In recent days, Canadians have been reminded of the tragedy and shame that is the legacy of the residential school program. Broken and wounded people and their descendants have poured out their hearts; the calls for true repentance, restitution, and restoration have both awakened awareness and challenged public complacency. The wounds are real, the stories are deeply disturbing, and the need for national cooperation is unmistakable.

As dramatic and moving as are the painful memories of affected individuals and as wholehearted as may be the public response, there are several aspects of the history that have not been fully explained nor put in proper perspective and which must be…if we are to avoid even worse horrors in the days that lie ahead.

The first aspect that needs to be addressed is that of state interference in family life. Any state—which presumes the authority to remove children from the care, training, and guidance of the parents who brought them into the world—is already abusive. The added insult and injury of physical and sexual abuse suffered by many residential schoolchildren, (not all), deepened the wounds already inflicted by their removal from their homes. Regardless of the intent and motivation of the state, the removal was wrong and was the first cause of a disrupted and fragmented culture. This abuse continues today, not only in the ripple effects from the residential school program but in the broader claims of the state upon the children of all Canadian parents today. I will explain this in more detail once I have identified two other aspects that have had little exposure in the media.

The second angle meriting our attention is the violent restraint of inherited cultural values. Again, the historical attempts to change culture and language were real and in many cases involved physical as well as emotional pain. Small children isolated and without the protection of their parents, were unable to resist the methodical demands of the culture imposed on them. I personally know one man who had pins jabbed into his tongue for speaking his native language. Parental authority was despised and the wisdom of the state was elevated. We are witnessing this again in our day as parents from many of Canada’s culturally diverse groups fight for the right to determine the values and even the language choices of their children.

The third parallel to today’s social collapse—our descent into willing compliance with an intrusive and oppressive regime—is the burying of the little bodies. The loss of the lives of small children, who were far from their parents’ homes and care, seems to have been treated with little regard for the pain, the sadness, and anguish that all parents feel in the loss of a child. The causes of death, the loneliness of the experience, and the helplessness experienced by families and school-aged peers are truly horrific. Where there may have been “hidden burial grounds” and where there was failure even to communicate these deaths to the distant families, the pain and sense of betrayal was certainly compounded. Today, in Canada, we continue to disguise the deliberate deaths of Canadian babies and most of them are cremated without ceremony, solemn remembrance, or truthful acknowledgement of their deaths.

Let me draw the parallels I see and let me tell you why we must learn the lessons of history so obvious in the discussions around residential schools:

In Canada today, we have the hidden tragedy of the “non-residential schools.” Each school day, millions of children across this country are taken from their homes and put under the care, supervision, and moral guidance of others. They are returned to their parents each night, to be fed and housed but during the day, they are taught, not only the academic subjects prescribed by the state but also the philosophical world view…the religion and the culture of the dominant society. Whatever their ethnic background and family traditions, they are immersed in a culture and subjected to expectations that may be quite different, even contrary to the culture and beliefs of their parents. While their parents may believe in a loving God and Intelligent Design, many schoolchildren in public schools across the country are taught to leave God out of their conversations and are told that the world was formed by random chance.

In the home, many children, (sadly not all), are being raised by a father and mother in the natural family model designed by God and proven to be the most stable and enriching environment for growth and success. In the schools, increasingly strident demands by “sexual orientation” activists ensure that many children are taught to diminish the value placed on male-female relationships, the importance of chastity and fidelity, and the rewards of delayed gratification. Yes, even their language is being stolen: children are not allowed to speak freely of their Saviour, creation—even as a theory—is left out of their science classes, the first man and first woman are ignored as historical figures, efforts to discuss the destructive health outcomes of the homosexual lifestyle are labelled “bullying,” and the killing of 100,000 babies each year in Canada may not be described as “murder” but must be loftily elevated to “choice.”

Speaking of that hidden horror of our day, the bodies of over 100,000 pre-born infants killed in Canada each year behind closed doors are disposed of in a number of ways but their deaths and any reflection on the loss of their lives are generally hidden from the public. In at least two provinces, BC and Ontario, the level of secrecy is such that citizens are not able to access the numbers, the gestational ages, the ethnic and age demographics of their mothers, or any complications to the mothers arising out of the abortions (such as infertility, breast cancer, clinical depression, etc). The staggering number of missing children since 1969 (at least 3.5 million in Canada) means that there are about 1,750,000 missing women, aboriginal and non-aboriginal, in addition to the traumatized Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women spoken about in recent years and for which we agree there should be an inquiry. There should also be an inquiry into the 491 babies born alive after abortions and deliberately left to die. In all, about 150,000 aboriginal children passed through the residential school system and at least 4,000 died while in state “care.” Each one is a tragedy. The 100,000 Canadian babies who die each year under Canadian “healthcare” provisions also certainly merit our attention.

All this is to say that the tragedy and shame of Canada’s treatment of aboriginal peoples continues today under a cloak of political correctness. It has now been extended to Canadians of all ethnic backgrounds. The arrogance of presuming to dictate to parents what cultural and religious beliefs they can pass on to their children and the arrogance of presuming to deliberately end the lives of the pre-born are mere extensions of that tendency of the state to expand its reach. The CHP believes that parents are still the primary educators of their own children, that the state must not usurp that authority and responsibility. We also believe that every life is precious; the state has a duty to protect human life, not to take it. To see more of our Better Solutions, visit www.chp.ca.

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