Michelle Sterling is an author, researcher, columnist, and blogger. She is joining us tonight to provide a thoughtful and well-researched presentation regarding UNDP and Canada's abundant natural minerals and resources, and what that has to do with the Truth and Reconciliation campaign. Michelle is a former member of the Canadian Association of Journalists, and she has researched, written, and co-produced historical shows about southern Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Hugh Dempsey, former curator of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta. Michelle has also written many articles and is the author of two books, exposing the truth behind the lies of the unmarked graves, residential schools, and the media s irresponsible participation in spreading misinformation.
00:00:00.000But you say, wait a minute, at the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation,
00:00:04.080they have a memorial banner of 4,000 names of children.
00:00:09.360But actually, if you take a closer look and you do a bit of research,
00:00:12.900you find out that this list of names includes names of a young adult murder victim,
00:00:20.080nothing to do with Indian residential schools, an 85-year-old,
00:00:24.960a person who died of a gunshot wound, someone who died of a train accident,
00:00:29.360none of those have anything to do with Indian residential schools.
00:00:34.380And it seems like what has happened is this memorial banner has become,
00:00:41.240shall we say, it's not nice to say contaminated,
00:00:44.700because it's not memorializing only children who died at Indian residential schools.
00:00:51.000People have wanted to remember their loved ones.
00:00:54.160So they put their name forth and it went on the banner.
00:00:56.700So we have all kinds of people's names there who had nothing to do with residential schools.
00:01:02.420But it looks like, wow, thousands of children died there.
00:01:06.940These are not all the names of people who died at residential schools.
00:01:11.440It's such an honor to introduce you to our special guest speaker, Michelle Sterling.
00:01:20.520Michelle is an author, researcher, columnist, and blogger.
00:01:24.440And she's joining us tonight to provide a thoughtful and well-researched presentation
00:01:28.900regarding UNDRIP and Canada's abundant natural minerals and resources,
00:01:33.940and what that has to do with the Truth and Reconciliation campaign.
00:01:37.440Michelle is a former member of the Canadian Association of Journalists,
00:01:42.540and she has researched, written, and co-produced historical shows about southern Alberta
00:01:47.320under the supervision of Dr. Hugh Dempsey, former curator of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta.
00:01:54.700Michelle has also written many articles and is the author of two books exposing the truth behind the lies
00:02:00.720of the unmarked graves, residential schools, and the media's irresponsible participation in spreading misinformation.
00:02:09.140We are so grateful that Michelle is joining us this evening to provide us with essential information
00:02:14.080that has been denied and suppressed by the mainstream media and all levels of government.
00:02:20.160Will you please all help me welcome Michelle Sterling.
00:02:23.480Michelle, welcome to the Empower Hour. We're so glad you can join us.
00:02:27.300Thank you so much. I'm very happy to be here.
00:02:29.360Thank you. Super. Thank you so much, Heather.
00:02:32.120Oh, Michelle, it is such a pleasure to have you on the show.
00:02:35.280It was about six or seven weeks ago now, we were both in Red Deer,
00:02:38.960speaking at Danny Hozak's wonderful event, and I was listening to your presentation,
00:02:45.180and I'm like, oh my goodness, I need to have Michelle on the show.
00:02:48.520We have really, at Action for Canada, been trying the best we can to address what is going on
00:02:55.260with the government and the media and the globalists as far as using the natives as pawns in their plan to take over our natural minerals and resources
00:03:06.720and using, you know, the empty graves as well as a means to do that.
00:03:12.280And so you very well articulated through your presentation what was going on.
00:03:18.240And so I'm really looking forward to your presentation again tonight.
00:06:13.360there's something wrong in a country when churches and sacred sites of peace-loving Christians are burned to the ground
00:06:19.520or vandalized with little outcry from the public and little apparent follow-up and charges by police
00:06:26.540and statements that such violence and statements that such violence is understandable from the government.
