Tuesday, July 6, 2021
WSHS YOUNG DEMS
NEWSLETTER
Keira Ordonez and Leo Moreira
Canada’s Horrid History of Indigenous
Boarding Schools
Over 200 Dead Children Discovered at Schools in Canada
For decades, indigenous children have
been taken from their homes and sent to
crowded, unkempt boarding schools
where they were stripped of their culture,
language, and identity. At the church-run
schools in Canada, these children would
often go missing. Recently, with the
discovery of the location and story of what
happened to the hundreds of missing
indigenous children, it has shed light on
Canada's horrible history of trying to erase
their indigenous population.
These schools, often under the Catholic
church and run under the government,
were first opened in the late 1800s with
the last one closing in 1997. The purpose
of these schools was to install European
culture into these children and erase them
of their indigenous identity. The Truth
and Reconciliation Commission of
Canada was formed in 2015 to investigate
the abuse at these schools. They
discovered that more than 4,000 children
died at these schools from abuse, neglect,
accidents, and disease. They reported that
the actions these schools committed under
the government was a "cultural genocide.”
Recently, two burial sites have been
discovered with each containing hundreds
of unmarked graves of indigenous
children.
Fort Worth Police, July 4 2021, Insider
th
Kendall Kurila
150 People Dead in 400
Shootings
4th of July Weekend Saw a Surge in Violent Crime
Issue #5
The first burial site to be recently
discovered was in early June 2021 in
Kamloops British Columbia which was
one of the biggest boarding schools for
indigenous children in Canada. The burial
site found more than 200 dead children
ranging in ages with children as young as 3
years old. The school had reported in its
time only 51 of these deaths, keeping the
rest of the deaths hidden. The second
burial site was found in the province of
Saskatchewan. Here they found 751 dead
children with the majority being
indigenous children.
The uncovering of the burial sites of the
hundreds of missing indigenous children
led to many survivors of the boarding
schools, also now known as “residential
schools", to come forward. One of the
survivors named Gary Gottfriedson was
interviewed by CBS and he states how
“Sometimes kids would not show up in
the classroom, they would disappear for
the next day and we knew that they were
gone, but we didn't know where they were
gone," Many other survivors shared the
same memories and experience as
Gottfredson. Many also shared how at the
schools they often were abused, especially
when they spoke their native language or
spoke about their culture.
Many people speaking out about the acts of
these boarding schools has led to people
sharing similar stories of residential schools
in the United States. These schools were
created in the United States around the
same time as they were in Canada. Both
the United States and Canadian residential
schools shared the same goals of wanting to
strip away indigenous identity from these
children and install European ideals and
culture into them. Often in these schools
too, many children were abused and died.
Since light has been shed on the past of
these residential schools, many activists and
groups are stepping forward demanding
justice from the Canadian government,
specifically the department of Indian
Affairs and churches, as well as the Roman
Catholic Church that had a huge part in
these school's actions. One of these groups
speaking out is the Federation of Sovereign
Indigenous Nations; they represent the 74
nations as well as protect the indigenous
people and their land. Also, many activists
and people have started memorials and
tributes for the losses of the indigenous
children.
Kendall Kurila
Ranked Choice Voting
What it is and Why it’s
Important
Rank choice voting is pretty much what it
sounds like: voters have the opportunity to
rank each candidate in the running by
preference. If no candidate gets over 50%
of the first-preference votes in the first
count, the candidate with the lowest
number of votes is eliminated. At that
point, the votes are recounted, and this
process is repeated, if necessary, until
there is a winner. Advocates for rank
choice voting say it gives a more accurate
picture of what voters want. Voters do not
have to vote for “the lesser of two evils” or
a more popular candidate so their vote is
not “wasted” on a third party. They can
rank those votes first, and then put their
second choices as just that, second
choices. Some Republicans are worried
about rank choice voting as it seems to
hurt their chances of holding office. In
NYC, rank choice voting led to higher
turn out and gave Kathryn Garcia, a
candidate for Mayor of NYC, a fighting
chance.
The rise in violence across the United
States did not take a break for the holiday
weekend. New York’s gun violence is
rising to levels not seen in years as 21
shootings occurred this weekend alone.
Compared to 2020, gun violence has
spiked almost 40% with 767 shootings
and 885 victims.
In Chicago, 83 people were shot, and 14
were killed in shooting from Friday night
to Monday morning.
While the homicide rate is down 2% in
Chicago, the number of victims is 14%
higher than it was in 2020.
Earlier this year the House of
Representatives was able to pass
legislation to require background checks
on all firearm sales. However, with little
GOP support it did not make it to the
Senate.
April 22 2021, The New York Times
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