Juno News - Indigenous activists want to RENAME cities and towns across Canada

00:00:00.000 Landmarks, universities, cities and towns across Canada face the prospect of being erased and

00:00:08.740 renamed to unpronounceable indigenous names because somehow these cities and towns uphold

00:00:14.140 Canada's evil colonial history and therefore they must be destroyed. Anyone or anything that 0.99

00:00:20.320 stands in the way of the destructive so-called truth and reconciliation movement which has

00:00:25.720 nothing at all to do with truth and very little to do with reconciliation must be destroyed and must

00:00:32.140 be targeted and that is happening right now in a little town in British Columbia called Powell

00:00:37.880 River. We are pleased to be joined now on the Faulkner Show by Dr. Francis Wittowson formerly

00:00:42.980 a tenured professor at Mount Royal University who was fired after committing the ultimate sin in

00:00:49.140 academia daring to question the residential school narrative. Dr. Wittowson thank you so much for

00:00:54.820 joining us. Thank you for having me on. So you recently published an article in the C2C journal

00:01:02.680 titled Collaboration No More How the Powell River BC Name Change Debate Turned Nasty. A link to that

00:01:10.000 article you can find in the description of this video. I want to just start off with this can you

00:01:14.720 explain in more detail for our audience what is going on in the little town of Powell River British

00:01:19.780 Columbia. It's really an incredible story. Yes and I traveled there a couple of times and I know

00:01:25.840 quite a few people there. I participated in a number of events there myself so I have an in-depth

00:01:31.540 knowledge of what has been happening in that particular town but it's not just Powell River it's

00:01:37.560 a whole bunch of other towns as well that are going through the same kinds of conflicts and what

00:01:44.260 happened in Powell River is that I believe it's May 2021 beginning of May they had a meeting and the

00:01:53.020 local indigenous group the leaders of that group which is the Tlamin Nation sort of floated the idea

00:02:00.340 of a name change for the town. It was very tentative but then in June 2021 this was after the Kamloops

00:02:10.240 announcement and Kamloops has its tentacles into all sorts of things that have been happening over

00:02:16.760 the last three and a half years. Anyway the false claim that the remains of 215 children had been found

00:02:24.460 was accepted as being true by all sorts of different people including the Tlamin Nation. This led them to 0.62

00:02:31.800 write quite a demanding letter to the Powell River City Councilors saying that it wasn't a question of

00:02:39.520 if the name would be changed it was just a question of when then they embarked upon a long consultation

00:02:46.880 process whereby it was supposed to be citizen driven that was sort of the pretense but it had already

00:02:54.700 been pretty much decided by this group of what's called woke councillors which wokeism is identity politics

00:03:03.180 that has become totalitarian and their view was basically if a bunch of neo-tribal elites make a

00:03:10.300 demand everyone should just accept this under the guise of truth and reconciliation. The citizens of

00:03:18.780 Powell River are very well educated and were very well mobilized so they did a whole bunch of research and

00:03:25.660 found out that a great deal of misinformation and perhaps disinformation was being spread about this

00:03:33.180 pushed back made all sorts of presentations to this working group and it didn't matter because although

00:03:41.180 the citizens wanted a referendum to decide the question the city councillors didn't want that to happen

00:03:48.620 and so they were basically just intent on pushing this through so it's still a bit unclear what's going

00:03:56.700 to happen in the end whether they're just going to change it regardless or whether they have actually

00:04:03.740 listened to what's going on but right now we're waiting for the municipal elections which i believe are in

00:04:12.140 2026 and that's when it's been promised that they're going to have a a referendum like an initiative

00:04:22.700 happen but there's been some backtracking so we're not quite sure what's exactly going to happen there

00:04:28.780 and two gentlemen are now out of work because of this is that correct one of them was fired from his

00:04:34.780 job and another was uh pushed out or forced to resign so yes and this is one of the tragic

00:04:41.900 kinds of consequences and and these are just the two that we know about there's been a lot of fear

00:04:47.820 in the town that if you speak out and and put forward arguments and opposed to the name change

00:04:54.700 you will suffer consequences and there's two people that i found had had this happen to them

00:05:01.180 ted vizuti who was a paramedic and brian burrows who was a custodial worker with the school board

00:05:08.460 ted vizuti um just you know made some innocuous comments on his facebook page and he was pushed

00:05:16.060 into early retirement so uh and then what happened is is that usually what happens for paramedics is that

