Originally Published on June 25, 2023
Lynne Jordan, former President of the Cortes Island Museum, is writing a history of Whaletown. Her manuscript is already 300 pages long. In the first of a series of interviews about her research, Jordan describes the history behind Whaletown’s name.
Continue reading How Whaletown got its name
In a series of tweets between 2019 and 2021, the Conservative candidate for North Island Powell River, Aaron Gunn, argued against the the idea that residential schools were a form of genocide. In the first of these he agreed that they were ‘truly horrific events,’ but added that people should not refer to them with a loaded word like ‘genocide’ that does not remotely reflect the reality of what happened.” He was wrong, residential schools are a perfect example of genocide.
Mr Gunn’s understanding of the term appears to be limited to ‘killing of a large number of people,’ but when Raphael Lemkin coined the term he stated it wasn’t necessary to kill people. There were also genocides of political and social institutions, culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups.
Continue reading Aaron Gunn, Residential Schools and the Meanings of GenocideOriginally published on Twitter
I’d like to clear up what has been said today.
I have always been firm in recognizing the truly horrific events that transpired in residential schools, and any attempt to suggest otherwise is simply false. I have never wavered in condemning these institutions of abuse, where countless First Nations suffered at the hands of a patronizing federal government.
Continue reading Aaron Gunn responds: About Residential Schools
By Radha Agarwal, Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Citing a history of cultural faux pas, the Gits’iis Tribe of the Ts’msyen Nation, whose ancestral lands encompass the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre site, is demanding the removal of the three totem poles outside it.
“These poles came [to Prince Rupert]. They had no business being here,” said Guu Gaa Jung (Symbia Barnaby).
Continue reading Gits’iis Tribe calls for removal of totem poles outside Prince Rupert’s Civic CentreFirst Nations leaders are calling upon the Conservative Party of Canada to drop Aaron Gunn, candidate for North Island-Powell River, due to a series of tweets he made between 2019 and 2021.
More than 150,000 First Nation, Métis and Inuit children were taken out of their homes and forced to attend residential schools between the 1870s and 1997. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission called the residential school system “cultural genocide” in its final report released in 2015.
Gunn tweeted: “Why are the report authors (and now Trudeau) sensationalizing truly horrific events, that need to be examined honestly, with a loaded word like ‘genocide’ that does not remotely reflect the reality of what happened.”
Continue reading First Nation Leaders Call Upon Conservative Party To Drop Aaron Gunn As A Candidate
