What I can't figure out is...

VIDEO: Concerned Canuck "X"er has a vision of Canada's future...

and a pretty sad vision it is, too...

Originally posted to "X" by JayGen, reposted by the good people at Blazing Cat Fur, to whom Walt sends thanks and best wishes.

VIDEO: Canuck residential schools hoax debunked

In the two years since the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation's 2021 announcement about the location of 215 potential unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in the Canadian province of British Columbia, a number of priests, pundits, and politicians have downplayed and questioned the validity of the findings. 

Some have declared the news of potential unmarked graves at many former residential school sites across Canada to be a 'huge lie". Others insist that the lamestream media, the Canadian government, and First Nations have conspired to created a hoax by misrepresenting the news of potential unmarked burials sites as a "mass grave" to shock and guilt Canadians into caring about Indigenous Peoples and the woke shibboleth of "reconciliation". 

Predictably, the usual suspects in the human rights and reparations industry scrambled to disprove the media conspiracy argument by finding some graves. Meanwhile they encouraged the anti-religious left to "burn it all down", resulting in almost 100 churches, mostly Catholic, being burned by arsonists who were never caught... not that any serius attempt was made so to do.

Well, guess what, folks? The "residential schools denialists", such as Candace Owens, Tom Flanagan and our old friend Michael Matt, were right! The vilification of the residential schools and the Catholic Church was all an enormous lie, all part of the conspiracy of the anti-Christian, One-Worlders to destroy the Church. And the wokesters in the New Church of Francis fell for it... hook, line and sinker. Indeed, some of the hierarchs are among the conspirators!

In this video, excerpted from "THE CATHOLIC FACTOR: Cristeros, Canadians, and Candace Owens", the latest from The Remnant Underground, Mr Matt gives the residential schools hoax as just one example of  the Neomasonic Revolution firing up the Christophobic mob, and what Christians should do to stand up to it!  

Further reading: "Canada Gives Up Trying to Prove the Mass Graves Hoax", by the editors of National Review,  28/2/25. There is an audio version of the article for those who prefer to listen.

Canuck Pretendian shocked to learn truth about himself

Looks like the US of A isn't the only country where Pretendians (e.g. Senator Elizabeth Warren) rise to lofty heights, only to fall with a thud when they are outed as being, errr... white. Canada has them too, and has had them for at least a century, going back to the time of Grey Owl, shown at left in a portrait by Yousuf Karsh.

Grey Owl, was a popular Canadian writer, public speaker and conservationist. Born an Englishman, he immigrated to Canada and, in the latter years of his life, passed as half-Indian, falsely claiming he was the son of a Scottish man and an Apache woman. He achieved fame in the 1930s with books, articles and public appearances promoting wilderness conservation. Shortly after his death in 1938, his real identity -- Archibald Stansfeld Belaney -- was exposed. He was one of the first Pretendians.

Fast foward to this weekend, when celebrated Canadian author Thomas King told the meeja that he was shocked, shocked to find out that, despite believing so nearly all his life, he is not an Indian Indigenous First Nations person. 

Like Mr Belaney, Mr King wrote books about Indians, including The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative and The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America. Now, in a piece for the Groan & Wail [Globe & Mail, shurely. Ed.] titled "A most inconvenient Indian", the California born author says he learned of rumours several years ago that questioned his heritage. 

Mr King says he made a concerted effort this year to find their origin, which brought him to an American organization called Tribal Alliance Against Frauds, which investigated his past with help from a University of British Columbia scholar, and found no Cherokee heritage. 

Mr King writes that he did not purposefully pretend to have Indigenous roots. His father left the family when he was only 3, he says, and his mother rarely spoke of the man but said he was part Cherokee. King says the revelation a couple of weeks ago was "so very devastating, though 'devastating' is too pedestrian a word. At 82, I feel as though I’ve been ripped in half, a one-legged man in a two-legged story. Not the Indian I had in mind. Not an Indian at all."

Well, I'll take his word for it, as long as he promises never again to read out the Stolen Land Acknowledgment which is now de rigueur at all public events and ceremonies in the Great No-longer-white North.

Woke judges bend the law to excuse non-white criminals

It used to be said that there was one law for the rich and one law for the poor. Now it's one law for the white, and one law for the non-white, particularly when it comes to criminal "justice". And, unlike in the 19th and 20th centuries, it's the non-whites who get the benefit of the doubt, or should I say, liberal guilt. 

Yesterday, Walt held up the trials of "rap artist" Kodak Black as a horrible example of the reverse racism shown by American prosecutors and judges in dealing with a drug-addled habitual criminal who happens to be as black as  his name. Three Hail Mammies and it's back on the street for Mr Black.

The situation is no better in Canada, the only difference between the American and Canadian "systems" being that it's not just blacks but also Indians First Nations indigenous Canadians who are disproportionately charged, convicted and incarcerated.

This is not because of "systemic racism" as claimed by the SJWs, but because it is the BIPOCs are responsible for way more than their share of serious crime, particularly violent crime. They do the crime, so they have to do the time. But now, our sometimes-resident legal beagle, Agent 3, reports a recent example of activist judges bending the laws of the land to achieve equity and "social justice". In other words, to let BIPOCs of the hook easily.

Late last month, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled, in the precedent-setting case of Regina v. King, that the criminal records of Indigenous Persons can be excluded from their trials to "preserve fairness." 

Dale Burningsky King, pictured, was found to have fatally shot Yosif Al-Hasnawi [What part of Ireland was he from? Ed.] in Hamilton ON in 2017. Both men were 19 at the time. 

Mr Al-Hasnawi was a medical student. Mr King was a daily user and dealer in methamphetamine. On the way, with a friend, to a meth sale, Mr King had an "interaction" with an older man on the street where Mr Al-Hasnawi, unarmed, was gathered with his brothers getting fresh air during an event at a mosque. 

Mr Al-Hasnawi called out to Mr King [a friendly greeting, perhaps? Ed.] and Mr King and his friend approached. After some "talking", the friend punched Mr Al-Hasnawi and the two ran off. Mr Al-Hasnawi gave chase, until Mr King shot him in the stomach.

