As far as I know, no one ever accused Jessie Oliver of racism. Of beating helpless children. Of screaming abuse at them. Or of sexually abusing any of the children under her care. To the end of her life, her former students visited her. They were her family; she was their friend.
But Jessie Oliver worked in Indian Residential Schools along the B.C. coast. Did that make her a bad woman?
She felt as if Canada were attacking her personally.
I have only second-hand evidence to work with. But in my father’s final months of life, I remember, he gathered together some influential members of the United Church of Canada to discuss the injustice he felt was being done to people like Jessie Oliver by the wholesale condemnation of those residential schools.
He wasn’t suggesting that residential schools were a good thing. He spent 21 years as principal of the United Church’s theological college on the UBC campus in Vancouver. In those days, graduating students were arbitrarily appointed to the remote communities that had suffered most from the residential school system. He heard from his students about dysfunctional families and devastated communities.
So he had no sympathy for the system that forced aboriginal children into schools far from their families and home environments. He wholeheartedly endorsed the United Church’s 1986 apology -- well ahead of other churches and the Canadian government -- for its role in running residential schools.
But he refused to tar everyone associated with residential schools with the same brush.
The dogpile game
When I was a young, we boys sometimes played dogpile. If one of us slipped and fell -- especially in mud -- someone shouted “Dogpile!” and everyone piled on. I still don’t understand why. Or how none of us got crushed or smothered.
It seems to me that Canada has done a dogpile on residential schools. Social attitudes have taken a 180-degree turnaround. Where residential schools would once have earned almost universal approval, they now get almost universal censure.
But a few people like Jessie Oliver get hurt at the bottom of the dogpile.
It’s worth noting, for the record, that Jessie Oliver blew the whistle on Arthur Plint’s crimes long before he was charged. But the authorities ignored her. She was, she said later, “just a woman.”
Don’t get me wrong -- I believe that residential schools are the worst smudge in Canada’s relations with this continent’s original inhabitants. The schools were ill-conceived, underfunded, and tragically unsupervised.
Whenever one group of people are given absolute power over helpless victims, a few will take advantage of their power. But not everyone will.
There were Arthur Plints. And there were Jessie Olivers who did their best within an unjust and iniquitous system.
Unpopular expressions
Indeed, I maintain that there can be good within any system. The Confederate states supported slavery, but people within those states ran the “underground railroad” that smuggled slaves north to safety. Victor Frankl recalled instances of kindness even within the Nazi death camps of World War II. Nicodemus defended Jesus within the hostile Sanhedrin.
Small acts, perhaps. They didn’t overthrow the unjust system. But they tried to make a difference.
That is why I must, somewhat reluctantly, offer a word of defence for Senator Lynn Beyak. Beyek, a Harper Conservative appointment, sits on the Senate’s Aboriginal Peoples committee.
In a statement published by the CBC, Beyek said, “I speak … in memory of the kindly and well-intentioned men and women … whose remarkable works, good deeds and historical tales in the residential schools go unacknowledged.”
Piling on
I can’t comment on Senator Beyek’s views, in general. I don’t know her personally. But I object to the vilification heaped on her for reminding us that some good people like Jessie Oliver worked within the system.
An email petition called Beyek’s comments “totally unacceptable. They fly in the face of the spirit and goals of the committee…”
Committee chair Saskatchewan Liberal Senator Lillian Dyck asked Beyek to resign. "I am concerned that Senator Beyak's comments may have tarnished the good reputation of the [committee] and that her opinions may negatively impact its future work," Dyck said in a statement. "Aboriginal people must be able to feel that they can trust the members of the committee.”
Correction -- not just aboriginal people. I, for one, would have difficulty trusting a committee that has already made up its mind what it will say.
The trouble with a dogpile is that it leaves no room for alternate opinions. Dissent is crushed.
The residential school system deserves our censure. But that doesn’t make a dogpile reaction right.
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Copyright © 2017 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To send comments, to subscribe, or to unsubscribe, write jimt@quixotic.ca
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YOUR TURN
I had started last week’s column with the words, "Well; it's about time…" Peter Scott agreed, and added, “Isn't there an old saying, ‘What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander"? Now there's a saying to live by. There seems to hope for the United States after all.”
Chris Duxbury wrote from Australia, “Unfortunately, our [biblical] Creation story begins the inequality of women, with the writers blaming it on Eve. Then the Ten Commandments show the notion that women are simply the property of men.
“We have moved on from this type of thinking... or have we? I guess we have not, not entirely. I am just waiting for the day when women invent a new test that will replace mammograms!”
Tom Watson: “Great article. Kudos to Jessica Farrar for shining her satirical light on an important issue.”
Tom went on comment on the Republican attempt to replace the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") in the U.S. – an effort defeated last Friday. Tom noted, “A Washington Post article on the Republicans' bill to repeal and replace the ACA… asked Illinois Republican John Shimkus was asked what part of the ACA he didn't like. His answer: ‘What about men having to purchase prenatal care?’
“Yes, old men in suits are still sitting around deciding what women can and cannot do with respect to their bodies.”
I expected Steve Roney to disagree, and he didn’t disappoint me: “Jessica Farrar’s essential premise is spot on, and she does well by drawing attention to it: the current abortion regime, in the US and Canada, is an extreme violation of human rights. But past that point, she goes completely off the rails.
“Even leaving aside the most obvious violation of human rights involved – cough, cough -- it involves profound sex discrimination. The mother can unilaterally decide if a child lives or dies. Morally and biologically, the child’s father has an equal interest, yet he is given no say.
Farrar wants to add legislation prohibiting masturbation. Perhaps there is a justification for this, but, again, it cannot be limited to only one sex. Female masturbation is equally culpable, and must also be outlawed. If the object is not to ‘waste’ sperm that might become a child, female menstruation is equally culpable. And rather easier to prove.”
Robert Caughell wondered, “How many people are subjected to medically unnecessary procedures just to make US hospitals/HMO's more money?”
I had facetiously wondered why a judge didn’t tell the accused rapist to keep his pants zipped up. John Hatchard sent along a personal experience where a group in India invaded his reserved compartment on a train, and a spokesman (yes, a man, of course) defended their action by blaming it on India’s population explosion. John’s friend told them, bluntly, they should learn to keep their pants zipped up. John commented, “I thought there would be a riot.”
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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PROMOTION STUFF…
Ralph Milton ’s latest project is called “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca
Ralph’s HymnSight webpage is still up, http://www.hymnsight.ca, with a vast gallery of photos you can use to enhance the appearance of the visual images you project for liturgical use (prayers, responses, hymn verses, etc.)
Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>
I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com
Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatso@gmail.com or twatson@sentex.net