The Problem With 'Indigenizing The University'

An excellent article by Frances Widdowson on another of the many woke atrocities being committed by academia. The comment thread is aso well worth exploring.

Mandatory indigenous studies at Canadian universities

Jason Agnew notes the absurdities and the exciting possibilities:



Since what's good for the goose must be good for the gander, let's force indigenous students to take mandatory courses in the foundations of Western civilization, say, in CAPITALISM. That would do them a hell of a lot more good than "indigenous studies" would do us.

And while we're at it lets make that course in capitalism mandatory for all non-aboriginal students as well. They won't get it any other way. That might help offset the brain damage being done by those studies in the-rosy-side-of-Marxism that most of them are getting now.

Elections Canada partisan, corrupt

Brian Lilley:

Elections Canada offered a sole sourced contract worth nearly $1 million to the Assembly of First Nations to engage in voter outreach even as key members of the organization made highly partisan statements calling for the defeat of the Conservative government. ...

BC school curriculum - an overdose of aboriginal culture

Alongside the article on the "massive shift" in BC school curriculum (previous post) is a related article - Aboriginal perspectives help shape new B.C. school curriculum:

With the new curriculum comes one notable and significant shift ...

Not only will students in B.C. be learning about the history of residential schools, starting in Grade 5, but they will also have aboriginal perspectives embedded into all parts of the curriculum in what the government hopes will be a meaningful and authentic manner.

In the specific lessons about B.C.’s history, topics will include discrimination, inequality, oppression and the impacts of colonialism. The changes are part of the B.C. government’s response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report on the residential school system. [That was fast! Wasn't that report just published?]

Wonderful! A school system that wasted so much time, money and energy on the highly dubious notion that "self esteem" was a paramount consideration in educating students has now shifted in the opposite direction.  Now it is of paramount importance that students (at least the non-aboriginal ones) be indoctrinated with the equally dubious notion that they should feel guilty for their ancestors' supposed sins.  Perhaps for "progressives" that's progress.

I don't know how many aboriginal children attend BC public schools but those who do will be subjected to this curriculum.  What effect will such an unremittingly negative indoctrination on the "history of residential schools" have on their young, immature minds? Will it not reinforce a sense of victimhood?  Will it not make them feel bitter?  How will it affect their relationships with their fellow non-aboriginal students?

Then, how about the children of immigrants who had no role whatsoever in residential schools?  What will this indoctrination do to them?

Indoctrination (not "education") that induces feelings of guilt, victimhood, bitterness and God knows what other negative effects seems not just a little misguided.  This curriculum needs some serious re-thinking.

As for "having aboriginal perspectives embedded into all parts of the curriculum" -  why, other than to demonstrate "sensitivity" and, perhaps, boost aboriginal self-esteem?  Given the limited time available for more valuable learning, it is a massively unproductive exercise to subject everyone to an overdose of aboriginal culture. This stuff should be strictly optional for anyone who might have a "passion" for it.

First Nations Mathematics
Also discussed in the article is how the mathematics curriculum might embed learning about First Nations:

"... difficult to imagine how math ...  could have learning about First Nations embedded into its curriculum  ... building a canoe is a good example of how to think about it. ... Math ability has always been important for First Peoples.   ...There are some fantastic resources out of Haida Gwaii that show how math was embedded in the creation of a canoe ...

  Well, "math" in this sense has no doubt been important for all human beings at all stages of development.  It's not difficult to imagine that all humans, even at their most primitive stage, were capable of thinking logically about how to measure and compare quantities for various purposes.  How societies  throughout history actually thought about and used these capabilities would be part of the disciplines of "Cultural Anthropology" and  perhaps "History of Mathematics".

So the rather esoteric "Haida mathematics" of building a canoe should not be embedded in the "Mathematics" curriculum.  It would be a possibly interesting but probably confusing distraction that interferes with learning the modern mathematics necessary to survive and get ahead in the modern world. And suggesting that it is comparable with or relevant to the study of modern mathematical concepts is delusional.

While "First Nations mathematics" may be of great interest, even importance,  to aboriginals (for self esteem?) or historians or anthropologists, for everyone else it should be strictly optional. 

"Truth and Reconciliation"?

That would be nice, but call me cynical.  Thanks to the results of previous commissions, Idle-No-More, the media and other progressive poseurs, we should expect truth, half-truth and distortion along with a large order of white guilt, self-pity and blame.  And the "reconciliation" part will be a call for a massive government "fix" for everything ("admit your guilt, say you're sorry, send money and we'll let you know when we're satisfied").

