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FIRST NATIONS NEED TO QUIT BLAMING THE PAST
The Vancouver Province (British Columbia)
July 31, 2013 Wednesday
Final Edition
by Naomi Lakritz, The Province
Editorial
It was edifying to learn that colonialism was responsible for the
death of five-year-old Phoenix Sinclair of Fisher River, Man. I always
thought that her mother, Samantha Kematch, and Kematch's common-law
husband, Karl McKay, were responsible. After all, they're the ones
serving life sentences for her murder. They're the ones who chose to
torture her to death.
According to Jay Funke, a lawyer for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs
and the Southern Chiefs Organization, it was colonialism. Last week,
he told an inquiry into the little girl's death that "First Nation
leaders believe that the tragedy suffered by Phoenix was, in large
part, the result of centuries of colonial-based policies and practices
which have been forced upon the First Nations people of Canada."
That's odd. All the colonials I know had the same reaction when
they heard of the terrible abuse Kematch and McKay inflicted on this
poor child, including beatings, shooting her with a BB gun, choking
her until she was unconscious, forcing her to eat her own vomit and
leaving her to die on a cold basement floor, eight years ago. That
reaction was: "I wish I could have adopted her and loved her and
saved her life."
Oh, these heartless colonials, eh? But First Nations leaders believe
colonialism was responsible. Deflect, deflect, deflect. Excuses,
excuses, excuses. Poor Kematch and McKay, they're not to blame. They
were just puppets of forces bigger than themselves. Apparently not
endowed with the ability to make decisions, know right from wrong or
take adult responsibility for their adult lives, they were victims
of colonialism.
Can't you just see it now? "Karl, our ancestors were misled and lied
to by David Laird after he was made Indian commissioner responsible
for Manitoba in 1898. So, shoot Phoenix some more with the BB gun. She
isn't crying hard enough."
Odd, too, how colonialism could have such a huge effect on McKay, but
leave his teenage son unaffected and perfectly able to distinguish
right from wrong. The boy testified at his father's trial that
he noticed how "skinny" Phoenix had become in the spring of 2005,
but that Kematch threatened him if he tried to give Phoenix food. He
told the court he never saw the little girl eat and then, weeping, he
testified that "I waited until those guys left and gave her food. They
didn't help her."
They didn't help her - not because of the historic wrongs done to
aboriginal people, but because "those guys" were scum. They alone are
responsible for her torture and murder, not history. This is about
individuals and their character, not their ethnicity.
Funke also told the inquiry that a lot of aboriginal people see the
seizing of native children as being like the residential school
system. Who cares how they see it? If they are not going to take
proper care of their children, then they have nobody to blame but
themselves when their kids are seized. If Phoenix had been placed
with foster parents, white or aboriginal, and not returned to the
piece of garbage who is her mother, she would be alive today.
There are no circumstances which prevent anyone from deciding that they
are going to be the best parents they can be. Nothing prevents them
from seeking help to achieve that goal, if needs be. No situation,
whether it took place in history or is being lived right now in
the present moment, is so bad that it makes individuals decide to
shoot, choke, beat and otherwise torture a fiveyear-old child. At
the trial, McKay's lawyer said that his client was just performing
"fun choke holds" he'd seen on TV wrestling shows and was surprised
that he had hurt Phoenix. Performing "fun choke holds" from wrestling
shows? Colonialism no more makes you perform fun choke holds on your
child until she blacks out than it makes you a fan of TV wrestling.
Funke told the inquiry that "the First Nations leaders of (Manitoba)
are committed to ensuring that Phoenix did not die in vain." Sadly,
Phoenix did die in vain and nothing can change that. But those leaders
can see to it that more children do not die in vain by dropping
the victimization mantle because it is not doing aboriginal people
any favours.
There is not an ethnic group in the world that has not suffered
terrible injustices at one time or another in its history. No one has
escaped this. To name just a few, the Armenians suffered genocide
in 1915, the Tutsis of Rwanda in 1994, the Jews and Roma suffered
unspeakable horrors during the Holocaust, the Ukrainians were victims
of Josef Stalin's forced famine, with more than seven million starved
to death in Stalin's diabolical plot to destroy them for the "crime"
of wanting independence from his reign.
None of these ethnic groups blames their own histories when a member of
the group abuses, neglects, or tortures to death their own children,
as Kematch and McKay tortured Phoenix to death. If First Nations
leaders want to start somewhere, a good place would be with the
concept of individual responsibility.