00:05:21.900 they can work part-time after they retire and they stopped him from being able to work part-time so

00:05:28.380 basically his career was over and then brian burrows who was actually thinking of retiring anyway but

00:05:36.540 when he just put a message on his facebook page saying that he opposed the name change

00:05:42.460 and he questioned the mass graves that had been announced he was accused of being a racist by the

00:05:50.140 superintendent of the school board and there was disciplinary processes that were threatened

00:05:57.100 but until he retired which he was planning anyway but up until that point he was ostracized by all of

00:06:03.820 his colleagues and he was just treated absolutely abominably by the school board who basically um you

00:06:11.500 know sort of accepted this view that he had said these racist things when he hadn't said anything that was

00:06:17.500 just not you know just kind of democratic action trying to say that he didn't want this name change

00:06:23.420 to take place it's unbelievable now you've faced the cancel culture mob over this issue um but i want

00:06:30.380 to ask you what are the broader implications of this push this idea that you know no discussion or debate

00:06:36.220 can be had on this particular issue what are the implications of this because i thought canadians

00:06:41.020 had the right to peacefully protest and speak their mind on certain issues i must be wrong about that

00:06:47.900 yes well this is one of the um problematic aspects of what's called truth and reconciliation

00:06:56.220 where truth does not mean truth and reconciliation does not mean reconciliation and what it basically is

00:07:02.780 is this this this thing we call wokeism which is this totalitarian identity politics whereas to be

00:07:11.020 compassionate that's the argument to be compassionate you must um affirm the identities of these indigenous

00:07:20.780 neo-tribal elites and this identity is the genocide survivor identity so if you take issue with that claim

00:07:29.820 which it appears that there really is not very um you know convincing evidence that a genocide has taken

00:07:38.220 place uh starting with the kamloops the false kamloops announcement but all sorts of other things that

00:07:44.140 have happened then you will be seen as you will be tarred as a racist and you will have your job threatened uh

00:07:54.060 that's what's happening and the tragedy of it is that everyone recognizes that terrible injustices have

00:07:59.980 been done to the indigenous population but these kinds of initiatives that are happening in the case

00:08:05.660 of things like cowl river have nothing to do with assisting the marginalized members of indigenous

00:08:12.380 communities it's all a bunch of privileged indigenous leaders and the aboriginal industry which is a group of

00:08:19.980 lawyers and consultants who make their living from siphoning money away from indigenous communities

00:08:27.900 to basically put forward grievances uh to extract more money for these uh these various legal and

00:08:37.020 bureaucratic initiatives so there is somehow a different definition of truth only when it involves

00:08:44.060 this indigenous issue that's what it appears to be is that uh is that your read on this situation

00:08:48.780 that when it comes to this particular issue when it comes to litigating the residential schools

00:08:54.620 debate there is somehow a different definition of truth that we only apply to that issue and not

00:08:59.740 to any other issue in the country well there's a few issues where this is happening which is sort of

00:09:05.740 this post-modern relativistic position which has been unfolding in the university since the 1960s

00:09:12.300 but it is the most obvious in the case of the residential schools and what it is and this was

00:09:20.220 actually stated in the truth and reconciliation commission which was uh i believe it's ronald

00:09:25.660 needs and wrote a book called truth and indignation about this that truth in the truth and

00:09:30.940 reconciliation commission means relative truth so that is whatever an indigenous person who's testifying

00:09:39.980 believes to be true that must be accepted in the objective sense of actually being a fact and

00:09:48.460 evidence-based position and the kamloops case nothing is better than this example it is highly improbable

00:09:57.580 that the remains of 215 children are buried in the kamloops apple orchard because not one parent has said

00:10:04.700 that their children that their child never came home from the residential school so you know who are

00:10:11.420 the 215 bodies that would be buried there and no one no none of the people in the media or in academia or

00:10:20.460 anything are asking the questions that need to be asked about this case and it just continues it doesn't

00:10:27.900 matter what you seem to say and the evidence that you put forward to try to argue these cases and

00:10:33.180 nina green who's the great intrepid researcher on this file has been putting putting forward these

00:10:39.900 arguments for three and a half years and people just ignore it and continue to pretend that there

00:10:47.820 are these remains on that site when it is just highly improbable that that would be the case

00:10:55.260 well dr widdison uh the ndp want to criminalize what you have just said as residential school denialism

00:11:02.460 and i find it shocking that the crown indigenous relations minister the newest crown indigenous