Ezra's first take:

Burnaby Mountain Unmasked

Greg Renouf has investigated and documented in minute detail what happened and who was involved in "protesting" Kinder Morgan's work on Burnaby Mountain.  He supplies pictures, videos and narrative.  He supplies the backgrounds of and links between the professionals protesters, the NGO's, the SFU academics and orgs, the Indians, the radicals, the extremists and the gullible useful idiots:

Part I: Is It Safe To Send Your Kids To SFU?

Part II: David Suzuki, Extremists And The RCMP

Part III - coming soon.

 Outstanding work, absolutely outstanding.

New AFN Chief of chiefs elected

Saskatchewan Chief Perry Bellegarde has won the leadership of the Assembly of First Nations after just one ballot.  Of the 464 ballots cast among chiefs, he easily exceeded the more than 60 per cent needed to win ...

 And nothing will change:

... the AFN, despite its name and high profile, doesn’t represent the natives of Canada. It represents the chiefs. There are more than 630 of them, and they are no more capable of reaching a workable consensus on contentious issues than are the premiers of Canada’s provinces, which number only 10.

Indians balking at transparency

Brian Lilley:

One of the biggest themes in politics right now is transparency, letting the taxpayers, the people who foot the bill, know where their money is being spent. Most politicians have accepted it but others continue to fight.

This week a group of Native leaders announced they would take the federal government to court to challenge the First Nations Financial Transparency Act.  ...

Here in BC the Legislative Assembly makes the law on financial accountability/transparency applicable to all municipalities, towns and cities in the province.  They are required to publicly account for every penny of taxpayers' money spent.  Also by law, they are required to publicly reveal the salaries of every public servant earning $75,000 or more (by name, alphabetically).  I'm sure this is also the case for every other municipality, town and city across the country.

As the provinces are for their municipalities, etc, the federal government is responsible for setting the rules for financial accounting on Indian Reserves. Chief Fox and others objecting to this (as "racist", no less) is absolutely asinine.  Their objections to financial transparency are beyond bizarre! (the only possible reason is that they have some very interesting things to hide).  What is also bizarre is that such laws haven't always been in place.

I doubt they have legal leg to stand on, but should their attempt to avoid accountability make it into court let's hope they don't draw some bone-head of a liberal judge who sympathizes with them.

Clear as mud

William Watson:

Even people who may not like it ...  seem happy the claim is finally settled.

In Canadian justice, however, “settled” is a relative term....

... Last week’s decision may clarify the guidelines for establishing aboriginal title, and maybe effectively broadens such title, but it’s going to be a long time and legions of lawyers before all such title is clear. And even once it is, there will still be lawyers, just to adjudicate it all.

A despicable, cowardly media

It almost goes without saying that the so-called mainstream media has a significantly leftist political bias.  We also know that the MSM is weak on press freedom and is prone to self-censor and to downplay or ignore certain issues.  They do this out of politically correctness (ie. upsetting lib/leftists who share their biases).  They also do so out of simple cowardice in the face of potential physical danger.  Altogether this highly unfortunate situation is just short of earning the MSM the title "despicable".

This week they (the journalists and executives of CTV, Global TV, CBC) crossed the line during the anti-fracking "protests" (riots) near Rexton, NB.  They displayed all of the above near-despicable negatives plus failing to come to the defence of fellow journalists who were attacked by Indian thugs and criminals.

The violence and thuggery of Indian "protesters" was bad enough.  But Ezra Levant hits the right target when he calls out members of the despicable "Media Party" for their cowardice and duplicity:

Foreign-funded homegrown terrorists

Not to mention latter-day-Luddites and Palestinian Wanna Be's:

An insane federal proposal to expand Indian reserves

It's a potential nightmare for municipalities:

B.C. municipalities are raising concerns over a proposed federal policy change that would allow First Nations bands to buy land and create satellite reserves anywhere in B.C. - even if they're not next to their traditional territory.

... the changes to the so-called "additions-to-reserve policy" would allow residential, commercial and industrial development in cities across B.C., resulting in the loss of land, taxes and costs associated with servicing agreements.

It could also create a "proverbial patchwork quilt" of jurisdictions, with municipalities wrangling with First Nations over bylaws and regulations on everything from fire services to house inspections.

... the policy, which would allow satellite reserves in cities like Burnaby, which has no reserves, and "turn community planning on its ear,"

... "If they bought a large block in middle of Surrey and it's a tax-free zone, imagine the impact on the surrounding businesses,"  ...

This idea is beyond nuts.  With few exceptions Indian reserves are among the most dysfunctional jurisdictions on the planet.  And the feds propose to multiply the problem?  Insane!  The object should be to get rid of reserves, not multiply them.

And whose money would be used to make the property acquisitions?  Taxpayers of course.  The Minister of Indian Affairs needs a good smack upside his head.

