Ever wish those smallpox blankets had been real…?
Anyhow, here’s Robson:
By the same token, aboriginal activists should try to remember that the Canadian public to whom their appeals for reconciliation and justice are ultimately addressed, often in peremptory language, is not a faceless line of Jeffrey Amherst clones and abusive residential school staff. A great many of us, or our ancestors, came here fleeing oppression and sometimes encountered it on arrival too, and have long tales of historical woe of our own about which nothing can ever be done.
I speak not only of non-white Canadians. What of Canadian descendants of survivors of the Holocaust, Stalinism, the Armenian genocide or even just French religious persecution?
Most Canadians are heartbroken at the difficulties that afflict so many aboriginals today and bitterly regret the history that brought this misery. But most of us had nothing to do with it, have sad stories of our own ancestors, and will tire of every open hand being met with open insult like a “reoccupation” of Parliament Hill to spoil the Canada Day mood, of every concession bringing new demands.
RELATED: I bitched more about Indians here.
UPDATE — Mark Steyn writes:
While we’re on the subject, I still can’t get over quite what a bust Justin Trudeau’s Liberals made of Canada’s sesquicentennial. But, if you’ve ever tried, you’ll know it’s hard to organize a milestone birthday party for someone you despise, and evidently that goes for countries, too. As Bono told the crowd, “”Whether you have just arrived from Syria or your roots go back thousands of years, this is your home” – which contrast conveniently omits all the people in between, who happen to be the fellows who built the country and quite like it, or at any rate more than the chaps with the ten-thousand-year roots over at that teepee who were raising clenched fists during the singing of “O Canada” and “God Save the Queen”.
