As reported by the Calgary Herald, on September 30, the City of Calgary announced an official location for a permanent Indian Residential School memorial, at a cost of $1 million..“This is an incredibly important day,” said Mayor Jyoti Gondek. “It has been a long time coming. I appreciate everyone’s patience as we made sure that we got this memorial right.”.But it looks like the city has gotten a lot of things wrong and may also be engaged in an act of fraud..According to the Canadian Criminal Code on fraud, Section 380 (1):.Every one who, by deceit, falsehood or other fraudulent means, whether or not it is a false pretence within the meaning of this Act, defrauds the public or any person, whether ascertained or not, of any property, money or valuable security or any service:.The penalty is 14 years in jail..The City of Calgary project document states 215 children were found in Kamloops. This is untrue. No children were found. No graves have been confirmed. There is only a Ground Penetrating Radar assessment of ‘disturbances’ which could be anything..Thus, what is being memorialized?.The entire premise of the memorial relies upon claims children went missing at Indian Residential Schools. Unlike in places such as Argentina or Guatemala, where actual family members were abducted by military or para-military forces and ‘disappeared,’ that did not happen in Canada..Thousands of archival documents show the names of the children on their admission enrolment form, in most cases voluntarily signed by their parents, and pre-admittance medical exams..In the sad cases of the 423 children who died at Indian Residential Schools (over 113 years), there are death certificates showing the cause of death and burial location, whether on reserve or in a community graveyard..As for the faux pas on top of the possible fraud, as stated by the City of Calgary in the What we Heard report, people are suggesting bronzing the shoes and Teddy Bears used in the impromptu display, or perhaps encasing them in glass, just like at Auschwitz..The shoes encased in glass at Auschwitz were the actual shoes of living people who were worked to death, gassed or shot by the Nazis enacting the Holocaust — an actual genocide of some six million Jews and about five million other people — dissidents, Roma, gays and Christians caught trying to rescue those at risk..The shoes in the street theatre display at Calgary City Hall have nothing to do with the children who died at Indian Residential Schools..Worse, most of them were probably made in China in factories employing slave labour, perhaps even Uighur slave labour, a group of indigenous people facing genocide by China..The thought of bronzing such shoes is an insult to those who died at Auschwitz as well as those Uighurs who made parts of or all of the shoes, labouring in slave-like conditions in China..Likewise, bronzing Teddy Bears would be a faux pas..Teddy Bears were created to honor Theodore Roosevelt, a big game hunter (and US President) who refused to shoot a bear that was tied to a tree as unsportsmanlike. However, his view on native Americans was not so compassionate..“I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indian is the dead Indian,” he said in 1886, “but I believe nine out of every ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth. The most vicious cowboy has more moral principle than the average Indian.”.Theodore Roosevelt and the Idea of Race.That was certainly not the view of Colonel Macleod, who is honored at Fort Calgary, the proposed location of the memorial. He was well-respected by the Chiefs he worked with in drawing people together for Treaty 7. Chief Crowfoot said:.“…If the Police had not come to the country, where would we all be now? Bad men and whiskey were killing us so fast that very few, indeed, of us would have been left today. The Police have protected us as the feathers of the bird protect it from the frosts of winter. I wish them all good and trust that all our hearts will increase in goodness from this time forward. I am satisfied. I will sign the treaty.”.And yet the City of Calgary wants to place this Indian Residential School memorial faux pas based on untrue claims about ‘215 children’ in Kamloops at Fort Calgary, besmirching the reputation of Colonel Macleod and the North West Mounted Police who saved the Blackfoot Nation from decimation, and kept the US Indian Wars (1644-1924) from spilling into Canada..The Glenbow Museum is just around the corner from city hall. The late Dr. Hugh Dempsey wrote dozens of books and papers on this region’s history. His wife and father-in-law were both Indian Residential School ‘thrivers.’ He documented the early history from eyewitnesses or descendants. Shouldn’t we rely on his telling of history?.And shouldn’t due diligence be a requirement of office at Calgary City Hall?.Michelle Stirling is a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists. She researched, wrote, and co-produced historical shows about Southern Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Hugh Dempsey, then curator of the Glenbow Museum.
