From the Canadian Dictionary, one definition of a narrative is “a structured way of presenting experiences, ideas, or imagined events that engage the audience.” Note that the audience is not necessarily burdened with the truth. One of the characteristics of Western civilization today is the predominance of narratives, often disengaged from the truth. This is the first of a series of examples that will be explored, describing how established narratives are often inaccurate and divisive. More information flows, but with less accuracy. An egregious example in Canada is the alleged “genocides” in former Indian residential schools. Much of the following is gleaned from Tom Flanagan’s book Grave Error. Flanagan enjoys a deep resume as a Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Calgary and now a Distinguished Fellow at its School of Public Policy. Also an author, he is a seasoned and highly respected scholar, especially regarding Aboriginal matters. In 2021, the Chief of the Kamloops Indian Band announced that ground-penetrating radar had located the remains of 215 missing children buried in an apple orchard on the site of a former residential school. Although only one among many possible explanations of the anomalies, immediate political and media attention assumed “genocide.” This also resulted in Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flying to Kamloops and kneeling on the site holding a teddy bear.He further ordered Canadian flags be flown at half-mast on all federal buildings to honour, in his words, “the 215 children whose lives were taken at the Kamloops residential school.” With full knowledge of the power of tone from the top, Canada's Prime Minister elevated (or perhaps condemned) many as victims of foul play.As pushback pointed out, such superficial testing neglects other potential explanations for the radar images. The federal government provided $12.1 million to excavate and exhume the bodies. To date, the excavation has not occurred; neither the Band nor the federal Liberal government has provided a clear response as to why or where the money went..None of the other usual historical records — such as logs kept of deceased students, testimony of teachers at the school, responses by parents, pre-vaccination diseases, and broad practices of similar institutions — support the suspicion of genocide. BUT all this supports the broader and wider narrative of the ABORIGINAL AS A VICTIM. Nothing is more powerful than the murder of innocent children, even when false. Justin Trudeau's tenure as Canada's Prime Minister, now described as “the lost decade,” featured many such outrageous narratives. It is so easy to prove the truth of the allegations, but as both the Aboriginals and the federal government’s reputations are at risk of the truth, it will require a change of government to find it, if ever. Don’t hold your breath that the shiny new and progressive prime minister will delve into this issue — doesn’t he have his own similar issues?The impact of this event and the broad narrative of victimhood are damaging to the country, especially Aboriginals. Although buckets of funding have moved from taxpayers to Aboriginals as part of this narrative, has anyone posed the question — is there a solution to victimhood? This was your fault and mine as Canadians, and therefore ours to fix.But once a helpless victim, is there a solution?Sensible people, Aboriginal or otherwise, can draw obvious conclusions from the refusal to dig. Explanations thus far are pathetic and unlikely to support the narrative. There are consequences.How do Aboriginals regain much lost self-respect and move forward in our country with such a demonstrated absence of integrity? The lack of leadership by the Prime Minister and his government validates similar behaviour among Aboriginal leaders at a time of some progress and unprecedented potential..Losing credibility and integrity is easy; remediation is difficult.Regarding the broader theme, all is not lost. Increasingly, people are pushing back against these narratives (several to be further described in future columns), especially within the media. It is fair to say politicized media players are major transgressors of this trend towards narratives that are divisive and discourage participation in important matters, or even following the news. One outstanding example of hope — about four years ago, three Jewish women, two of them in a gay marriage, resigned from the New York Times because their work didn't fit the narrative of the publication. These women, sisters Bari and Susy Weiss, and Bari’s spouse, Nellie Bowles, left to create a publication so they could write about the truth.The Free Press (to which I became a subscriber about two years ago), growing from a startup to well north of a million subscribers, was recently acquired by CBS for an announced $150 million, and Bari Weiss was named a senior executive with broader news responsibilities. Apparently, the truth can be remunerative and career-advancing.In Alberta, the Western Standard was founded to provide truth to the myriad of narratives that exist to deny Western Canadians a say in our affairs and to protect our interests. It has become an important and much-needed Western institution. As well, podcasters are emerging and interviewing actual participants to avoid being “interpreted” by various media, thereby advancing their agendas and narratives. Almost inevitably, the truth emerges — we can hope this includes the Kamloops genocide narrative. Stay tuned as the sequel exposes the grandaddy of all narratives — global warming is an existential threat. As the climate refuses to validate the myriad of models, the narrative has evolved to climate change and then extreme weather — a "climate crisis,” whatever the label. This pervasive narrative is highly divisive and damaging to economic progress. This should be fun.
