Don Olsen's letter in the Nanaimo Daily News on Wednesday mounts a pile of criticism on First Nations, saying they "never 'discovered' the wheel," that they never came up with a written language and that they "only 'figured out' a drum and a rattle for musical instruments."
The letter ends with: "Instead of finding their identity and source of pride in some folks who occupied the land 15,000 years ago. Let them stand or fall on their own account. Just like the rest of us have to do."
The letter has since been removed from the newspaper's website, but it has drawn the ire of many on social media who accuse it of being a "racist" screed.
University of Victoria (UVic) professor Taiaiake Alfred asked on Twitter, "Why don't anti-Native hate speech perps like @NanaimoDaily face the legal consequences that Holocaust denyers do?"
Thrifty Foods has reportedly pulled its ads from the newspaper after the letter was printed, tweeted UVic academic and Huffington Post blogger Tobold Rollo.
Rollo also posted his own response on his website, inverting the letter's format and criticisms to apply to "civilized nations."
Critics of the letter have started a Facebook group titled "Protest Racist Publications in the Nanaimo Daily News." The group demands that the paper issue a front-page "feature-sized" retraction and apology for what it calls "irresponsible and hateful messages."
Here's the full text of the letter, and a link to a cached version:
Educate First Nations to be modern citizens
Don Olsen, The Daily News
It was only 12,000 years ago, or less and this should be considered, in all those years the so called First Nations
- never 'discovered' the wheel
- never had a written language
- never discovered astronomy
- had no science or scientific discoveries
- had no mathematics
- made no medical discoveries
- never had written music
- only 'figured out' a drum and a rattle for musical instruments
- had no mettalurgy
- had no sailes for boats (only had canoes)
- created virtually no mechanical devices
- possessed almost nothing that reuaied hard manual labour over a period of time, ie. building with or carving out of stone
- made almost no inventions
- are just in the last 200 years getting caught up to most of hte rest of the world
- have a history that is notable only for underachievement. Are tehse people in trouble? Yes.
Do they need help? Yes.
Are they responsible enough to look after themselves and efficiently spend the billions the taxpayers give them? Certainly not.
The only way to fix this situation is to bring them into society as equals. They should be getting jobs and paying taxes like the rest of us because in reality, they are no more special than any of the other hundred or more cultures that call Canada home.
Turn off the taps. Do away with this 'traditional use' and 'cultural' nonsense. Educate their children to become modern citizens.
Instead of finding their identity and source of pride in some folks who occupied the land 15,000 years ago. Let them stand or fall on their own account.
Just like the rest of us have to do.
Don Olsen, Nanaimo
Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.ca
Author: The Huffington Post B.C.
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