Sanitizing the Truth of Genocide in Canada:
An Example of United Church Censorship During this past summer, a lifelong member of the United Church of Canada submitted a letter to the United Church Observer, its national magazine. The two versions of her letter, the one she submitted and the version the church printed, are reproduced below. Here is what the Observer editors (and their lawyers) printed: In the church-run Indian residential schools (This United Church, July/August), children were raped, beaten, tortured and sterilized. Thousands died of tuberculosis, often in their first year. Despite the known atrocities and death toll, federal law required all Aboriginal children, seven and older, to attend these institutions. What "settlement" could ever compensate the survivors? How do we become "reconciled" with the small, innocent dead? And here is the original letter submitted, with the parts the church deleted marked in bold and underlined: Re "Healing the Wounds of the Past Is Named a Priority for Today" (This United Church, July/August). In the church-run Indian residential schools, children were raped, beaten, tortured and sterilized. Thousands never returned home, but died of tuberculosis, often within their first year, as the healthy were housed along with the sick. Despite the known atrocities and huge death toll, federal law required all aboriginal children in Canada, seven years of age and older, to attend these institutions. Parents who were resisted were imprisoned or fined. By any definition these were crimes against humanity, and as a lifelong adherent I have this to ask my church. When will the perpetrators of the crimes be brought to justice, and who will put the churches and the government on trial? What "settlement" could ever compensate the survivors? How do we become "reconciled" with the small, innocent dead? ........ Isn't it telling what the church censored: anything to do with intentional killings or crimes that directly implicate the church; and any discussion of putting the church on trial for crimes against humanity. Please share this evidence with United Church clergy and members you know, as well as with the media, so they can see an example of the church's concealment of opinion, and truth. The whole issue of how the church, government and "mainstream media" are censoring and "spinning" the growing evidence of intentional murder and genocide in Indian residential schools will be the subject of an upcoming study by me. Stay tuned! Kevin Annett / Eagle Strong Voice www.hiddenfromhistory.org ps: The author of this letter asked to remain anonymous. Read and Hear the truth of Genocide in Canada, past and present, at this website: www.hiddenfromhistory.org ... ... and on this radio program: "Hidden from History", every Monday from 1-2 pm (PST) on CFRO 102.7 FM (www.coopradio.org) (Vancouver) "When the desire for Truth and Virtue becomes the only bias in our mind, only then can we know in ourselves what is right." Peter Annett, Humanist and dissident, 1769 (jailed and persecuted by the Church of England for his questioning of the Bible and the church)
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