Response to an Idiotic Letter to the Editor

Here is an absolutely indefensible opinion offered by some local yahoo in today's Winnipeg Free Press, and my response.

Apology unnecessary

Re: It was wrong, June 12.

Canada is the only country in the world that compensates its former students who have been given an education at the expense of the state and then apologizes for having done so.

I don't believe that most Canadian taxpayers realize the cost of this. The average "compensation" payout per former student is approximately $25,000 to as much as $275,000. For 80,000 former students who attended 130 schools, it adds up to $2 billion.

In fiscal year 2008, INAC will pay out $10.2 billion to aboriginal programs, not including land-claim settlements. This continues to increase every year.

It's time that these state-funded citizens put that free education to good use and start to contribute to the society that has fostered them for all these years.

The government has no mandate for this gesture. I, for one, do not apologize.

DANNY COLE

Winnipeg

I was thoroughly offended by Danny Cole’s callous and ignorant opinion regarding the apology offered by our government to residential school victims (Apology unnecessary, June 13). Is Mr. Cole aware that the state sponsored “education” he endorses was responsible for forcibly removing aboriginal children from their homes in order to compel them—often using such tactics as shame, neglect, and physical violence—to reject their heritage and beliefs? Would he be so cavalier if his own children were taken from his home, forbidden to see their family for ten months of the year and cleansed of their native language and traditions because an arrogant and racist administration thought it best?

Mr. Cole the state-funded assimilationist policies you defend were unquestionably wrong, if not downright evil. The human beings who suffered them deserve our respect, our humblest apology and, in many cases, copious amounts of cash as a means of redressing the pain they have suffered. When people are treated with the gross injustice that so many residential school children endured, publicly admitting our mistake to the entire world and making an attempt to compensate those whose lives were forever tarnished by our cruelty is the very least we can do.

Confucius says

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.