Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts

Survivors Insights ignored by The Church and The State

Again and again we see that Survivors insights and experience, and thus their real needs, are to a large degree sidelined as both Government and The Church craft 'responses' to the situation.

We are invited to make representations, we are to a degree
consulted, yet in the finalised outcomes the decisions made are from the point of view of Government and The Church and how they wish to frame their liabilities, and the consultation appears to be a matter of form, rather than substance.

In recent days we have had the completion of the 
review by the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child in Geneva of The Vatican's response to the world wide child abuse issue within it's own institutions, and the announcement of  the Irish Catholic Church's 'Towards Peace' support service.

The
United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child has criticised the Vatican for it's actions to the present date, and as yet has to issue further comments and determine further action.

Eyewitness accounts and the transcripts will show that The Vatican has not altered it's course and is maintaining a strategic approach to the 'problem', rather than being open, honest, vulnerable and seeking a just resolution for all concerned.

The 'Towards Peace' support service has been launched without the detailed input of survivors, which had been promised. However what is true of the Vatican is also true of The Irish Catholic Church. Their approach is strategic, rather than open and honest.

In Australia, there is
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse which has been working since early April 2013, and is continuing as I write. In this inquiry over 5000 survivors gave evidence, as did the Church and other bodies... One of the targets of this Inquiry is the "Towards Healing" process crafted under the aegis of Archbishop Pell in Melbourne, for whom Tony Abbot has recently issued statements of support.

And yet again, at this level of Inquiry, we see the same 'strategic' approach from the Australian Catholic Church, although with the evidence of 5000 people to counter it, it will take some assistance from the Abbot Government to 'help' the Church 'manage' this situation.

"To date evidence showed the process failed some abuse victims who found it as traumatic as the original abuse because of the legalistic approach taken by the church.

Towards Healing will be the subject of several case studies by the commission which will hold public hearings in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia as well as in NSW before June this year"
source: http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/national/child-abuse-inquiry-reopens-in-sydney/story-fnjbnvyj-1226805484854


This same approach, that of acknowledging abuse only when Survviors come forward into the public domain, and then 'managing' the response to protect the status and image of both Church and State has been seen in every case where Survivors have come forward.


Across the world, both The State and it's institutions and The Church and it's institutions  are obviously concerned about their roles in the abuse, the cover-ups and mismanagement of investigations, and understand that they have a liability that can be expanded if they are 100% honest and they seek to reduce or minimise that liability.

Whilst this is to be expected and is indeed standard corporate practice, it remains the fact that it is moral cowardice, and that Survivors lives are impacted by this management approach. It is also true that this impacts not only the Survivor, but their families and the wider society, as well as doing little to protect children, and other vulnerable people, from future abuses.


It also is a misunderstanding of the intent of the vast majority of Survivors, whose aim is to a) have the truth told and understood b) prevent further abuses (and the 'management' of exposure of abuse) c) regain some degree of healing in our own lives, and in the life of the community, the State and The Church.

We Survivors are gifting the world with our concern, our stories. The changes we represent can only increase nurturing in our Society. That's the fullest truth here.

It's long past the time that all this was recognised and responded to accordingly, not only by Government and The Church, but by society at large, by the people who sit in pews and pray and by all parents and caring people.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe

Kevin Annett at the Canadian Embassy in London, April 12th 2010

Kevin Annett at the Canadian Embassy in London, April 12th 2010






A group of good hearted people gathered outside the Canadian Embassy, Trafalgar Square, at around midday to hold a vigil for those Indigenous First Nation children who were forcibly removed from their homes, and placed in Residential Schools for their ‘Education’ by the Nuns, Priests and Officials of the Canadian Anglican Church and The Catholic Church aided by the Government of Canada and it’s officials, between 1889 and 1996, of whom at least 50,000 died in those Schools, and many more who died in the aftermath of the trauma they endured.

These enforced removals were ‘legal’ under The Indian Act. The abuses were not legalised, but went unopposed by the Canadian State and the leadership of the United Church of Canada and The Roman Catholic Church and all others involved.




The False Advert outside the Canadian Embassy pretending to include the wisdom and active participation of the Canadian First Peoples in the Olympics and in Canadian State policy with regards to 'sustainability'.

The agenda was not so much to benefit the children, but to break the living spirit of the communities from which these children came, as a means to appropriating the lands of those communities for the use of the State and Commerce. To extirpate the living wisdom of a people, to destroy their cultural roots and to supplant that with a tourist attraction version of those cultural heritages, that was and remains, in essence, a genocide.


Some background



Kevin Annett, who as a young United Church of Canada Priest (see comments below concerning the correction by 'raspberry'), discovered these crimes in his conversations with First Peoples in his parish in the early 90s, and sought to bring to light the nature, extent and brutality of the Residential School system so as to facilitate a healing and a recognition and a move towards reparation and reconciliation, has written two books on the subject, littered with stories and documented evidence that is incontrovertible.


Kevin Annett paid a heavy price for his heart based work, losing his post as a Priest, his family and enduring intimidation, violence and obstruction as he sought to give voice to the voiceless. Nonetheless Kevin has pursued this path diligently and with profound courage and compassion. Seeking only resolution, avoiding any sense of revenge, he has been ostracised within Canadian Society. So it goes.

He was in London for a few days, as he is engaged in a journey around Europe to work with others who are aware of the ubiquity of this issue, across many nations. He has been to Rome, will visit Ireland and Germany before returning to Canada.