Mr King claimed self-defence and was ultimately acquitted of second degree murder. The appeal court agreed with this result. On appeal the Crown objected to the fact that part of King’s lengthy criminal record was suppressed at trial. The trial judge had reasoned that this was fair because of "systemic discrimination" against indigenous people and (of course) Mr King's "lived experience" -- the latest buzzphrase -- of family separation, transience, addiction and abuse. The trial judge felt disclosure of Mr King's full criminal record could prejudice the jury against him due to "racial stereotyping", so kept some of it out.

Ontario's top court thinks what the trial judge did -- creating race-based procedural rules to make up for the supposed effects of systemic racism -- was fair and just. It was not. In Canada, just as in the US of A, justice is no longer colour-blind. Softening laws which are supposed to apply to everybody, regardless of race, colour or creed, creates two "justice" systems -- one for whites and another for all the minorities who have been oppressed for centuries by the evil white colonialists. It isn't fair.

VIDEO: National Be-nice-to-an-Indian Day

That's a joke, son. The actual name of this Very Special Day, as celebrated in Canada, the wokest country on earth, is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation 2022. The holiday (only for federal civil servants who vote Liberal) was instituted last year by Blackie McBlackface, Prime Minister of All Canuckistan.

It is a day on which White Canadians are supposed to reflect on, and do penance for) all the evils which the racist colonialists perpetrated on their Little Red Brothers, including one of my favourite characters from the history of the settlement of the West -- Low, the Poor Indian.

The creation of a new woke holiday was prompted by the "discovery" in 2021 of a "mass grave" of more than 200 Indian First Nations (indigenous) children allegedly detected at the Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia. The school was run by a Roman Catholic order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, under an agreement with the Canadian government.

"We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify. To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths," said Rosanne Casimir, chief of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc. The band called the discovery, "Le Estcwicwéy̓", meaning "the missing."

In an article headed "The biggest fake news story in Canada", the New York Post said: What’s still missing, however, according to a number of Canadian academics, is proof of the remains in the ground. Since last year’s announcement, there have been no excavations at Kamloops nor any dates set for any such work to commence. Nothing has been taken out of the ground so far, according to a Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc spokesman.

It doesn't matter. All right-thinking, progressive (and White) Canucks -- and Americans too -- know that the indigenous peoples of North America were treated badly by the settlers who came across the big waters in their big canoes. Mistakes were made. Apologies have been tendered again and again. All that's needed now is... errr... reparations. 

Nor is the drive to right the wrongs of the past anything new. We've been told for three decades now to stop referring to indigenous peoples are "Indians" and "Eskimos". Sports teams may no longer be called "Redskins" or "Braves", let alone "Indians". And lovable mascots like Chief Wahoo have been "disappeared", replaced with mere letters.

Political correctness has triumphed. Even the way we talk about and talk to indigenous people has changed, as witness this 1993 episode of Seinfeld, titled "The Cigar Store Indian". 

     

Got it? Now go out and find an... errr... find somebody to apologize to. 

Footnote: Since I know all our male readers are wondering, the good-looking POC "Winona" was played by Kimberly Norris Guerrero, who is, in fact, an... errrr....

Agent 3 writes about mass murder in Saskatchewan

Ed. here. Agent 3, who worked for a short while in northeastern Saskatchewan, where, last Sunday, 11 people were stabbed to death (and another 19 wounded) by one man, shares a few thoughts.

In 2017, on the occasion of Canada's sesiquicentennial, the Liberal government declared that "First Nations" -- the people who used to be called "Indians" -- were the rightful owners of the land, and much better people than the white colonialists who built the country up from nothing to one of the top five in the United Nations Human Development Index.

The fact that many of the First Nations lived in poverty on "reserves" in rural areas, rife with unemployment and alcoholism was, the Liberals told us, the fault of us racist white supremacists. We were guilty, guilty, guilty, they told us, of taking Indian children away from their homes, putting them in prison-like residential schools, and trying to make them into white men and women.

So the First Nations became permanent "flavours of the month", forever victims, about whom nothing negative could ever be said, and whose entitlement to the land (and every sort of benefit) was to be proclaimed at the start of every public meeting or ceremony, including hockey games.

Just over 40 years ago I lived and worked for a short time -- it seemed much longer -- amongst the Indians (that word was OK then, so I'll just keep using it) in northeastern Saskatchewan, trying to reconcile their culture with white man's law -- a very difficult task. In those days, life on the "rez" (reserve) was nasty, brutish and short. Seems like it hasn't changed a lot since then.

I refer, in particular, to the James Smith Cree Nation, northeast of Prince Albert, where, last Sunday, a 30-year-old man named Myles Sanderson ran amok, repeatedly stabbing some 30 people, 11 of whom died. They were all Indians, except for one elderly white man who was killed in the village of Weldon, about 20 miles from the rez. 

One of those slain was Damien Sanderson, on the left in the pictures displayed by the Mounties. Damien was Myles' brother, and was initially believed to be his accomplice in a folie à deux.

Exactly what transpired between Myles and Damien Sanderson will never be known, because Myles  died of unknown causes while he was in police custody shortly after being arrested near Rosthern yesterday afternoon. The Mounties had rammed the stolen pickup truck which Myles was driving, pushing it into a ditch, but witnesses said Myles appeared to be alive when loaded onto a stretcher.

Police investigations continue but of course there will be no trial. Many people are saying, even now, that Myles Sanderson got what he deserved, even if the "justice" was administered by the cops rather than the courts. After all, he had already been "dealt with according to the law" many times before. 

He had been in prison -- the Saskatchwan pen is conveniently located at Prince Albert -- more than once. He was once sent to a "healing lodge", to get straightened out in the Indian way. And then back to prison. At the time when Myles went on the rampage, he was on statutory release, meaning he'd done his time and they had to let him go.

Yet the woke politicians and liberal media are already trying to portray Myles Sanderson as the victim! After all, he was an Indian, so whatever he did, whatever happened to him, had to be the fault of white society!

Like many of his peers, he was a hopeless alcoholic and drug addict. That's the white man's fault because drugs and booze were brought to the Indians by white men centuries ago. Although he was never sent to a residential school, just as American blacks are still suffering because their ancestors were slaves, everyone knows that the adverse effects on the psyche can be handed down through the generations.

The Liberal party line is that we white folks have a duty to make things right with the Indians. If they're going to heal, we have to heal them! How? By making life on the rez better -- building houses for them, paving the roads, and (of course) giving still more money for "community projects" and other types of welfare.

