GaagaagiiThe raven is a part of Chanie’s story, guiding him to the spirit world when he did not make it home. In the Seven Grandfather Teachings, the Raven also represents honesty and is a reminder to live with integrity. We chose the raven as the symbol of Secret Path’s 10th anniversary to honour Chanie’s memory and the responsibility we share to carry this work forward.The foregoing is a statement from the Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund website, from the page celebrating the tenth anniversary of “The Secret Path.” This multimedia package — an animated feature-length video, a collection of Gord Downie songs, and a darkly drawn graphic novel — purports to tell the true story of how 12-year-old Chanie Wenjack died while running away from an Indian residential school after allegedly being abused by a priest.The statement above about the raven, honesty, and integrity would be a fitting tribute if “The Secret Path” were not so full of lies and deceit.And sadly, millions of children across North America have been subjected to various Wenjack guilt-fest activities for a decade.Let’s start with the basics. There were no priests or nuns at Chanie’s school, Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School, as depicted in “The Secret Path” graphic novel and feature-length video. Cecilia Jeffrey was run by Presbyterians. So that means there’s been a tax-funded and tax-subsidized blood libel against Roman Catholics for a decade via “The Secret Path” and the charitable Downie & Wenjack Fund.Charlie Wenjack was never called “Chanie,” according to former staff who were interviewed by investigative journalist Robert MacBain, who wrote the book “Lonely Death of an Ojibway Boy.” Charlie was always called Charlie by the teachers and staff..Cecilia Jeffrey was not an Indian residential school, either. At the time Charlie Wenjack attended, Cecilia Jeffrey was a student residence. The children attended public school in Kenora. There were no faceless, heartless nuns shearing off his hair while he was naked in the shower. There were no priests with collars and crucifixes in class, pointing to phrases like “See the boy run,” and Charlie and friends did not make the Great Escape.Two orphaned boys wanted to visit their uncle, whose cabin was not too far away (so they thought), and Charlie just tagged along. He had no pre-existing plan to run away from school and walk home some 600 kilometres.The trio spent the night at a trapper’s cabin along the way. The trapper did not bother to send the boys back to school or alert the authorities. When the trio reached the uncle’s cabin, it was clear there was very little food. When another nephew showed up, Charlie became known as the “stranger.” All of the unexpected guests were a burden on the couple, who had little to eat.Again, the uncle and aunt should have sent the boys back to school. MacBain found out that the school principal, Mr. Wasacase, a Cree graduate of an Indian residential school, had actually driven over to the uncle’s cabin to search for the boys. By that time, three of them had gone with the uncle in a canoe to check the trap lines, leaving Charlie to walk alone to the trapper’s cabin, five kilometres north. The aunt told Mr. Wasacase she had not seen the boys, even though she had just given Charlie some potatoes, strips of bacon, and the famous little jar with seven matches as he left to go north to wait for the others.When the others arrived by canoe at the trapper’s cabin where Charlie waited, the uncle had to go without food that night, divvying up two potatoes for the four boys. The next morning, when Charlie reportedly expressed a desire to go home and be with his father, the uncle showed Charlie a path to the railway tracks and told him he could ask the section hands for food.Honestly, who would turn a little boy loose in the woods as inclement weather moved in, with no winter jacket and no food? And only seven matches.Former staff described Charlie as frail and “The least likely to function in the bush.”.Charlie died of hypothermia and adult irresponsibility — not because of Roman Catholic priests and nuns or an Indian residential school. The autopsy revealed that he’d previously had thoracic surgery, likely for tuberculosis, as was the fate of so many indigenous children back then.The Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund has been raising public funds as a federally registered charity while misleading the public, blood-libelling Roman Catholics, distorting history, and getting leading corporations to pay $25,000+ for licensing a “Legacy Space” in Gord and Chanie’s name (as part of their “reconciliACTION” ESG efforts — the companies also get a tax write-off). The organization now has some $14 million in assets.And think of the impact of this blood libel and dreary, depressing story being embedded in the minds of millions of children for a decade!According to the website, 11,600 Legacy Schools educators have been equipped to teach about indigenous histories, cultures, and perspectives in their classrooms, while 750,000 students have learned about residential schools and the richness, strength, and diversity of indigenous cultures through the Legacy Schools program. Additionally, 145 Legacy Spaces have been created to foster learning and conversations about our collective journey toward reconciliation, and three million reconciliACTIONs have been taken to move reconciliation forward.In fact, MacBain was granted access to some 300 letters written by former students and parents to Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School; all of them praised the school; many addressed the principal and his wife as “Mom and Dad” and signed off with “Love…” Hardly the dark and grim torture chamber depicted by Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire.One has to question the integrity of the tax-subsidized CBC, which promoted “The Secret Path” from the get-go, and Simon & Schuster, a book publisher that could not even get a basic fact right — that the school was run by Presbyterians. In failing to do so, they have incited hatred against Roman Catholics and Canadian history in hundreds of thousands of children, parents, teachers, corporate executives, and staff.What does the Raven do in the Grandfather teachings when one violates the precepts of honesty and integrity in this way? We are told by AI that “In historical tribal structures where these values were essential for collective survival, a person who continuously rejected the moral compass of the Grandfathers — becoming a chronic liar, thief, or malicious actor — faced severe social repercussions. The ultimate community-enforced punishment for completely abandoning these sacred laws was to be cast away or banished from the community, as an untrustworthy person put the survival of the entire group at risk.”Will Canadian schools, CBC, and Simon & Schuster banish “The Secret Path” for its violations of the Raven’s moral compass and its possible violation of various Canadian laws on its tenth anniversary? If so, that would be something to celebrate and a great step forward towards reconciliation.
