Indigenous repeated apologies

Nov 25 2017

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Is it not time to put aside all this mushy gushy feel good talk about how poorly our indigenous people were treated and face the facts that these people were treated no differently by government than any other group with unusual life problems. Back in 1960 Pierre Berton wrote in the Toronto Star a scathing story about unusual treatment in mental hospitals. (Huronia Regional Center, Orillia) Beatings and sex offences by hospital staff against innocent patients. Sodomy, female sterilization, sex abuse, drugging and drug testing on patients. Kathleen Wynne has promised to have an enquiry into this deplorable situation but the deaf and the mentally challenged do not have as strong a voice as our 1.2 million native folks. I mention the deaf because our son was to be stored away at the Orillia facility in the early 60’s. He is deaf and has a perceptual problem.  We fought for months against the Davisville school for the deaf in Toronto and the Ontario board of education to stop them from putting our son into the Ontario Auschwitz. He has an IQ of 135 and certainly not a candidate for a mental hospital. Years later, over 40 patients were found stored away in this Hellhole who’s only handicap was being deaf. The deaf and mentally challenged have gotten on with their lives without false apologies and millions of dollars in payoffs, it is time for the indigenous peoples of this land to take note and get on with their lives.

 

Paul D. Scott