Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 19, 2013, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A10 EDITORIALS WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2013 Freedom of Trade Liberty of Religion Equality of Civil Rights A 10 COMMENT EDITOR: Gerald Flood 204- 697- 7269 gerald. flood@ freepress. mb. ca winnipegfreepress. com EDITORIAL T HE most startling thing about a historian's report on nutritional experiments on aboriginal children 70 years ago is that, except for the details, it is not very surprising at all. The idea that native peoples were once regarded as lower beings with no basic rights who couldn't hire a lawyer, vote, or leave their reserve without permission, who were relocated and dislocated by government diktat, ignored, dismissed as children, starved, robbed of their land and even their children, who were physically and sexually abused - the list goes on - is not new. Canada was a racial society, and even today some Canadians still view Indians as victims of their own laziness, lack of ambition and child- like helplessness, which bigots regard as hereditary traits. The abuse fits into a historical context, which needs to be understood, but it does not wipe the slate clean or absolve Canada and Canadians of their responsibilities to a people who have been repeatedly victimized. The nutritional experts who conducted experiments on starving aboriginal populations, for example, said they believed their work would help lift them out of poverty and into the modern era, much the way the creators of residential schools believed their work would have the same effect. The problem is they neglected to raise the alarm bell about the malnutrition they witnessed all around them. The science of nutrition was still in its infancy. What harm could there be in providing vitamins and supplements to some aboriginals to see if it would improve their health? Or so the experts may have claimed. Some 60 per cent of Canadians, in fact, were malnourished in the 1930s and 1940s, the Canadian Council of Nutrition said at the time, so the need for research was considered critical. Notions of informed consent did not exist and the experiments were hardly as bad as the forced sterilizations, lobotomies and other medical abuses of the day committed against women, the disabled and mentally challenged, many of whom, by the way, happened to be aboriginal. In fact, about 25 per cent of the forced sterilizations under the eugenics policies of the day in Alberta were natives. In the case of the nutritional experiments, food historian Ian Mosby concluded in his study the scientists were not motivated by altruism, but by crude professional ambition. Their real goal, Mosby says in Administering Colonial Science: Nutrition Research and Human Biomedical Experimentation in Aboriginal Communities and Residential Schools, 1942- 1952, was " to further their own professional and political interests rather than to address the root causes" of native poverty and malnutrition and " the Canadian government's complicity in them." He is right in saying the experiments should be remembered as just one example in a series of " dehumanizing" assaults against aboriginal people over a long period of time - Canada's enduring dirty secret. Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an expansive apology to aboriginals in 2008 over residential schools and other abuses, but this new revelation must also be addressed in some way. Shawn Atleo of the Assembly of First Nations said Ottawa should help the Truth and Reconciliation Commission get full access to government documents on residential schools. The prime minister, he said, should also provide better funding for child welfare and food security on First Nations land. These are reasonable requests that should have been granted in any event. The teaching of aboriginal history has grown dramatically in universities across Canada, but most Canadians probably do not know much about the horrific treatment of aboriginals over the centuries. If they did, they might have a better appreciation of native anger today and of the urgent need to resolve this stain on the fabric of Canadian life. Ian Mosby's study can be found at http:// muse. jhu. edu/ journals/ histoire_ sociale_ social_ history/ v046/ 46.91. mosby. html. Discounting city business Re: Core- living incentives approved ( July 18). Mayor Sam Katz fails to understand that while the free market does exist, the city is not in the business of providing discounts on housing for select few, regardless of timing or socioeconomic status. Additionally, the city should not be in the business of encouraging only condo development downtown. In order to achieve a vibrant neighbourhood, we need all forms of development, including large segments of affordable housing. Successful neighbourhoods have condos, mixed- use developments and affordable housing. Osborne Village is a prime ( but fading) example. While knocking $ 10,000 off the price of a condo may encourage an upper- middle- class citizen from the suburbs to move downtown, it fundamentally fails to help those who desperately need a home, especially in an area they already frequent. ZACH FLEISHER Winnipeg �� I would be more than happy to receive a cheque from the city as " incentive" to stay in my home of 45 years, which needs repairs, but is situated in an established neighbourhood with access to grocery stores and other amenities. I, for one, am tired of the efforts to prop up the downtown by artificial means. If developers have erred by producing too much inventory, they will have to absorb the loss or reduce their prices, as would any other business person. BARBARA FISHER Winnipeg �� Winnipeggers are rightly outraged at such a deal for condos selling at prices out of reach of the vast majority of middle- income earners, never mind the