Bernie Farber - despicable race hustler

Bernie Farber's new role has him playing Al Sharpton to Canadian Aboriginals:



Update: Ezra's column.

Men are over-represented in our prisons, so ....

... shouldn't they get special consideration and lighter sentences? Jerry Agar discusses institutional racism in our "justice" system:



Naturally, according to the "experts", we need an explicitly racist justice system to overcome a racist justice system ( "... [aboriginals] are the victims of a discriminatory justice system.") Huh?  This is another case of social "justice" taking precedence over real justice.

Live From Ryerson University - Violent, Racist, Anti-Semitic, Hate

Greg Renouf at genuiNEWitty:

... At about 2:45 Saturday afternoon the Livestream camera was handed to a young native man named Billy who says he comes from near the Conawapa Dam in Manitoba.

...  Billy explains his view on what indigenous people need to do to get attention for their cause:
“Us Indians have to do something really extreme to get the world’s attention, like forming a Taliban“

... He then moves on to discuss his feelings on Jewish people and Israel ...

Neo at halls of macadamia:

Seriously... where's a Human Rights Commissioner when you really, really need one? ... 

... Actually, [Billy]... I'm kinda hopin' you have a serious substance abuse problem... 'cos, otherwise, you're just full-on batshit crazy. 

Political police

Politically correct, politically partisan, idle police:


This leads nowhere good.

Update (Jan 22):
Ezra Levant:  "... Maybe cops think this is the way to make friends of their enemies. But in doing so, they’re making enemies out of their friends."

Ezra greets IdleNoMore's pathetic anti-Sun protest

The mob looked and sounded like it was recruited from the "movement's" (or just the street's) most pathetic denizens.  Trying to conduct a coherent interview with any of them was impossible.

Kathy Shaidle:

Many of them were indistinguishable from the panhandlers who clutter up the streets: ... Others are under the impression that — you’ll never guess — “Jews own the media,” and say so on camera.

... this protest was heavily promoted by the Ontario Federation of Labor ...[who] relied upon (paid?) glorified homeless people to act as their brown shirts, to protest SUN’s right to bring the Mafia-like corruption on reserves to light. ...

Only slightly less pathetic were the lazy, useless, politically correct cops who tried to remove Ezra "because it was easier".

George Jonas on Indians and residential schools

Political correctness, white liberal guilt and shaky logic are not what one expects from George Jonas.  He gets off to a bad start but reaches a reasonable conclusion.

Jonas: "It’s important to note that the residential school programs were disgraceful ...[even]from the perspective of their own [times]."

Then he contradicts himself with: "The reason we didn’t view our own conduct in this light at the time was due to civilizational arrogance ..."

While the latter bit ("civilizational arrogance") rings true, the former is unsupportable nonsense. Boarding schools were hardly a novel concept in the 1800's and early 1900's. In fact they were common. So were the methods of discipline. Regimentation and corporal punishment were pretty much the norm in British schools both at home and in the colonies (and from my own experience, in public schools in the 1950s and beyond). That it was applied in Indian residential schools is hardly surprising and certainly wouldn’t have been thought "disgraceful" by anyone at the time. Sexual abuse is another matter but it would have been considered criminal then and more severely punished than it is today.

Jonas’, in arguing from the perspective of his own supposedly ‘more enlightened’ times is guilty of ...what? Temporal arrogance? It would be interesting to hear from those who ran the schools back then but, luckily for George, they’re not here to defend themselves.

That's mainly in the first part of his column.  But he works his way to a reasonable, politically incorrect conclusion:

The ultimate solution, if there is one: ... A good version of the same model of which the residential schools were a bad ... example. The alternative, which is having the government maintain some sort of Paleolithic Garden of Eden for natives in post-industrial Canada, isn’t just unaffordable but unworkable. Unless people join the century in which they live, they will be alienated and displaced. For aboriginals no less than everyone else, Canada must be a first nation.

Idle No More riddled with contradictions

Terry Glavin:

... On the one side, we have Canada, a genocidal, racist, colonial settler state that just wants to rape the land and poison the water. On the other, we have sacred indigenous nations that just want to protect Turtle Island and be spiritual about everything. Now, pick a side.

Thank you, Idle No More. Joining a “revolution” has never been so easy.

...

Sorry, but the choice isn’t between the Folk Devil Stephen Harper and those graceful blue creatures from Avatar. It’s between play-acting in period costume and actual and real political engagement. Unless it’s the latter, Idle No More will collapse under the weight of its own contradictions.

Great read!

More on this by Terry.

[via]

The irresponsible rhetoric of Manitoba Grand Chief Derek ("Big Mouth") Nepinak

Further to yesterday's post on this, here's John Robson with Ezra Levant: