week’s vote will be certified by the end of the month. Voting precincts have reported 82 percent of tribe members voted to legalize medicinal cannabis while 74 percent approved recreational use. A separate proposal to legalize alcohol, which President Bear Runner recently referred to as 'poison,' failed approval by 12 points. Bear Runner referred to cannabis as a 'healing plant.'

"The move by the Oglala may challenge tribal sovereignty and attract negative attention from federal authorities. Currently, cannabis is still illegal under U.S. law though Scott James, Oglala Lakota’s attorney general, believes the federal government may have bigger issues to worry about."

Read more: https://mgretailer.com/cannabis-news/oglala-sioux-tribe-legalizes-medicinal-and-recreational-cannabis/

Destroying the environment for clean energy

The dirty business of clean power | National Post - Sarah Cox:

May 14, 2019 - This year’s nominees for the Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing [include] Journalist Sarah Cox [who] takes on the dirty business of clean power in Breaching the Peace: The Site C Dam and a Valley’s Stand against Big Hydro.

SC: "Large hydro dams are a hugely expensive and destructive way to generate renewable energy. They are neither 'green' nor environmentally friendly.... Among other impacts, the Site C dam will destroy habitat for more than 100 species already vulnerable to extinction, including bird, plant, butterfly, bee and mammal species. The Site C dam and its reservoir will also eliminate some of Canada’s richest farmland, ancient wetlands called tufa seeps, old-growth boreal forests and a living laboratory for scientists to study how species adapt to climate change.... As many as 30,000 songbirds and woodpeckers nest in the dam’s future flood zone....

"Just how 'clean' big hydro dams really are is called into question by many scientists. One study by U.S. scientists shows that reservoirs produce considerably more carbon emissions than anticipated. About 80 per cent of these emissions are in the form of methane, a greenhouse gas 34 times more potent than carbon dioxide....

"[T]here was a concerted lobby by construction trades unions to continue the Site C dam. The same unions donated generously to the NDP — to the tune of many hundreds of thousands of dollars — and they continue to form a key part of the party’s labour base. The unions directly lobbied the NDP government and held well-attended press conferences in Vancouver and Victoria to champion continued Site C construction....

"[T]he independent B.C. Utilities Commission (BCUC) would normally have examined the Site C dam to determine whether or not the project was in the public interest. The watchdog commission rejected the project in the 1980s.... B.C.’s Liberal government ... changed the law in 2010 to strip the commission’s oversight of Site C. When the NDP came to power in 2017, it ... sen[t] the project to the BCUC.... But, notably, it didn’t allow the BCUC to determine whether or not proceeding with Site C was in the public interest and the BCUC wasn’t given the most up-to-date financial information for the project....

"Two Treaty 8 First Nations have filed civil claims alleging the Site C dam and two previous dams on the Peace River unjustifiably infringe on their treaty rights.... Already, BC Hydro contractors are clearcutting 13 areas in the Site C project zone that the nations have identified as critical to maintaining cultural practices guaranteed to them in the treaty signed in 1899. Three of those areas fall within a corridor for a transmission line that cuts through ... two wetlands — Sucker Lake and Trappers Lake — where First Nations have hunted moose and trapped for millennia....

"It made financial sense to build large hydro dams in Canada in the 1960s and 1970s when there were fewer renewable energy options available and they were far more expensive. But ... Canada’s publicly owned energy corporations are largely stuck in an old model and haven’t kept up with the times. Plummeting prices for wind energy and other renewables, coupled with the abundance of shale gas, mean that power from expensive new hydro dams can’t be sold for anything close to what it will cost to produce it. So, in addition to their devastating impacts on the environment and Indigenous peoples, large Canadian dams are no longer economical....

"Ultimately, provincial ratepayers will suffer, or taxpayers — they are largely the same people. B.C.’s NDP government just bailed out the deeply indebted BC Hydro for more than $1 billion, for example, and that’s even before many more billions in Site C costs come due."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-dirty-business-of-clean-power

'via Blog this'

Haudenosaunee shut down Six Nations Council

Haudenosaunee retake Six Nations Council House, may dismiss Reserve officials – The Buffalo Chronicle:

June 10, 2019 - "On May 28th, citizens of the Haudenosaunee [Iroquois] Confederacy barricaded the Six Nations Reserve’s Central Administration Building, a ‘federal works’ office of the Canadian government, located on the Confederacy’s sovereign Grand River Territory at Ohsweken, ON. They’ve enforced the shut down for the past two weeks, effectively expelling the Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) from their chambers and senior administrators from their offices.  The shutdown is being enforced until SNEC acknowledges [its] limited role as an administrator of federal programs — not as the legitimate constitutional government of the Territory....

"The two Councils have been engaged in an adversarial posture since 1924, when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police sent officers into the Old Council House to beat the Haudenosaunee Chiefs with billy clubs before installing their own elected Councillors to administer Crown programs on the Reserve under the federal Indian Act.