poor. The part I support, however, is the five- year residency requirement. That is an excellent idea and should be encouraged for other condo developments across the city to promote sustainable communities surrounding the buildings' tenants. Kudos for thinking outside the box. DANIEL OAKES Winnipeg Showing obvious bias You have displayed obvious bias in your July 17 edition. Shelly Glover, the new Conservative heritage minister, receives more space and more prominence ( N o- nonsense MP dedicates life to her job ) than your mention of the exposure of experiments on helpless aboriginal children held captive in residential schools ( Feds used native kids as guinea pigs ). People in our own province were apparently subjects of this horrible undertaking by our own government. Are people like Shelly Glover somehow more worthy? STEPHANIE FINGEROTE Winnipeg �� It is interesting to note that there was no mention of the party that was in power during this atrocity. If it had been a Conservative government in power instead of a Liberal government led by Mackenzie King, I am sure the paper would have made mention of this fact. WILLIAM D. POOLES Winnipeg Reading between the lines Re: Justice has been denied ( Letters, July 16). What is William J. Hutton saying when he divisively writes, " How could five white women on a jury panel of six find a white man guilty of killing a black teenager in the gun- crazy state of Florida?" Is he saying that white people are incompetent to serve on juries in cases involving black people, especially " gun- crazy" white women? And what is he saying when he writes, " The whole U. S. justice system is skewed in favour of white people. The laws were written by white people and enforced by white people"? Is he saying that white people are incompetent to write and enforce laws, or that, somehow, laws against second- degree murder never apply to white or Hispanic people murdering black people? Is he ultimately saying there are too many white people in America - that justice is an asif- genetic function of colour? Finally, are these unspoken words the real reason George ( Hispanic but white enough) Zimmerman has a date with the lynch mob? GREGORY UNGER Dugald �� The State of Florida would have more of a leg to stand on if the stand- your- ground law was applied fairly across the board. Marissa Alexander, a 31- year- old African- American mother of three, is serving a 20- year sentence for discharging her firearm into the air to scare off her life- threatening husband. No one was hurt or killed in this incident. The judge concluded the stand- your- ground law did not apply and no immunity was granted. A jury took a whopping 12 minutes to find Alexander guilty, and down came the mandatory minimum. I previously thought that if Trayvon Martin had lived, he may have been able to use the stand- your- ground law in his favour because Zimmerman was the aggressor. But upon reading Alexander's case, I realized I was naive and racism is the corona of the Sunshine State. STEPHEN WEEDON Winnipeg �� I support William Hutton's right to express his opinion, grossly prejudiced as it is, but I'm puzzled as to how he thinks he knows better than the six people 3,200 kilometres away in a foreign country who sat through the whole trial in person and decided that George Zimmerman was not guilty. If Hutton is right, then our Canadian legal system can save a fortune on judges and juries. We'll just get him a gavel and let him decide. BARRY CRAIG Winnipeg HAVE YOUR SAY: The Free Press welcomes letters from readers. Include the author's name, address and telephone number. Letters may be edited. Letters to the Editor, 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, R2X 3B6. Fax 204- 697- 7412. Email letters@ freepress. mb. ca Letters represent the opinions of their writers and do not reflect the opinions of the Winnipeg Free Press or its staff. �� LETTER OF THE DAY The International Criminal Court does not deserve the praise given it by Lloyd Axworthy ( International court more than a symbol , July 17). This is a victors' court and not a court of justice. A true court of justice would have found reason to hear charges against the U. S., Britain and Israel, among others, for their crimes of aggression in the last decade. There have been many attempts to bring Bush and Blair et al to justice for starting a destructive and illegal war against Iraq, with no other justification than the lies they manufactured. But the ICC has not heard the case, even though more than one million people are estimated to have died, and the infrastructure has been ruined. Much is made of the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, when this was a shameful episode. The trial was fraught with irregularities, and came to an end with Milosevic's untimely death due to the refusal of the ICC to provide him with medical treatment. Milosevic's " crime" was to defend his country against an illegal war of aggression by NATO. Under any and all interpretations of international law, it is a war crime to make war, as did NATO, against another country, which has not committed aggression. Serbia attacked no one. Kosovo was and is a province of Serbia. Yet when Milosevic refused to give in to NATO's demands, amounting to complete surrender of sovereignty, his country was bombed for 78 days. The RCAF boasted that it carried out 10 per cent of these raids. Canada is very much to blame for the destruction of an independent member country of the UN, a friend of the developing world and a founding member of the non- aligned movement. And high on the list of those responsible for this is one Lloyd Axworthy. IAN WALKER Winnipeg A court for the victors A man enters the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands. Canada's legacy of abuse A_ 12_ Jul- 19- 13_ FP_ 01. indd A10 7/ 18/ 13 10: 41: 28 PM ;