My question is: how do you help those who can't or won't help themselves? If getting educated, working hard, and striving to improve your lot in life are "white virtues", then I would suggest that the residential schools were not wrong to try to inculcate those virtues into the children placed in their care. I could go on, but political correctness forbids.... 

Was it something we said? YouTube censorship strikes again

Long before dawn yesterday, we posted a funny video, "Indian soccer play-by-play... nuts!!!", which showed a soccer playing colliding with a goalpost and hurting a sensitive part of his anatomy, as described by an east Indian commentator in the manner of speaking peculiar to people from the Bombay area. It was, in Walt's humble opinion, LOL funny. 

Apparently some viewers -- not readers of WWW, we'd like to think -- rattled YouTube's chain, for the video became "unavailable" on WWW within mere hours of our reposting it. Now here's the crazy thing. The video, which was not Walt's creation or property, is still there on YouTube! See? 

      

So we ask ourselves, who complained about whom? Could it be that some snowflake complained not about the video offending their tender sensibilities by provoking laughter at Indian speech mannerisms, but about our reposting it?! 

How could it be? Did we do something politically incorrect by laughing? Wasn't that what the creator of the video wanted us to do? Or did we somehow promote racism etc etc by sharing the video with our readers? Is a puzzlement!

Whatever we did to offend the Masters of the Metaverse, we are certainly very sorry. Oh my goodness, yes! And we promise never to do it again, good sirs, if you will but tell us wherein we have offended. And to all those who think calling attention to the very real differences between people is not funny... many good lucks to you, by Jove! 

VIDEO BOOK REVIEW: Mark Milke explains the "victim culture"

What follows is not my own review. Ms Prim Blue-Stocking, head librarian of the Fort Mudge Library, has become "woke", and refuses to buy any books which she deems "controversial", i.e. dissenting from the prevailing liberal orthodoxy. So here's the Goodreads summary of The Victim Cult: How the culture of blame hurts everyone and wrecks civilizations, by Mark Milke (Thomas & Black, 2019).

No one disputes that some people are victims... of others, accidents, and life. But we also all know someone who thinks like a victim. The Victim Cult is about such people—who play the victim card—but multiplied by millions, where people and societies become stuck blaming others. 

The Victim Cult looks at the worldwide grievance culture from American college students to some Canadian indigenous leaders and on to Donald Trump. It also details the tragic historical consequences when victim narratives go viral and destroy entire societies and civilizations.

The Victim Cult also chronicles the refusal of some who were victimized to get stuck there, with the rise of Asian Americans over 150 years as a positive example. 

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more! Mark Milke appeared yesterday on The Andrew Lawton Show to discuss the new Canadian edition of his book. In this wide-ranging interview, he and Mr Lawton talk about identity politics, cultural appropriation, and the left's blame game.

 

The Victim Cult is available in both paperback and Kindle [Wozzat? Ed.] formats, on Amazon and other outlets... if not in your local library!

VIDEO: Canuck PM promotes "truth and reconciliation"... on holiday!

A couple of years before Canada's sesquicentennial [Look it up. Ed.], the Liberal government of Blackie McBlackface "woke" to the narrative that white Canadians had been beastly to the First Nations -- the Peoples Formerly Known as Indians & Eskimos -- ever since "First Contact". "We" must do something, they told the other Canadian sheeple, to make amends for hundreds of years of racism and genocide!

Just before M Trudeau got elected in October of 2015, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up by the previous racist government of Steven Harpoon released an executive summary of its findings along with 94 "calls to action" regarding reconciliation Indigenous peoples and "old stock Canadians". Mr Socks promised to take all this very seriously and swore that this time, Something Would Be Done.

That December, he TRC concluded its work with the publication of a multi-volume final report that concluded that Canada's system of "Indian residential schools", in particular, amounted to cultural genocide. Not much notice was taken until this spring, when the remains of 215 children were uncovered in unmarked burial sites on the site of the Kamloops (BC) Indian Residential School. The SJWs and woke media leapt concluded that the residential schools were guilty of not just "cultural genocide" but physical genocide!

With the prospect of another election looming, Canada's chief virtue-signaller sprang into action, ordering the maple leaf flags flown on all government buildings to be lowered to half-staff**. Every woke organization, whether in the public or private sector followed suit, so today you rarely see a Canadian flag flying from the top of the pole. And now that the election is over, M Trudeau says the flags will remain lowered until the Indigenous leaders say it's OK to raise them again.

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more! Just before calling the election held just finished, Emperor Trudeau II decreed that September 30th would henceforth be a holiday -- National Truth and Reconciliation Day -- to be observed by the federal government and all its agencies (like Canada Post and the CBC) and all federally-regulated organizations, including many large private-sector institutions, such as banks.

Canadians were ordered not to treat the day as a time to relax and enjoy some time off, but as an occasion for remembrance, reflection and (of course) repentance for all the wrongs done to Indigenous peoples over the years. Such as paved roads, electric power, literacy -- the list goes on. Ceremonies, including the now-obligatory land acknowledgment ceremony, were held at city halls, residential school sites and other appropriate places across the land.

Progressive politicians of all stripes performed the ritual grovel, looking solemn and promising to do more for the First Nations. That was understood by all to mean even bigger cash handouts, since it is well known that nothing assuages hurt feelings better than "reparations". 

Somewhere around mid-day yesterday, Global TV noticed that M Trudeau had not been seen since his appearance at a ceremony in Ottawa the previous night. Where was he? His daily itinerary initially stated he was in "private meetings" in Ottawa, but was later updated to note he was actually in, errr, the resort town of Tofino BC, "spending time with family for a few days."

Not to worry though, a spokesthingy told CBC News (which ran the story, with comments closed, only this morning). "Following his participation in last night's ceremony marking the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, he is speaking today with residential school survivors from across the country." Speaking. On the phone. Not face to face.

Lynne Groulx, CEO of the Native Women's Association of Canada, told CBC News that it was "quite upsetting" that the prime minister would travel on this specific day. "This is a government that has said Indigenous people are [the] most important priority for the government and that action … does not match the words," she said. "So that's very inappropriate, in my view, for the prime minister." Trudeau, she said, should be "the one who is leading this reconciliation process." 

Walt is reminded of one of the funniest bits ever done on Seinfeld. In these scenes, Jerry -- no racist he! -- tries to convince Elaine's Native American friend that he really doesn't recognize any difference between Native Americans and other Americans.