"The Haudenosaunee Confederacy is the oldest still-existant constitutional democracy in the world, founded in 1142, with its capital situated at Onondaga Lake for more than 600 years — until 1779, when General George Washington ordered Generals John Sullivan and James Clinton to execute a genocidal military campaign against the Haudenosaunee. Hundreds of villages were burned to the ground, and the survivors fled across the Niagara River as war refugees to the Grand River Territory, which they secured as a term of their alliance during the American Revolution, in negotiations with Governor General Fredrick Haldimand.

"The Haudenosaunee Chiefs continue to conduct Council on the first Saturday of every month — as allies, not subjects, of the Queen.  There they operate as a government in exile, their diplomatic relations having limited recognition by the American or Canadian government.... .

"In recent years, SNEC and its economic development attache have asserted jurisdictional capacities over the Haldimand Tract — the federal government’s largest off-balance sheet debt and the largest set of indigenous land claims cases in Candian history. That series of Court of Claims filings by Six Nations have been valued by economists at many hundreds of billions of dollars....

"But it was the sovereign Haudenosaunee government — not SNEC — who was a party to that treaty and other treaties with the Crown. SNEC has made material misrepresentations to counterparties, including presenting itself as a government with fictitious jurisdictional capacities.... That has angered many traditionalists in the community, who argue that those misrepresentations constitute criminal fraud....

"SNEC's ... Lands & Resources Department has been funded to the tune of millions of dollars a year ... using Ontario-First Nations ‘limited partnership’ funds, which are discretionary monies that could have been otherwise spent by the community, which still lacks a reliable supply of clean drinking water....

"It’s been widely rumored that the Haudenosaunee are debating whether or not to disband the SNEC Council permanently or to simply dismiss the current Councillors and install new ones in their place (presumably with individuals who understand SNEC’s limited role as a service delivery agency, rather than that of a government). Either would be an unprecedented move that would reassert the Haudenosaunee Chiefs and Clan Mothers as the sovereigns of the Grand River Territory."

Read more: https://buffalochronicle.com/2019/06/10/the-haudenosaunee-retake-six-nations-council-house-may-dismiss-reserve-officials/
'via Blog this'

The Revenant shows need for property rights

Misdeeds in The Revenant spurred by absence of property rights, not capitalism gone wild | Fraser Institute - Jonathan Fortier:

January 28, 2016 - "It is the season for American film awards, and the glitterati are all abuzz with adoration for The Revenant, which won a Golden Globe for best picture and is nominated for 12 Oscars. As usual, Hollywood’s stars are using their work as a platform to bash capitalism. The Revenant director Alejandro Iñárritu stated in a Guardian interview that his film attempts to portray the roots of capitalism, about the single-minded attempt to profit from the cutting of trees and the killing of animals and exploitation of the natives. Still further, according to Iñárritu, the early 19th century frontier life is the foundation for many of the ills of contemporary capitalism: 'This is the seed, for me, of the capitalism that we live in now: completely inconsiderate of any consequences for nature.'

"Leonardo DiCaprio (who stars as the film’s protagonist) ... used the stage to decry corporate exploitation of native people. Ravina Bains, associate director of aboriginal policy at the Fraser Institute, has written ... about DiCaprio’s comments, and suggests that we might more profitably begin by considering the [lack] of private property rights [for] native populations, rather than corporate exploitation.

"Capitalism is an economic system that depends on institutional arrangements, namely the rule of law and private property rights (there are others, but those two are foundational). Early 19th century America had neither of these things in the way we think of them now. The frontiersmen preceded the rule of law (or its enforcement), and it was unclear precisely how to think of Native American property rights. The vast tracts of land were thought of as limitless resources owned by no one....

"Indeed, the absence of private property rights ... creates a 'tragedy of the commons' scenario where no one is motivated to protect resources and everyone is motivated to get as much as they can before others. This is quite graphically portrayed in The Revenant, with groups of trappers sitting amongst piles and piles of bloody beaver hides... [I]t was the absence of property rights and a lack of respect for the native’s property rights (not 'capitalism') that resulted in the massive overkilling. (Similarly, the burning of the Amazon rainforest for cattle ranching and farming can be better explained by the absence of private property rights than a sort of 'capitalism gone wild.')

"One of the fictions about Native American Indians is that they lived peaceful lives with no notion of private property before the arrival of western Europeans. But war amongst native tribes was common, and we know that the supposed collectivism was a myth. Native Americans had personal property rights (in artifacts such as weapons and clothing) and land-use rights (for farming, hunting and fishing) even if those rights were sometimes seasonal and based on a nomadic lifestyle.

"Native people and those struggling in poverty in the developing world are done a great disservice by DiCaprio, Ińárritu and others who trot out the tired (and wrong) clichés about capitalism. For, as Richard Pipes, Thomas Bethell and Hernando de Soto (amongst many others) have argued, it is capitalism (and its attendant institutions of private property and the rule of law) that can best improve their lives."