Kevin has also made an award winning documentary ‘Unrepentant’ on the issue in Canada.



The Prelude to the Ceremony


I was one of a group of people who had been following Kevin’s work, and we had gathered together from all parts of London at midday outside the Public Entrance to The Canadian Embassy on Pall Mall, the road leading to the North West of Trafalgar Square. We were attended by a couple of Police Men and some nervous looking Security Guards. As we gathered we discussed how best to proceed with the ceremony.

We were waiting on the arrival or a camera team to record the proceedings when it became clear that some of our number were unaware of the legality of holding such a vigil under wide ranging restrictions imposed by the SOCPA Act 2005. With that in mind we moved into Trafalgar Square to consider our position. Once there we noted 5 Heritage Security personnel were observing our group. 

After some deliberation we decided to congregate in Trafalgar Square, at the West Side, in  front of the Canadian Embassy, as that would proved an appropriate back drop to our ceremony.

Within minutes two Heritage Security Guards approached us, making enquiries about our purpose in Trafalgar Square, and started to explain the bye-laws governing Trafalgar Square. 

They spoke with Kevin Annett who explained who he was, what he was doing. 

One of our group was a well versed Freeman of The Land, and he explained to the Heritage Guard, what we were doing, why we were doing it and our position under Common Law. He explained that we were not subject to Statuary Law, were not consenting to Statuary Law and were seeking to proceed peaceful and with respect in our Ceremony.

The Heritage Guards were at all time polite and reasonable, as were our spokespersons.

Two more Heritage Guards arrived, and some of us spoke to them. We discovered that they were in fact Nepalse Ghurka’s and we had a lovely chat about Joanna Lumley, whom they suggest would make a fine Prime Minister.

While that conversation was happening, the discourse with the first two Heritage Guards had reached an impasse, and two PCSO’s arrived on the scene. Further discussions were held, and eventually a Police Officer arrived. Layers of Authority and Lines of Communication…

Again the Freeman position under common Law was explained in detail, and the young Constable, as he had now been identified, spoke to his supervisors on the radio.


Closing the discussions with Heritage staff and Constables regarding our Ceremony..


The Ceremony

Eventually we were informed that we could indeed proceed with our Ceremony and Vigil, though not within the confines of Trafalgar Square plaza. We were given ‘permission’ to hold our vigil close to the North Western Plinth. This gave us a good view of the Canadian Embassy, and also a certain amount of public exposure, consistent with our desire to inform others as to the facts of the Canadian Residential Schools system, and how that relates to other such Institutional abuses perpetrated in many, many countries around the Earth.


We formed a circle, and unfurled a banner made by the survivors of the Residential Schools in Canada, which had hand prints of the survivors all over it, representing them in spirit, noting their presence in our hearts and minds as we carried out the vigil. A banner was unfurled. Sage was burned, and all were smudged.

Kevin introduced the Ceremony, and drums and guitar music accompanied him.

Kevin spoke of his work, of the need for acknowledgement, accountability and reparation, the need for healing and for an ending to all such abusive practices perpetrated by States and Churches and others against First Nation Peoples and Children. 

He invited others to speak in the tradition of the First Nations, offering the Feather he had brought with him, to signify his role as a spokesman for those Peoples…



My words to the Canadian Authorities

For my part, I spoke as I was holding the Feather in my right hand, and burning sage in my left hand, and I called on the spirit of life itself to be with me and turning towards the Canadian Embassy, I then called on all those within that building, all those who work for The Canadian State, for the Churches, Anglican and Catholic to recognise the crimes and abuses that have taken place, to accept responsibility for the past roles, the present cover-ups and to accept that these actions were all and are all acts of choice, and that from all choices consequences must and indeed do flow, and that those who so choose are responsible for their choices, and for those consequences.


I spoke for myself, for my own experience as an abused child held in Irish Boarding Schools and Residential Institutions, and offered my trauma, my pain, my learning’s, my very being to the resolution of all abuse behaviours, and called on Nature, the mother of all life, to help and assist those within the Canadian Embassy to recognise the Mother within their hearts, to open to the empathy that is innate to all life, to find the courage to blow the whistles, to unmask the wrongs done, to account for the wrongs done, to comfort the wounded survivors, to act so that no further abuses be perpetrated against anyone. And I called again that they recognise that these are choices, and that from their choices consequences flow.

I called on them to remember that many times before, great buildings and civilisations that were built upon abuse such as theirs have fallen, and have been overgrown by Mother Nature, and have been metabolised and returned as nutrients for more abundant life, and that this flow is inevitable, that their resistance is futile. Thus consequences flow from choices made.

I reaffirmed that we, the survivors and their advocates mean no harm any child or person.






Conclusion

Others spoke but I did not hear the fullness of their expressions as I was holding the banner. All of this was recorded by camera and will be made available very soon.


We continued the vigil, with music and drumming, singing and dancing and ended in a celebratory tone, noting that notwithstanding the abuse, trauma and woundings, the tears, fears and sadness, we stood as an affirmation of life, as life dancing and singing and growing and nurturing in spite of those who perpetrate horrors upon their brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, uncles and aunts, grand fathers and grand mothers, fathers and mothers.

This is my best recollection of these events, and is of course incomplete. Others will add their experiences in time to tell the whole story.

The Ceremony ended as it began, in circle, as in the old ways of wisdom and empathy.




The weasel words of the Canadian Governments Spun Propaganda, Aboriginal Participation, Sustainable Legacies...... utter lies.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's your gift to universe

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