   

M Trudeau used to be a drama teacher, or so his rather thin résumé said when he first ran for election. Wonder if he coached Jerry for this performance.

** FOOTNOTE: You will often see and hear "journalists" refer to the lowering of flags to half the height of the pole as "lowering them to half-mast". That term is only correct when the "pole" is the mast of a ship. When it's a flagpole on land or a building, the correct term is "half-staff". And while we're at it, the correct protocol for this action is to raise the flag to the top of the staff first, then lower it to half-way down.

Canadian residential school deaths: a calm look at the facts

Ed. here. At the risk of sounding like a Canadian, I'm going to start with a disclaimer (and apology, of sorts). Canadians have been agonizing for decades now about what to call the indigenous people who have inhabited the Great White North for 1000s of years. Names like "Indians" and "Eskimos" are no longer politically correct. 

In fact, the football team formerly known as the Edmonton Eskimos announced just a few days ao that it will now be called the "Elks". The people known as Eskimos would prefer to be called Inuit, so that's easy. But the people we called "Indians", wishing to avoid the stigma of being taken for south Asians [??? Ed.], can't decide if they want to be called "First Nations" or "Dene" or "Aboriginal" or "Indigenous" or just "the people". So in this article, I'm going to stick with "Indians" because this is about what were called "Indian residential schools". 

Last week, the remains of 215 children were uncovered in unmarked burial sites on the site of the Kamloops (BC) Indian Residential School. The school was established in 1890 and from 1892 run by a Roman Catholic order of religious, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. It was once the largest residential school in Canada, with its enrolment peaking at 500 in the 1950s. 

It was in operation until 1969, when it was taken over by the federal government to be used as a day school residence. It closed in 1978. The school building still stands today, and is located on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation. 

It should be noted that the first such residential school had opened almost 60 years earlier, in Brantford ON. A handful of schools run by mostly Protestant missionary groups had been established even before that. In 1847, Egerton Ryerson, superintendent of schools in Upper Canada (today's Ontario), wrote a report recommending the establishment of residential schools for Aboriginal students in the province. Methodist missionaries established a number of such schools in southern Ontario in the 1850s. Other schools were opened in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories in the 1860s.

Following Confederation, the Canadian government became more involved in residential schools, but since education was left to the provinces under the Constitution, the federal government left the operation of such schools to various churches. About 70% of them were run by Roman Catholic orders, with the remainder being looked after by Protestants. 

According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), a body set up in 2015 to investigate these schools, they were boarding schools for Indigenous children, that didn’t exist just to teach them school subjects, but "primarily to break their link to their culture and identity."

Sir John A. Macdonald, the anti-French, anti-Catholic, racist drunk who became Canada's first prime minister, had this to say. "When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. 

"It has been strongly pressed on myself, as the head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men."

In other words, the aim of Sir John Eh was to turn Indian kids into "apples" -- red on the outside and white on the inside.  

According to TRC reports, at least 150,000 Indian, Inuit and Métis children passed through the residential school system. They were separated from their families, forbidden from speaking their own language or engaging in their cultural practices. In addition to attending class, students at many schools had to perform chores to maintain the school and even sometimes do farm work to feed the school.

Many were mistreated and abused, physically and sexually. Students were often malnourished or underfed, and lived in poor housing conditions that threatened their safety. Infectious diseases like tuberculosis and influenza often ran rampant among the students, leading to many deaths. 

The TRC identified 3,200 deaths as part of its investigation. They note that indigenous children in residential schools died at far higher rates than other Canadian children, even for the time. Many children died from infectious diseases (notably tuberculosis), fires in school buildings, suicide, drowning, and other accidents.

All too often, the schools and/or government failed to record students' names, gender, or even the cause of death. The deaths themselves were often unrecorded. Some students got sick and were sent home, where they later died. Métis students whose attendance at school wasn't funded by the federal government but who may have died there were not counted.

In its report, the TRC lamented that "due to the limitations in the records, it is probable that there are many student deaths that have not been recorded in the register because the record of the death has not yet been located. Most of these children died far from home, and often without their families being adequately informed of the circumstances of death or the place of burial."

Children who died at school were likely buried at the school, or in nearby municipal or church cemeteries. Some of these locations are known and the cemeteries still maintained, but some are not. As the TRC wrote, "For the most part, the cemeteries that the Commission documented are abandoned, disused, and vulnerable to accidental disturbance."

Such as the case at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. People had known and spoken for years about the existence of a graveyard, but until this year no-one had looked for it. Disturbing though it is, the discovery of the site is disturbing, but not unique. Nor is it evidence of an unspeakable atrocity. It is not one mass grave, but a hiterto undiscovered burial site. That's all.

For that reason, it is unhelpful for the usual gang of virtue-signalling politicians, SJWs and members of the human rights industry to use words like "genocide", and demand apologies -- not to mention "reparations" -- from the Roman Catholic Church and its supposed pope, as if they bear sole responsibility for acts and omissions of decades ago.

The Most Rev. Thomas Collins, Cardinal Archbishop of Toronto, expressed his sorrow in a statement released on June 3rd. Yesterday he told the CBC's Rosie Barton [naturally. Ed.] that the archived records of the OMI had always been available, so it was "unhelpful" for the Prime Minister of Canuckistan (who supports abortion but claims to be a Catholic) to threaten to take the Church to court to obtain production of those documents. 

In response, Carolyn Bennett, who carries Mr Socks's bags on "Crown-Indigenous Relations", told Cacklin' Rosie that it was "unhelpful for Cardinal Collins to call Mr Trudeau's statement 'unhelpful'." Expect more such name-calling, finger-pointing, virtue-signalling and scape-goating in the weeks to come. It's the Canadian way.

Footnote: Yesterday, a mob of iconoclasts ["mostly preaceful protesters", shurely! Ed.] succeeded in pulling down the statue of Egerton Ryerson which stood in front of the Toronto university named after him. It is rumoured that there may have been one or two Indians in the mob. 

A few days earlier, the city council of Charlottetown PEI caved to the pressure and removed the statue pictured in "What's wrong with this picture?", WWW 11/5/21. When it comes to promoting "truth and reconciliation", such actions seem to me "unhelpful"!