00:06:32.180So what's happened is mass graves and the UNDRIP, the balkanization of Canada.
00:06:41.960Canada is being torn apart and the truth is going up in flames as well.
00:06:46.540On May 27, 2021, this bombshell hit social media.
00:06:54.420And it was from CFJC Today in Kamloops announcing that Kamloops, that means the Kamloops First Nation,
00:07:02.160confirms bodies of 215 children buried at former Kamloops Indian Residential School site.
00:07:10.820And all of a sudden, boom, Canada went from being a peacekeeper to a genocidal global pariah.
00:07:19.460And there were headlines around the world.
00:07:21.880The Guardian in the UK, Canada, remains of 215 children found at Indigenous Residential School site.
00:07:29.280The New York Times, horrible history, maths grave.
00:07:33.640Toronto Star, discovery of Indigenous children's bodies, reminder of Canada's genocide.
00:07:39.760And look at this, remains, mass grave, bodies, genocide.
00:07:47.560Now, you'd think they'd have some proof of this.
00:07:51.660And even experts are saying that this is true.
00:07:54.940But Canada has never been accused or convicted of genocide in any court of law.
00:08:01.300Now, people don't know this, but the federal government was informed of the find and did no due diligence.
00:08:11.300So there is on record, I believe it's Mark Miller, who tells the House that he'd received a call from the Kamloops ban the night before their announcement.
00:08:19.960You know, and you have to wonder, why didn't the government then say, you know what, if you make this announcement, we will not confirm it until we have actual evidence?
00:08:32.080Or why didn't they say, you know, maybe you should wait until some of these sites are excavated?
00:08:38.480Because this is a pretty jarring claim.
00:08:42.260But they accepted the Kamloops ban's claim without question.
00:09:18.940It was put forward by NDP MP Leia Gazan.
00:09:22.720So, and she said, today I lift up survivors, families and communities who have sacrificed so much in order for people across Canada to know the truth that what happened in residential schools was genocide.
00:09:37.180I'm grateful to parliamentarians who unanimously passed my motion recognizing the truth of Canadian history.
00:09:44.180And then a year later, in the same House of Commons, Harrison Faulkner notes here that MPs stand for a moment of silence to mark the discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in Kamloops.
00:10:17.020Well, this is from the Geneva Convention.
00:10:20.120In the present convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, such as killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm,
00:10:38.680deliberately inflicting on the group, or forcibly inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
00:10:57.180So, was there an intent to destroy Native people on the part of the Canadian government?
00:11:03.140And were children forcibly transferred from one group to another?
00:11:09.620Forcibly transferred is one of the key points that is often stated about Indian residential schools, that children were torn from the arms of their mothers.
00:11:21.600But in fact, the Kamloops Indian Band requested a residential school.
00:11:27.920And this is from a historical document.
00:11:29.800And they even granted land on various reserves for residential schools, because these people saw that the future was going to be very different from the past, and they wanted their children to have an opportunity to succeed.
00:11:49.900Now, contrary to what you've been told a thousand times in the media, parents actually enrolled their children, and rather than the claim that children were evangelized and forced to accept Christianity at these schools,
00:12:08.440the children were sent to a school that aligned with the family's existing Christian Catholic denomination.
00:12:14.900And you can see here on this admission form that this person, Betsy Osborne of Crest Lake, is being admitted to a Roman Catholic school because her family is Roman Catholic.
00:12:32.400And you can also see something that's very important to note on the other item over on this side here.
00:12:42.900All the particulars must be given, the name of the band, number of the ticket, under which the child's annuity is paid, and the religion.
00:12:51.600Now, what's very important is the minimum age for admission is seven years, except in the case of an orphan, a destitute, or neglected child, because Indian residential schools acted as the social welfare function before a social welfare system was set up.
00:13:12.300So social welfare began being set up in the 60s, and the schools stopped operating within about a decade, decade and a half after that.
