The NG Times Newspaper

Dear Editor,
It was the year 2121. The local Kemptville historian was presenting some highlights of the 20th and 21st century at the Kemptville library.

He recounted the residential school saga, the Nazi extermination of the Jews and the 100,000 annual Canadian abortions of the early 2000’s.

One person exclaimed in righteous indignation, “this is a moral atrocity, what kind of barbaric people do such things”.

Another attempted to defend the actions and explained “technically it was not wrong because it was passed through parliament and so it was all legal”.

There was a little man sitting in his usual place. He had been sitting there as long as anyone could remember. Some said he had been there for over 2000 years, but no one believed that story.

So it was decided to ask the little man what he thought about the sins of people past.

He replied “first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye”.

Then he added “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”.

As the people turned away from the little man, barely audible, came the words

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”.

Willem Van Dam

 

Dear Editor,

Much has been said about the residential schools and the children that died there.

The problem is that the narrative that is being asserted by the Native/Indigenous community does not add up.

The first thing that I find troubling is the fact that much of the Native Leadership agreed to the residential school process as they wanted the “white man’s” education for their people.

In the last year, there was a story in our local paper that said some 75 percent of all chiefs wanted the residential school process and signed agreements .

You can look up the history at the libraries in Ottawa and see the communications that took place.

It is said that these residential schools were in operation for about 140 years, this represents several generations of Native leadership that was able to not only speak with Canadian Government officials, but protest up to and including war to have any concerns addressed.

After all, if your children were dying and not returning home with no explanation, why did the Chiefs and Native leadership do nothing meaningful to have issues fixed? They basically did nothing to protect these children, and yet the Native community says nothing about how their own leadership failed them.

The reason these children were buried on site was because the Canadian government’s policy was that they would not pay the cost of sending these bodies back home.

This was the understanding that was in place and was accepted by the Native community.

Now the Native community wants to rewrite history.

They are using these children for political and monetary gain as it has always been known that many of the children that died at residential schools were buried there.

Some disinterment of bodies has been ongoing at other sites for more than a decade so far, I have not heard of one finding of murder.

I think any parent should ask what would they do if your children were taken away and did not return home? The answer is they would do everything in their power to get answers.

Are we really to believe that for 140 years Native children died, did not return home and everybody was ok with it? The Native community is now trying to tell us that all of these children died as a result of being put in these residential schools.

This does not take into account the fact that mortality rates outside of residential schools was very high. There was a number of ailments that came to Canada and affected Native and non-Native alike. The Spanish flu was one wherein some 55,000 Canadians died in a very short time span.

However imperfect the residential school program was, it ultimately was the foundation for all Native education.

The native community now has taken away the voice and silenced many of their own people; individuals that went to a residential school (there were many) and got an education with no abuse, dare not say so now.

Yours truly,
James Balkwill

 

Dear Editor,

It is lovely to read the historical pieces in the NG Times, particularly those with photos.

In light of all the development going on in Kemptville, does anyone notice anything about the buildings in the old photos? All face, and are directly on the sidewalk; most have businesses below; accommodation is available above each building; none is surrounded by acres of tarmac (for parking); and there are no ugly rectangular boxes with flat roofs.

Also, many small towns had centres to which many people could walk. Go look at European cities: taller buildings with multiple uses.

Sadly, current zoning laws now dictate that business premises have to be away from where most people live, thus meaning that acres and acres of valuable land is chewed up accommodating vehicles for various activities.

One wonders why strip malls could not have accommodation above the business? Above-building accommodation could go a long way to helping provide more affordable housing, perhaps? Think about all the one-storey buildings (mostly for businesses) in Kemptville which could very easily be two or more storeys higher. Novel idea, eh?

I think it very unlikely this would happen here as our planning/zoning laws don’t allow out-of-the-box thinking.

Let’s just build more and spread out further…much easier solution.

Andrew M. Thriscutt

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