Anus horribilis 2020: Noted in passing (Sports... well, Hockey)

Ed. here. 2020 is almost over, thank God, truly an Annus Horribilis if ever there was one. (I know my Latin but Walt insists on leaving the headline as he wrote it.) Here is the final (no kidding) segment of our yearend review, saying farewell to some people in the sports and music fields -- really just subsets of the entertainment field -- who deserve a final tip of the toque.

We're going to do sports first, which for us means hockey. Is there any other sport? Poor Len Canayen already weighed in with his Sports Highlight of the Year, but that wasn't an obituary, so over to you, Len to tell us about... well, you tell it. 

Tank youse, Walt. A number of NHL players, past and present, died this year. Some were famous, some not. Among the latter was Fred Sasakamoose, who died on 24 November 2020 at the age of 86, five days after being hospitalized with Covid-19. 

Fred toiled in the minor leagues for six or seven years, playing just one season for the NHL Chicago Blackhawks. He appeared in just 11 games in the 1953-54 season, taking 6 minutes in penalties and scoring 0 goals and 0 assists -- 0 points in all.

So why is the passing of Fred Sasakamoose worthy of note? Well sir, he was the first First Nations (Americans read: Native American) player to suit up for an NHL team, and that was back in the `50s, before anyone heard of indigenous rights or diversity. And before SJWs started demanding that the Chicago team change their name and lose Chief Blackhawk from their logo.

That's what the NHL says, but real hockey fans will ask: What about George Armstrong, who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs for two games in 1949-50, and again for a remarkable 20 seasons, 1951-71. I always thought "the Big Chief" was an Indian (as we called them in those politically incorrect days), but the distinction seems to be that he was not a treaty Indian, whereas Sasakamoose was born in Debden SK which is the headquarters of the Big River Cree First Nations band government. That makes him an "official" First Nations person.

No matter. Hockey was pretty much a white man's game in those days and it wouldn't have been easy for Sasakamoose (or Armstrong) to be accepted and travel with his team to places like, say, New York or Boston. But he did it, and inspired others to follow in his footsteps... errr, skate grooves. Well done. 

Regular readers of WWW will know that Walt and I [and Ed.! Ed.] are huge fans of Canada's team, the Montréal Canadiens. Henri Richard, one of the greatest players ever to wear la Sainte Flannelle passed away on 6 March 2020. 

He was called "the Pocket Rocket" because he was the younger brother of the legendary Maurice "Rocket" Richard. Some said he was drafted by the Habs because of the family connection, but he proved the skeptics wrong, starring with les Glorieux for the entirety of his 20-season professional career. He won 11 Stanley Cups as a player, the most in the history of not just the Canadiens but the entire National Hockey League. 

In the league's centennial year of 2017, both Richards were named among "the 100 Greatest NHL Players" of all time. Henri shared the ice with many of the Canadiens' greatest stars: Jean Béliveau, Jacques Plante, Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion and Dickie Moore. He succeeded Béliveau as the Habs' captain in 1971. 

Other than the Canadiens' junior team, Henri Richard never played for another team during his career. "Because of the age difference, I didn't think it would be possible but I played with my brother for five years [1955-1960]," he told the Hockey Hall of Fame. "Maurice used to say that if I hadn't been there, he wouldn't have played that long. Some people say it was destiny, but I just think I was in the right place at the right time. That was a great team. There were so many great hockey players. I wouldn't have said it before, but now that it's all over, I thought winning like that was normal."

And so it was, during those glory years. It is the success of the Canadiens of Henri Richard's era, and of the Pocket Rocket himself, that gives us here at WWW hope for the future. Maybe this year will see the Stanley Cup return to Canada after a long absence. That would make Henri happy. His brother too.

VIDEO: Walt recommends a soap opera. Really? Yes, really!

In case you missed it [and we're betting you did. Ed.], 2017 was the Year of the Indian in Canada. Except it wasn't called that, because there are no more Indians in Canada, except the millions who have immigrated in recent years. [Don't go there. Ed.] In Canada, the people who used to be called "Indians" are now referred to in PC-speak as "First Nations". Terms such as "aboriginal people" and "indigenous people" are also PC, but include the indigenes formerly known as "Eskimos", so "First Nations" it shall be. 

Anyway... 2017, the 150th anniversary of Confederation, was the year in which the goveernment of Canuckistan (Just In Trudeau, Prop.) decided to make a big show of grovelling in repentance over the shameful treatment of the First Nations perpetrated by the British colonialists over the preceding two centuries. There were profuse apologies, acknowledgment ceremonies in which the stealing of the First Nations' lands was acknowledged, and the obligatory inclusion of First Nations representatives in all the other foofarawa that marked the Sesquicentenary.

That moment has passed. 2020 is the year of the Blacks, with a capital "B". But one thing that endured was the pressure to do more for/with First Nations in the greater society. M Trudeau now has two (2) cabinet ministers charged with keeping the natives from becoming too restless. And the Canadian Broadcorping Castration now features an "Indigenous" tab on its propagands ["news", shurely! Ed.] website.

OK, OK... It's easy to make fun of the CBC (aka CNN North), but from time to time they present some worthwhile programmes. Back in the 90s, before patronizing the First Nations was popular or profitable, they produced North of 60, a "mystery drama series" -- OK, a soap opera -- about the trials and tribulations of aboriginal people in the fictional town of Lynx River, Northwest Territories.

Depicting life in the sub-Arctic northern boreal forest (north of 60° north latitude, hence the title), it first aired on CBC in 1992 and ran through 1997. Lynx River is a primarily First Nations-run village depicted as being in the Dehcho Region, although it was actually shot in and around Bragg Creek AB, west of Calgary. The show explored themes of native poverty, alcoholism, cultural preservation, conflict over land settlements, and natural resource exploitation.

Most of the characters were Dené (a group of First Nations who live in the region), as were the actors who portrayed them. Some non-native characters had important roles: the restaurant/motel owner, the band manager, the nurse and (in the first season) the town's main RCMP officer. That's the way it is in real life, in that part of the world.

The star of the series (as it turned out) was Tina Keeper, who played RCMP Constable (later Corporal) Michelle Kenidi. Tom Jackson played Michelle's brother Peter, the band chief (most of time). The villain of piece, Albert Golo (bootlegger, then band chief), was played by veteran actor Gordon Tootoosis, who should have got an award of some kind.

The "youth interest" was suppied by Dakota House as Trevor 'Teevee' Tenia (teen trouble-maker, then band chief). First Nations people, every one of them. Other First Nations in the cast were: Jimmy Herman as Joe Gomba (elder), Willene Tootoosis (Gordon's daughter) as Lois Tenia (Teevee's mother), Columpa Bobb as Mary Cook (the native nurse, in conflict with the white nurse), and Henry Standing Alone (that's a real Alberta name!) as Sam Kizha. Wilma Pelly was a fan favourite, played Elsie Tsa Che, Teevee's grandmother, a community elder.

Yes, there were white people, notably John Oliver, who played RCMP Corporal Eric Olsen during the show's first two seasons. He left the show when his off-screen relationship with Tina Keeper went south (no pun intended), and was replaced by Robert Bockstael as Corporal Brian Fletcher, who in turn was replaced later by Peter Kelly Gaudreault as Constable James Harper.

Tracey Cook played Sarah Birkett, the white nurse who somehow never quite fit in to the community, in spite of a disastrous relationship with Albert Golo. Lubomir Mykytiuk played Gerry Kisilenko, who ran the motel/restaurant/general store. In spite of his Ukrainian heritage, he couldn't do the accent that would have made him seem "more real", at least to me. Same for Yvan Ponton, who played RCMP, who played Inspector Fortier, who appeared every now and then to set everyone back on the right path. Not a sympathetic character in the lot.

That's enough cast list. How about a sample? Here's Season 3, Episode 9, entitled "The Gift".

   

After North of 60 ended in 1997, five made-for-TV movies were made, featuring various members of the show's recurring cast. They were: In The Blue Ground (1999), Trial by Fire (2000), Dream Storm (2001), Another Country (2003), and Distant Drumming (2005).

The movies and the entire six seasons of the show are in perpetual rerun on APTN (the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, available in Canada), and most of the TV shows have now appeared on YouTube. If you like what you've seen, click here to go to the YouTube playlist for all the episodes of Season 3.

M-103 in force! Ontario school councillor fired for questioning special rules for Muslims during Covid-19 "crisis"

As mentioned here before (click the "M-103" tag below to find previous posts) the Democratic Republic of Canuckistan has a quasi-law -- more of a "suggestion" passed by the Liberal-dominated Parliament, you see -- requiring people to say only nice things, not negative things, about members of different "faith communities". Especially Muslims... Islam being the only "faith community" specifically mentioned.

In Brampton ON, a mixed (South Asian and black) ghetto northwest of Toronto, a school councillor has lost his position after posting what has been called an "Islamophobic" tweet. Ravi Hooda, who, errr, not a Muslim, a real estate agent and a school council chair, was fired from the latter position yesterday after tweeting a reply to Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, who announced in April that an amendment to the city's anti-noise bylaw would allow mosques to play the Muslim call to prayer on speakers five times per day during Ramadan. This is what Mr Hooda wrote:

Having the temerity to point out some of the "diversity" to which other members of the community object turned out to be a Big CLM (career-limiting move) for the unfortunate Mr Hooda. The Peel District School Board say the post was disturbing and said he will no longer be able to serve on or participate in the school council in any capacity. He has also lost his position with RE/MAX, but, as far as we know, still has his real estate licence. Should he set up his own brokerage, he will surely get lots of listings from people worried about what's happening to their `hood. In Brampton, it seems, diversity is not considered a community's strength!

Further reading:
"Why the mosque loudspeaker request makes little sense", by Farzana Hassan [What part of Ireland is she from? Ed.] in the Toronto Sun, 7/5/20.
"Brampton a ghetto? How can they say that?", WWW 13/6/16.

Footnote and correction: Agent 2 [Where ya been, Two? Ed.] e-mailed Walt to say that the school in question is Macville Public School in Caledon ON, not Brampton, as reported by the Toronto media. Caledon is immediately north of Brampton and until lately has been a pretty white community. [You can read that with a comma, if you wish. Ed.] But the times they are a-changin'...

"Me heap sorry!" - Fauxcahontas apologizes to Cherokees

Anxious to make everything right as she tries to kick her campaign for the presidensity into second gear [first, shurely! Ed.], Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), aka Fauxcahontas, has issued an apology to the Cherokee Nation for taking a DNA test which she said proved she has indigenous heritage... well, a tiny bit, anyway... 1/1024th... maybe....

Ms Warren took the test in October after President Trump had mocked her for years over her assertion she has Native American ancestry, calling her "fake Pocahontas" at political rallies. The test revealed that the pale face indeed hid a Native-American thread in her DNA, though the ancestor probably lived six to ten generations ago.

The Indians [Native Americans, shurely! Ed.] assert that DNA proves nothing. A spokesthingy for Cherokee Nation told the meeja today that "being a Cherokee Nation tribal citizen is rooted in centuries of culture and laws not through DNA tests."

However, the spokesthingy said, "Senator Warren has reached out to us and has apologized to the tribe.... We are encouraged by her action and hope that the slurs and mockery of tribal citizens and Indian history and heritage will come to an end."

You sorry, so everything OK. You betcha. Go hunt Republicans with bow and arrow. Ugh.

VIDEO: Banned in Canada - how come?

Here's a modern remake of an old country and western number, "Squaws Along the Yukon", first recorded in 1960 by Hank Thompson. This version was recorded by The Indians (with Noel Brady singing lead) which is actually an Irish show band, still going strong.

Evidently phrases like "cultural appropriation" and "political correctness" haven't reached Eire yet, but they sure have reached Canada (Emperor Trudeau II, Prop.) where the NPCs and SJWs succeeded in getting the Canuck Broadcast Standards Council to ban it from the airwaves. Here are the lyrics. What's wrong with that?

The words which the PC police now find offensive are slang words from "north of 60" which have been in use since the 19th century and are still to be found in complete dictionaries of Canadian English. Some of them are now regarded as unsuitable for use in polite company -- like the N-word -- but hey, it's only a song. What's next? Pretty soon we won't be able to sing "Old Folks at Home" because it includes the word "darkies". Oh... wait...



Walt wishes to give Agent 5 a feather for his headdress for drawing this to our attention. Unfortunately 5 sent the news to an old e-mail address, so it didn't reach us until just now, when Ed. was tidying up our databases. 5, do ye likewise, and Happy New Year!

Walt wishes Senator Warren good luck running for President!

The ladies who blab at The View and the lamestream media generally are gushing [Please don't go for a cheap joke... yet! Ed.] over reports that Senator Elizabeth Warren has formed an exploratory committee to see if it would be feasible to throw her headdress in the ring for the presidensity of the Excited States of America in 2020. She would presumably be vying for the Democratic nomination, along with at least a dozen other presidential wannabes including Senator Bernie Sanders [Isn't he an Independent, again? Ed.] and Senator Camela Harris. But Ms Warren is the first to announce, and that oughta count for something, right?

Senator Warren became a darling of the left in 2011 when she appeared in a viral video in which she defended federal taxes, which she spoke of as a form of "social responsibility", against the efforts of the newly-elected Republican majority in the House of Representatives to resist the efforts of the Prez [Who? Ed.] to raise taxes as an alternative to cutting out-of-control federal spending.

Before entering the Senate, Ms Warren had a job teaching bankruptcy law at Harvard. Her appointment had something to do with the university's affirmative action programme, but we'll come to that in a minute. In the aftermath of the financial meltdown of 2008, she was named by Guess Who to chair the Congressional Oversight Panel which oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the government's trillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street.

Sadly for Ms Warren, her reach exceeded her grasp. She jumped the shark [for the first time? Ed.] when she proposed the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency that lacked congressional oversight, and which many conservatives contended was established in violation of the Constitution. Republicans in Congress blocked her appointment to lead the new agency, but she rose, phoenix-like, from the ashes of that defeat to become a Senator from Massatushetts.

During her campaign for the Senate, it was discovered that Ms Warren had somewhat overstated her claims of Cherokee heritage, made at a time when Harvard Law School was under severe pressure to hire and promote female and minority faculty members. Critics took to calling her "Pocahontas", after the famous 17th-century daughter of an Indian chief and a popular figure in American history and pop culture.

Donald Trump stuck the "Pocahontas" appellation on her during the 2016 presidential campaign and she has worn it, along with "Fauxcahontas" and "Focahontas" ever since. Obviously stung by suggestions that she was guilty of cultural appropriation [at least! Ed.], Senator Warren took a DNA test a few months ago, and thought it not unwise to publish the results showing that she might have 1/1024 Native American ancestry. (Apparently there aren't enough full-blood Indians in the database to give reliable result.)

Though Senator Warren and her supporters touted the results as proof of her family lore, critics noted that it may actually have proven the opposite, since she had no more Native American ancestry than a typical white American like, for instance, Joy Behar. Being a charitable person, Walt accepts Ms Warren's claim for what it's worth, and wishes her well in her quest to run against President Trump. Anyone wishing to place money on the outcome of a Trump-Warren race should contact me at the usual address. Your dollar gets 1000 of mine if Focahontas wins. Lifetime pct .989.

Soap opera review: "North of 60"

And now for something completely different... I've been meaning for some time to write about North of 60, a soap opera ["mystery drama series", please. Ed.] about the joys and trials of life in the fictional village of Lynx River, in Canada's Northwest Territories. Agent 3 spent "an eternity" (actually six months) working amongst the native people in that general area and recommended the show, on which I'm now hooked.

Please note that in this post I'll use the abbreviation "FN" to refer to the people Americans and Canadians used to call "Indians", before that term became politically incorrect. "FN" stands for "First Nations" which is what the indigenous people north of the border want to be called, in preference to "Native Canadians" or "aborigines" or anything else. Except of course for the Métis and Inuit, the people formerly known as "Eskimos". [That's enough political correctness. Ed.]

North of 60 originally aired on Canada's state-owned broadcaster, the CBC, from 1992 through 1997. Apart from props like a fax machine, it's still a pretty accurate depiction of an FN settlement in the sub-Arctic northern boreal forest -- north of 60° north latitude, hence the title. The settlement of Lynx River, in an FN reserve (= what Americans call a "reservation") is supposedly in the Dehcho Region of Canada's Northwest Territories. In fact the series was filmed in Bragg Creek AB, west of Calgary.

Lynx River is populated and managed mostly by FNs, with the help of a white manager, one or two white healthcare workers, and a white Mountie who has a FN partner, Michelle Kenidi (played by Tina Keeper), who is the star of the show.

Created by Wayne Grigsby and Barbara Samuels, North of 60 was originally positioned as a light-hearted show, the CBC's answer to Northern Exposure on CBS. Everyone knows Canucks can't do sitcoms [They're great at sketch comedy though. Ed.], so the show quickly became a drama (although it has its funny moments), exploring themes of poverty, alcoholism, cultural preservation, conflict over land settlements, and the exploitation of natural resources. Mixed in with all that are the greed, jealousy, anger, passion and other traits share by human beings of every colour.

In the picture above are some of the main characters -- six FNs, two whities:
Top row: Peter Bockstael as Corporal Brian Fletcher, the white Mountie; Tina Keeper; Tracey Cook as Sarah Birkett, a nurse in the first season, who marries the chief, Albert Golo, with disastrous consequences; Tom Jackson, as Peter Kenidi, Michelle's brother and later band chief.
Bottom row: Gordon Tootoosis, as Albert Golo, the villain of the piece, who makes J.R. Ewing look like a mischievous boy; Jimmy Hermon as Joe Gomba, a wise elder; Dakota House as Trevor 'Tee Vee' Tenia, the obnoxious smart-aleck who matures well; Wilma Pelly as Elsie Tsa Che, Tee Vee's wise and kind grandma.

Other characters included Lubomir Mykytiuk, a Ukrainian-Canadian, as Gerry Kisilenko (restaurant/general store/ motel owner), Simon R. Baker as Charlie Muskrat (young boy experiencing growing pains), and Michael Horse, as Andrew One Sky, an American Indian psychologist and counsellor who eventually gets into a relationship with Michelle Kenidi. Adam Beach and Tantoo Cardinal also appeared, and a large number of FNs round out the cast. Check IMDb for full lists of cast and credits.

Throughout its six-year run, the acting in North of 60 was well above average, and sometimes (Gordon Tootoosis, Tina Keeper and Dakota House) excellent. Almost all of the FNs are credible without playing to stereotypes. And why not? They don't have to act; they're just being themselves! Wilma Pelly quickly became a fan favourite because everyone, not just FNs, has a grandma like that.