Read more: http://www.fraserinstitute.org/blogs/misdeeds-in-the-revenant-spurred-by-absence-of-property-rights-not-capitalism-gone-wild
'via Blog this'

Financial Review has lunch with Charles Koch

Political machine man: Lunch with Charles Koch | afr.com - Stephen Foley:

January 10, 2016 - "While Charles and his younger sibling, David, feature as boo-hiss villains in Democratic candidate speeches, their activities concern those of all political hues who fear the unchecked power of private wealth to influence the US electoral system. The Koch brothers have pushed for and used new freedoms such as those opened up by the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which removed limits on corporate political spending, to fundraise at large scale and in relative obscurity. Their network of organisations - a panoply of think tanks, campaign groups, voter registration and opposition research arms as well as political action committees - employs 1,200 people in 107 offices nationwide, about three and a half times the current staff of the Republican National Committee....

"Koch's staff have told him they expect to marshal close to $US900m from conservative donors. The money will be spent trying to influence this year's elections in favour of rightwing ideas; around a third of it on directly funding political campaigns against Democratic candidates.

"With the field crowded and voting still a way off, Koch has declined several times to endorse a Republican primary candidate....  I ask about the rhetorical turn the race has taken when it comes to dealing with Islamist terror, and about Trump's assertion that the US could require all Muslims in the country to register with the government. 'Well, then you destroy our free society,' Koch says of the idea. 'Who is it that said, "If you want to defend your liberty, the first thing you've got to do is defend the liberty of people you like the least"?'

"He then expounds on the war on terror. 'We have been doing this for a dozen years. We invaded Afghanistan. We invaded Iraq. Has that made us safer? Has that made the world safer? It seems like we're more worried about it now than we were then, so we need to examine these strategies'....

"Although Koch now calls himself a 'classical liberal' - citing William Gladstone as a political hero for opposing Corn Law trade tariffs and political patronage in 19th-century Britain - today's libertarian Republicans and leftish Democrats may find intriguing common causes. The Kochs have also financed efforts - to roll back harsh sentencing laws, reduce the US's prison population (the highest in the world) and make it easier for felons to be reintegrated into society - more commonly associated with Democrats.

"Where the Kochs and the left are never likely to see eye to eye is on the environment. Over lunch, Koch positions himself not as a denier of climate change but rather as sceptical that it justifies drastic government intervention. 'Over the past 135 years, the ground temperature has warmed - there's some debate on this - around eight-tenths of a degree centigrade. In the atmosphere [the temperature change] has been slightly less, but not enough to argue much about. A big driver is most likely man-generated CO2, but what we see is that this increase is much less than has been projected. So, the indications are that the temperature isn't as sensitive to increases in CO2 concentration as was thought. I don't see the evidence that there's an immediate catastrophe or even one in the future.'

"The level of climate change, says Koch, does not justify penalising the use of cheap fossil fuels or subsidising alternative energy companies. Tax breaks and other incentives to use solar panels, he explains, cut the cost of energy for homeowners who can afford to install them, at the expense of higher bills for the rest. 'It's the poor people subsidising the rich people, which is what happens with this corporate welfare everywhere'....

"Through our conversation, there seems to be no issue to which smaller government, freer markets and unfettered competition is not the solution. "Our worst example in this country is the way we've treated Native Americans," he says at one point. "A great portion of the property of the American Indians is held in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They are not allowed to control their own." Citing the high rate of unemployment among Native Americans, he says, "This is what this whole philosophy of control and dependency does. How do you have a life of meaning? It's hopeless. So, they're a bunch of alcoholics. Well, no kidding."

Read more: http://www.afr.com/news/politics/world/political-machine-man-lunch-with-charles-koch-20160110-gm2nlm
'via Blog this'

Rabble.ca reports "outrage" over Ontario LP ad

Thunder Bay election ad by Libertarian Party regarding First Nations sparks outrage | rabble.ca - Krystalline Kraus:

June 12, 2014 - "Ontario Libertarian Party candidate, Tamara Johnson, published a full page ad in Tuesday's Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal raising issue with First Nations communities and its treaty rights. For example:

 "The ad speaks to Voters and asks [sic]:

• No group of people are above the law
• No group of people can legally block our roads and rail lines
• No group of people are entitled to handouts

"And speaks to Tax Payers and asks [sic]:

• Help me stop this doctrine of entitlement 
• Help me stop the inequality 
• Help me stop the injustice 

"At the end of the ad, she asks Thunder Bay residents to vote 'for their future'....

"While the Libertarian Party of Ontario stand behind their right to freedom of speech, Anishinabek Nation communications director, Maurice Switzer, feels differently. In an CBC interview, he said the ad, "falsely paints First Nations people as lawbreakers by using terms like 'illegal' blockades and 'no group of people are above the laws of Ontario'"....

In a Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) press release dated the day after the original Libertarian Party ad was published, NAN Grand Chief Harvey Yesno stated, "The statements made by Libertarian candidate Tamara Johnson are outrageous and disparaging against First Nations and our Treaty rights. All citizens have the right to express their opinions, but we strongly disagree with the dissemination of information that is factually incorrect and appears to be racially motivated."

Read more: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/krystalline-kraus/2014/06/thunder-bay-election-ad-libertarian-party-regarding-first-n

'via Blog this'