00:11:07.820 relations minister said i believe on cbc or ctv it really doesn't matter which one that he supports

00:11:14.060 the legislation he supports the idea of criminalizing residential school denialism which is not denying that

00:11:21.740 the residential school system exists but it is it also includes what you've just said there what do you

00:11:27.260 make of this this is this is dark times ahead for canada if this actually takes uh gets into force

00:11:34.380 this is definitely the case and it is totalitarianism this is the path that we are heading down and the

00:11:40.540 most disturbing thing is not silly people like leah gazan are putting forth these nonsensical ideas but

00:11:48.220 where is the outrage and the opposition to this sort of thing happening in a supposed democratic country

00:11:56.300 like canada and again it is this intimidation that is going on that anyone who tries to make an

00:12:05.420 argument that goes against the affirmation of the genocide survivor identity which is a very implausible

00:12:13.580 uh type of position now people can make that argument but you should be able to critique it

00:12:21.180 provide evidence which you know shows this to be a bit exaggerated or whatever you do and that's not to deny

00:12:30.700 that there was terrible abuse that happened in a number of schools that there were serious problems

00:12:35.740 such as a lack of resources the ventilation problems that were identified by peter bryce

00:12:42.780 um you know the insensitivity that was shown to numerous uh residential school students and on and

00:12:50.780 on but if you're going to make a claim that the remains of 215 children have been found and then the

00:12:57.260 whole arguments about genocide took off on that basis shouldn't there be some kind of correction

00:13:05.740 that is made whereby people recognize the extent to which the canadian public was misled and 330 million

00:13:15.180 dollars was extracted on this basis this is just an absolute outrage and the kamloops band tanya talaga who's

00:13:23.740 a globe and mail uh columnist um sean carlton the academic from uh university of manitoba are just completely

00:13:33.340 shameless in their continuation of these this false information which is continues to be perpetuated

00:13:42.220 i want to go back to power river for a minute and discuss what we're seeing it happens almost every

00:13:48.460 time a canadian historic figure is put under the microscope and put in the scopes of of these uh

00:13:56.700 radical woke uh activists let's look at the case with power river israel israel powell i believe was

00:14:03.580 his name they that's the the idea was that power river was named after this guy who was the um i

00:14:09.740 believe the indian superintendent of british columbia in the late 1800s according to the local historian

00:14:15.980 which you quote in the uh in the c2c journal and it turns out that powell is uh not accused shockingly

00:14:23.500 of the uh posthumous crimes or not guilty of the posthumous crimes he's been accused of committing

00:14:29.020 just like johnny mcdonald appears to not be guilty of these crimes and just like egerton ryerson so

00:14:34.380 does it really matter at this point um does it really matter what what figures in canadian history

00:14:39.500 actually did or is it more of a more of a fact of that they represented some canadian history colonial

00:14:45.340 history that means they must now be cancelled and it's amazing and there's a number of figures like

00:14:51.340 this egerton ryerson is the other individual who didn't really have anything to do with the

00:14:55.820 residential schools and was much loved by many indigenous people as someone who helped them

00:15:00.940 you know powell was a a man of his time obviously and so he might have done things which would be

00:15:06.940 considered to be heavy-handed but the evidence um from arthur richards and robin trombley uh first of

00:15:14.060 all robin trombley uh did extensive research and found that it's highly unlikely that

00:15:21.180 powell river is even named after israel powell it was named after um a person who also had the last

00:15:28.540 name powell who was a cartographer um arthur richards showed that um you know israel pal didn't really have

00:15:35.820 anything to do with the residential schools he was interested in day schools and bringing public

00:15:41.180 education to all citizens of uh british columbia including uh the people who lived in in the powell river

00:15:49.740 area and he was sort of one of the more benevolent of the administrators that existed and worked very

00:15:59.180 hard to try to bring you know the services that were required by indigenous people so the the bottom

00:16:08.460 line is is that you know the truth the you know people who are making these arguments don't care about

00:16:14.540 the truth um they just want to impose their agenda and you know basically intimidate anyone who opposes

00:16:23.180 them and the most bizarre thing and this is now happening in campbell river is there's this insistence

00:16:30.220 of spelling these names for the new place names in the international phonetic alphabet indigenous languages

00:16:38.140 were pre-literate they didn't have any writing system yet there's this attempt by the uh to bring in

00:16:44.700 this this this weird writing system that no one can pronounce presumably to castigate everyone who

00:16:53.100 isn't able to read this alphabet which not even indigenous people most indigenous people can't read 1.00