The exception, IMHO, is Michael Horse. Perhaps being of mixed ancestry -- he's of Yaqui-Apache-Swedish-Hispanic descent -- explains it. He comes across as the "noble savage", not just smarter and better-educated than the others but better-looking too... and knows it. Really he just warmed up his character from The Legend of the Lone Ranger.

Other actors who fell short of the mark -- IMHO again -- Tracey Cook and Lubomir Mykytiuk. Like Mr Horse, Ms Cook is too good to be true. Or maybe I should say the role is improbable at best. What would a blonde, blue-eyed ice queen be doing up there in the back of beyond, in a place where she had to build her own house out of canvas, brush and logs? Just not believable. As for Mr Mykytiuk, his English is just too perfect. Not one "Yak she mash!" But that's just MHO... again.

In spite of a few flaws in the characterization and acting, it's possible for even a non-Northerner to relate to all the characters. Agent 3 says North of 60 looks, sounds and feels "pretty authentic". Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's a thriller, and sometimes it's a whodunnit. But always it shows real people with real problems and real emotions, struggling to get on with life in hard circumstances. I give it ***** (five stars).

North of 60 is still on TV, airing every day on Canada's APTN (Aboriginal People's Television Network). You can also find bits and pieces by searching YouTube, although watching isolated episodes is not as good as binge-watching a whole bunch, in order, because, hey, it's a soap opera! You might also try Showcase or other streaming services.

Footnotes:
Tina Keeper served one term as Member of Parliament for the riding of Churchill -- the land where the polar bears roam. She was elected in 2006 as the Liberal Party candidate, and served as the Official Opposition's Critic for Public Health and Canadian Heritage and as Special Advisor for Aboriginal Outreach. She was defeated in the 2008 general election.
Gordon Tootoosis was made a Member of the Order of Canada on 29 October 29 2004. His citation recognizes him as an inspirational role model for Aboriginal youth. It notes that as a veteran actor, he portrayed memorable characters in movie and television productions in Canada and the United States. He died on 5 July 2011.

VIDEO: Trump will pay $1 million if "Pocahantas" proves she's an Indian

This morning we've got a really great video clip from the campaign trail. Speaking at a campaign rally in Montana yesterday, President Trump unveiled the "secret" debate tactic which he'll use against Democratic presidential challenger Senator Elizabeth Warren in the unlikely event he goes mano-a-mano with her in the 2020 presidential electioni. Ms Warren has repeatedly claimed to be of Native American [formerly "Indian". Ed.] heritage, and parlayed her self-proclaimed minority heritage into a tenured position as a professor at Harvard Law School. But there is no credible evidence, documentary or genetic, that supports Senator Warren's claim, which is why POTUS delights in calling her "Pocahontas". Here's the clip.



Breitbart News broke the story of Ms Warren's dubious claim in 2012. The Native American wannabe dreamed up her ancestry for inclusion in the Pow Wow Chow Cookbook -- not kidding about that title -- published in 1984. All the documentary evidence produced since then shows that her Native American heritage is exactly zero percent (0%).

However, since no-one called her on it, Ms Warren began listing herself as a minority in the 1986-1987 Association of American Law Schools Directory of Faculty, a claim she continued to make in that publication until the mid-90s. Thus she was able to rise from her gig at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, to a full-time, tenured position as a professor at Harvard Law School in 1995. And come election time, who could help but vote for a HLS professor? Shows you the power of a well-written résumé!

Walt hopes Senator Warren gets the Democratic nomination in 2020. I pledge, God helping me, to stay alive and awake for the debate, just to see President Trump do this. I've already made the popcorn, which I'll pop into the freezer [Geddit? Ed.] until then.

In Canada, everyone has a chance to be Irish

I could be wrong [It's happened before! Ed.] but I suppose many Canadians will remember Robert O'Billovich. Nicknamed "Bobby O" or "Obie", or more often just plain "Bob", Mr O'Billovich has been something of a fixture in the Canadian Football League [110-yard field and only three downs. Ed.] since 1963 in the roles of player, coach, general manager, scout, and several front-office positions. As a long-time coach in the CFL, he won 107 regular season games in the CFL, the eighth highest win total by a head coach in the league's history. When last heard from he was scouting for the BC Lions.

Bob O'Billovich is not Irish, nor Irish-Canadian, but American, having been born in Butt MT [Butte, shurely. Ed.] He is not even of Irish ancestry, but something southern Slavic -- Serbian or Croatian or some such. The way I heard the story, the family surname was pinned on his father when he immigrated to the US of A. The agent who met him at Ellis Island said the real name -- "Bilovic" of some such -- wasn't suitable for an American, and put the "O" in front of it to make it sound at least Irish-American. And "O'Billovich" it's been, ever since.

I remembered this story when skimming the mojo wire this morning. There's a story about an autistic boy -- a Muslim immigrant to Canada -- who drowned in a pond somewhere between his school and his home in Saskatchewan. Ahmedsadiq Hussein Elmmi was found in a pond near École Dundonald School in Saskatoon last September 11th and was pronounced dead in hospital. Not the kind of story that makes it into WWW, but wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more.

In Canada, any incident in which a "marginalized person" meets an unpleasant end is immediately followed by an enquiry, so that the blame can be pinned on white born-in-Canada Christians. The Saskatoon public school board was duly made to appear before a panel of SJWs to explain why, if they weren't racists, they had failed to provide the child with a personal support worker to prevent him from wandering off. The child was represented by the provincial Children's Advocate (seriously), whose name is... wait for it... Corey O'Soup.

I immediately asked Dr Google what part of the auld sod Mr O'Soup comes from, and was delighted to find that he is a native Canadian. Not "native-born" Canadian, but "native Canadian" as in "First Nations", which is the appellation preferred nowadays by the folks who used to be known as "Indians".

Mr O'Soup was a teacher, senior policy analyst for the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN), provincial superintendent for the Ministry of Education, senior manager for the Alberta Ministry of Education, executive director for Education/Post-Secondary Education and Training (FSIN); and is currently the First Nations and Metis Advisor at the Ministry of Education.

He told the Regina Leader-Post that his new role is "to advise, to criticize, to let [the government] know when they're doing good [sic] and when they're not doing good [sic] — particularly in the area of First Nation and Metis education." Sadly, he did not explain how he got his unusual moniker.