Naomi Lakritz is a columnist with the Calgary Herald.
The Vancouver Province (British Columbia)
July 31, 2013 Wednesday
Final Edition
by Naomi Lakritz, The Province
Editorial
It was edifying to learn that colonialism was responsible for the
death of five-year-old Phoenix Sinclair of Fisher River, Man. I always
thought that her mother, Samantha Kematch, and Kematch's common-law
husband, Karl McKay, were responsible. After all, they're the ones
serving life sentences for her murder. They're the ones who chose to
torture her to death.
According to Jay Funke, a lawyer for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs
and the Southern Chiefs Organization, it was colonialism. Last week,
he told an inquiry into the little girl's death that "First Nation
leaders believe that the tragedy suffered by Phoenix was, in large
part, the result of centuries of colonial-based policies and practices
which have been forced upon the First Nations people of Canada."
That's odd. All the colonials I know had the same reaction when
they heard of the terrible abuse Kematch and McKay inflicted on this
poor child, including beatings, shooting her with a BB gun, choking
her until she was unconscious, forcing her to eat her own vomit and
leaving her to die on a cold basement floor, eight years ago. That
reaction was: "I wish I could have adopted her and loved her and
saved her life."
Oh, these heartless colonials, eh? But First Nations leaders believe
colonialism was responsible. Deflect, deflect, deflect. Excuses,
excuses, excuses. Poor Kematch and McKay, they're not to blame. They
were just puppets of forces bigger than themselves. Apparently not
endowed with the ability to make decisions, know right from wrong or
take adult responsibility for their adult lives, they were victims
of colonialism.
Can't you just see it now? "Karl, our ancestors were misled and lied
to by David Laird after he was made Indian commissioner responsible
for Manitoba in 1898. So, shoot Phoenix some more with the BB gun. She
isn't crying hard enough."
Odd, too, how colonialism could have such a huge effect on McKay, but
leave his teenage son unaffected and perfectly able to distinguish
right from wrong. The boy testified at his father's trial that
he noticed how "skinny" Phoenix had become in the spring of 2005,
but that Kematch threatened him if he tried to give Phoenix food. He
told the court he never saw the little girl eat and then, weeping, he
testified that "I waited until those guys left and gave her food. They
didn't help her."
They didn't help her - not because of the historic wrongs done to
aboriginal people, but because "those guys" were scum. They alone are
responsible for her torture and murder, not history. This is about
individuals and their character, not their ethnicity.
Funke also told the inquiry that a lot of aboriginal people see the
seizing of native children as being like the residential school
system. Who cares how they see it? If they are not going to take
proper care of their children, then they have nobody to blame but
themselves when their kids are seized. If Phoenix had been placed
with foster parents, white or aboriginal, and not returned to the
piece of garbage who is her mother, she would be alive today.
There are no circumstances which prevent anyone from deciding that they
are going to be the best parents they can be. Nothing prevents them
from seeking help to achieve that goal, if needs be. No situation,
whether it took place in history or is being lived right now in
the present moment, is so bad that it makes individuals decide to
shoot, choke, beat and otherwise torture a fiveyear-old child. At
the trial, McKay's lawyer said that his client was just performing
"fun choke holds" he'd seen on TV wrestling shows and was surprised
that he had hurt Phoenix. Performing "fun choke holds" from wrestling
shows? Colonialism no more makes you perform fun choke holds on your
child until she blacks out than it makes you a fan of TV wrestling.
Funke told the inquiry that "the First Nations leaders of (Manitoba)
are committed to ensuring that Phoenix did not die in vain." Sadly,
Phoenix did die in vain and nothing can change that. But those leaders
can see to it that more children do not die in vain by dropping
the victimization mantle because it is not doing aboriginal people
any favours.
There is not an ethnic group in the world that has not suffered
terrible injustices at one time or another in its history. No one has
escaped this. To name just a few, the Armenians suffered genocide
in 1915, the Tutsis of Rwanda in 1994, the Jews and Roma suffered
unspeakable horrors during the Holocaust, the Ukrainians were victims
of Josef Stalin's forced famine, with more than seven million starved
to death in Stalin's diabolical plot to destroy them for the "crime"
of wanting independence from his reign.
None of these ethnic groups blames their own histories when a member of
the group abuses, neglects, or tortures to death their own children,
as Kematch and McKay tortured Phoenix to death. If First Nations
leaders want to start somewhere, a good place would be with the
concept of individual responsibility.
Naomi Lakritz is a columnist with the Calgary Herald.