00:16:58.540 this either so why is all this effort and money being spent on trying to bring in all these place names

00:17:04.940 in a language that uh a written language that no one can even pronounce it is it's quite it's quite

00:17:11.340 shocking when when you look at everything that's happening it reminds me of uh of the renaming of

00:17:17.020 sir john a mcdonald boulevard in ottawa in the national capital region i'm not even going to bother

00:17:22.460 trying to trying to pronounce the new name but like you say canadians can't even pronounce these

00:17:27.580 like it's it's absurd really it really is you know i want to ask you this question um and i've asked

00:17:34.860 other guests who i interview on this subject this exact question because i think it gets lost in this

00:17:40.220 debate what does any of this any of this push to rename universities and towns and cities um and a

00:17:49.580 race in malign canian history in your opinion does any of that actually benefit indigenous canadians who are

00:17:56.380 struggling at a disproportionate rate in our country and actually do need assistance and help

00:18:02.540 it doesn't benefit them at all and in fact it uh ensures that they their the marginalization will

00:18:08.940 continue one because it uh it diverts funding so you know this 330 million dollars that was spent to go

00:18:19.100 and find missing children which kimberly murray the special interlocutor has admitted

00:18:26.380 there are no missing children these children are in cemeteries which used to be marked and no longer

00:18:33.180 have the markers because they've deteriorated and people don't know where their great grandmother is

00:18:37.980 which you know is perhaps an issue but that's not saying that children have been murdered and we spent

00:18:44.140 330 million dollars on that that money should be spent on addressing the terrible uh social deprivation

00:18:51.580 that exists in indigenous communities secondly in terms of reconciliation which is supposedly why

00:18:57.660 we're doing this it just creates a huge amounts of conflict between people which is what we're seeing

00:19:04.700 in you know the pal river case and this is going to have negative implications for indigenous people

00:19:11.900 because instead of working together to try to address the terrible conditions it's unfortunately going to

00:19:18.220 be indigenous people who are going to be blamed for the situation when it's not ordinary indigenous 1.00

00:19:23.180 people it is these privileged neo-tribal elites and their lawyers that are making a killing off this and

00:19:31.180 the consultants like the members of the pal river uh kinds of establishment that are the ones that have

00:19:39.820 created this terrible situation and we should just stop um allowing ourselves to be intimidated

00:19:48.860 by what is obviously destructive both for the truth and reconciliation and when it comes to uh your

00:19:57.260 situation in particular last month a tribunal found that you're firing from the university uh mount royal university was

00:20:03.660 disproportionate to the uh to your conduct but they still said they're not going to bring you back

00:20:09.420 what's up with that what how does that how does that exactly work yes well uh that is being appealed now to the

00:20:15.820 alberta labor relations board so it's not over and i will fight to the end to be reinstated at mount royal

00:20:22.460 university and the problem once again is the intrusion of this wokism totalitarian identity politics into all

00:20:29.900 of our institutions including universities and because some indigenous scholar activists who participated in a

00:20:37.980 mobbing to get me fired for my attempts to defend myself feel unsafe by me being returned to mount royal

00:20:47.740 because they cannot tolerate their perspective being questioned uh the arbitrator decided that um the

00:20:56.060 employment relationship was unviable and therefore i could not be returned when i never did anything in the

00:21:01.740 workplace at all all my activities were just trying to satirize the attempts to get me fired and the fact that

00:21:10.380 i cannot be returned into the university to provide much much needed critical perspectives on all these issues

00:21:18.940 is an absolute travesty and i will fight this to the end of my days because this is absolutely absurd and

00:21:28.300 unacceptable that i cannot be back at mount royal university doing what i love which is engaging in

00:21:35.100 my research and also providing students with a perspective that they are not getting at all in the current

00:21:43.340 woke climate that exists at mount royal university oh we certainly need it and i think

00:21:48.220 uh a very large number of canadians hopefully it's the majority uh think that this is this is this is

00:21:54.380 a major major story and one that we hope to see you win um once again i want to uh i want to direct

00:22:00.860 the viewers to the uh to the article written in c2c magazine by dr widowson collaboration no more how

00:22:08.940 the power river bc name change debate turned nasty you can find the link to that article in the description

00:22:14.380 of this video of this video dr widowson thank you so much for joining us thanks for having me on

00:22:31.580 you

Juno News - November 12, 2024

Indigenous activists want to RENAME cities and towns across Canada

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