00:13:25.700But up until that time, they took in every kind of case of orphans, destitute children, neglected children, children at risk of domestic violence.
00:13:36.120And that's never talked about, that those children's lives were saved by these schools.
00:13:50.800Well, when truth and reconciliation begins with lies, guess what you get?
00:13:56.900Now, this sign is from a kiosk, which was at the entryway to the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
00:14:05.100Canadians spent $60 million over a five-year period on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
00:14:12.680There were three commissioners, Chief Wilton Littlechild, Marie Sinclair, a former judge and senator, and Marie Wilson, the wife of Stephen Cackfee, who is a prominent Dene politician, an Indigenous activist and author.
00:14:30.080She was the only non-Indigenous person on the commission.
00:14:33.140So they traveled across the country and they heard from former students.
00:14:39.460But as you entered this hearing, if you like, it said school days.
00:14:46.000Students living at the residential schools faced experiences which, for most, ranged from degradation to abuse and death.
00:14:54.860150,000 children went through the Indian residential school system over the course of 113 years.
00:15:05.140Most of those students are still alive, with the exception of those who would have been in the earliest era and would have passed away from natural causes and old age.
00:15:16.720So, you know, to say that for most, ranged from degradation to abuse and death makes it sound like of the 150,000, only 25,000 remain, which is not the truth.
00:15:30.380So, it also says their parents, left behind in communities devoid of children, suffered as well.
00:15:38.820Well, only one-third of all eligible children ever went to Indian residential schools.
00:15:45.640And furthermore, after the earliest years of the Indian residential schools, most reserves also had what was called an Indian day school set up on their reserve.
00:15:58.340So, if you had an Indian day school on your reserve, your children could go there if you wanted.
00:16:04.220But many people preferred to send their children to Indian residential school because, just like today with daycare, if you were a hunter-trapper family and you wanted to go out in your trap line,
00:16:16.460it would be far easier to have your children learning at a residential school so that you could go off and work and earn a living,
00:16:24.620rather than trying to deal with all your children in tow while you're out in the woods hunting or trapping.
00:16:31.340So, the communities were not devoid of children.
00:16:37.180And then it says in 1920, it became a crime punishable by imprisonment to refuse to send an Aboriginal child to a residential school.
00:16:45.280In 1920, this is federal legislation for residential schools.
00:16:50.660So, in 1920, they aligned the federal legislation for Indian residential schools with provincial truancy laws.
00:16:59.320And if your child today is registered in a public school in Canada and does not show up for class without proper excuses and communication with the family,
00:17:11.680you know, with the mom calling in saying, you know, my son is sick, he's staying home today,
00:17:16.160or someone saying, oh, I'm sorry, you know, there was a funeral, there was a tragedy in the family,
00:17:21.200we have to go to a funeral in Ontario, we'll be away for two weeks.
00:17:24.160If there's no proper excuse, you better believe that the police will show up with a social worker and find out what's going on,
00:17:32.380because there are truancy laws to this day.
00:17:35.740It also says in 1933, principals were granted guardianship of the children.
00:17:40.900Well, this is exactly like today at any school, where you send your child to the school,
00:17:46.680the school accepts what's called in loco parentis, meaning in place of the parent,
00:17:52.600meaning that they have the authority to say, okay, we're going to class now, and you're going to class with me.
00:17:58.460You know, they have the authority to give appropriate commands to the children,
00:18:04.460because they're acting in place of the parent.
00:18:07.000So that there are many instances where parents decided they didn't want their child in the school anymore,
00:18:12.780or they had complaints about food, or discipline, or circumstances in the family changed,
00:18:19.980and they were quite able to come and say, I want to take my child out of the school.
00:18:24.480The only technicality was that, of course, the annuity that was paid to the school,
00:18:30.840when the child was there, would then be transferred back to the band,
00:18:34.780that the child would go back under the band treaty rules,
00:18:38.580and the family would be accordingly provided with income at the band,