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Canadian Museum refuses to label aboriginal suffering genocide

The Canadian Museum of Human Rights is the birth-child of deceased media mogul Israel Asper. It is due to open in 2014 but the museum’s curators have already come under criticism.

There is a perception that the museum will emphasize the suffering of certain ethnic groups over others. And this belief was confirmed this week when it emerged that the centuries long attempts to destroy Canada’s aboriginal communities will not be referred to as “genocide” in the museum.

Legal experts observe that Canada’s residential school system which seized children from aboriginal families and forced them to study in Catholic and Anglican schools is consistent with this definition of genocide.

Critics accuse Zionist historians and curators of treating Jewish suffering as unique and more worthy of remembrance than the suffering of other groups. Hence Jewish suffering gets referred to by such ethnic-exceptionalists as a "Holocaust" with a capital "H" while aboriginals struggle to get their massive suffering recognized "a genocide".

Ukrainian Canadians have also butted heads with the museum’s curators. Many Ukrainian-Canadians, like aboriginal Canadians, feel their historic suffering is being underemphasized by the museum’s curators for political and ideological reasons.

Joshua Blakeney, Press TV, Calgary

COMMENTS:

Bradley Wabi-Mukwa: Aug 4, 2013 7:18 PM
The term “Final Solution” was not coined by the Nazis, but by Indian Affairs superintendent Duncan Campbell Scott:“It is readily acknowledged that Indian children lose their natural resistance to illness by habitating so closely in these schools, and that they die at a much higher rate than in their villages. But this alone does not justify a change in the policy of this Department, which is geared towards the Final Solution of our Indian Problem.” - Duncan Campbell Scott - 1910. Dept of Indian Affairs, Ottawa, Canada. Scott was describing planned murder when he came up with the expression, since he first used it in response to a concern raised by a west coast Indian Agent about the high level of deaths in the coastal residential schools.
[...]
The Beothuk people of Newfoundland were wiped completely from the face of the earth. The Mi'kmaq were also hunted almost to extinction by the European immigrants. Just 10 years ago, the scalping laws were still on the Canadian law books in Nova Scotia, CBC covered the story, it spelled out exactly how much you'd get paid for bringing in a Mi'kmaq man's scalp, a woman's scalp, and a child's scalp.

Joe blo: Aug 4, 2013 7:14:30 PM
We have the same problem here in the US... We have no shortage of Jewish holocaust museums but try to find a museum which emphasizes the the fact that the United States once had a policy of extermination targeting the Native American indians... IT DOESN'T EXIST!! Hitler wasn't the only genocidal monster, there were many others before him. But what does it matter... the Shoah business is on its last legs anyway. There are no more Nazi "butchers" left to round up and today's youth simply doesn't care about what happened a lifetime ago. And why should they? Trying to find a job in this economy is distressing enough. Maybe if the US would take that $2 billion-plus that they send to Israel every year and put it into a jobs program for our youth, they'd have the spare time to ponder about the atrocities of WWII.

Opinion: Aug 4, 2013 12:11 PM
I thought Canada was a peaceful country, shame on government, thanks to Press TV for such a valuable report that could open many debates.

Roman Serbyn: Aug 4, 2013 12:10 PM
If only the CMHR had taken the right approach from the beginning for the CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE MUSEUM: 1. Human RIGHTS not human wrongs in the epicenter of the museum; 2. Canadian experience as the anchor around which to develop the history of a) human rights and b) their violation. Its not too late to correct the misguided programming even now, but is there the understanding and political will to do it???

lily: Aug 4, 2013 10:22 AM
SHAME ON THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT AND ALL OTHER GOVERNMENTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD THAT DO NOT WANT TO RECOGNISE THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLES OF THE WORLD. THEY THINK THAT ABORIGINALS ARE SAVAGES BUT IT'S THEM THAT ARE WORSE. THE CANADIAN MUSEUM WHEN IT'S FINISHED SHOULD BE BOYCOTTED.

[W.Z. See also Palmeter article.]