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EdithDich OP t1_iu2vh32 wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in (Canada) House of Commons unanimously agrees to describe residential schools as genocide by EdithDich

The residential schools preceded* (and outlasted) the Holocaust by a century.

*and to some degree inspired.

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Bowsers t1_iu4jozv wrote

Any elaboration on how they inspired?

Edit: just linking a 70 page pdf is not elaborating.

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EdithDich OP t1_iuawru3 wrote

Hitler was very open about being inspired by the US's Removal, Reservation, and Assimilation Eras of Indian polices for his own regime's approach to Jews and other "undesirables". So much so that Hitler and other Nazi leaders often referred to Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians as “Indians". The Canadian residential schools were based on a US model that tied into the reservation system.

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Redbanabandana t1_iu4ozy9 wrote

>schools preceded* (and outlasted) the Holocaust by a century. *and to some degree inspired.

What happened with residential schools is a tragedy and an horror but let us not redefine words to suit political/social trends. That you are even comparing residential schools with the holocaust and saying the latter was inspired by the former is ridiculous. Especially considering that the first residential school mass graves were found in the 1970s.

Genocide implies systematic and deliberate killing with the aim of destroying a race or nation. Was that the intent of the residential schools (no)? Were the death the results of murder or was it a result of lack of resources, lack of care and individuals in position of power (e.g., headmasters and priests) acting of their own volition? When and over what time period did the deaths happen?

Residential schools deaths: up to around 4,100 over 120 years mostly from things like lack of care, disease outbreaks (typhoid and tuberculosis) and fires. This represents about 5% of the people that attended the residential schools. The intent of those schools were to assimilate the children into western culture (presumably alive).

Holocaust: 6 million deaths over 4 years by systematic mass murders through nerve gas, combustion chambers and executions. The intent was to kill all Jews. Up to two thirds of the Europeen population of Jews were murdered.

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Prometheus720 t1_iu6bkio wrote

You're being a jerk.

This is like someone telling an assault victim, "Well I'm sorry that happened to you, but its not like he put his dick in you. Like you couldn't even get pregnant or anything. He just touched you. I don't even know why we call it sexual assault."

  1. Canada has never had the population density of Europe. You'd need to correct for population density to do apples to apples.

  2. The schools were one part of a genocidal system which had other parts.

  3. The purpose of the schools was to eradicate a culture. Due to many actions (and also some accidents), the native population was already depressed. This wasn't "genocide from scratch." It was finishing the job.

Though many deaths were due to disease which nobody (at first) intentionally spread, make no mistake that there was a genocide across the entire Americas. People came to the Americas and killed, directly or indirectly, millions of its inhabitants. That's genocide.

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Redbanabandana t1_iu6hex5 wrote

If you think residential schools is on the same level as Holocaust and Apartheid, I don't know what to tell you. It must be confusing at the store when $1 and $2,000 is the same to you.

>Though many deaths were due to disease which nobody (at first) intentionally spread, make no mistake that there was a genocide across the entire Americas. People came to the Americas and killed, directly or indirectly, millions of its inhabitants. That's genocide.

Why would Canada even acknowledge anything that happened before Canada even existed?

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Prometheus720 t1_iu6vdxb wrote

Are you deliberately not reading what I wrote?

Let me direct you to anotherof my comments.

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Redbanabandana t1_iu73bkq wrote

Yeah, no. Residential schools are to genocide as manslaughter is to murder. Two different bad things.

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Prometheus720 t1_iu6vmck wrote

How are you putting Apartheid up there with the Holocaust while skipping over huge genocides like Armenia?

Apartheid is about as apples to apples with residential schools as anything mentioned so far in this thread

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Redbanabandana t1_iu72y0n wrote

Was I supposed to provide an exhaustive list of all genocides?

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Prometheus720 t1_iu7wqm2 wrote

No, you're supposed to have one standard for what you're willing to compare to the Holocaust. You appear to have 2 separate standards.

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