Indigenous elder tells UBC event she wishes to see academic Frances Widdowson raped

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/ubc-charlene-belleau-frances-widdowson

35 Comments

  1. Only-Study-3912 on

    Bonus: the event was hosted by the schools “office of respectful environments”

  2. shiftless_wonder on

    UBC does not, I repeat, does not ‘condone’ rape encouragement. Powerful stand UBC.

  3. >“I told her: ‘I wish our people could grab you, drag you over to the Kamloops residential school, put you into the basement, speak our language to you — nothing but Secwepemctsín — beat you, rape you, hurt you,’” she recalled at the UBC event. “‘And maybe you’d understand what our people went through.’”

    Full quote is wild. Apparently she is recalling what she said to her, so doubly down on the statement and making it more public.

  4. Sensitive_Caramel856 on

    A bit more context here.

    >“I told her: ‘I wish our people could grab you, drag you over to the Kamloops residential school, put you into the basement, speak our language to you — nothing but Secwepemctsín — beat you, rape you, hurt you,’” she recalled at the UBC event. “‘And maybe you’d understand what our people went through.’”

    >Belleau is a long-time activist focused on Canada’s former Indian Residential Schools and what she views as the generational harms that the schools inflicted on Indigenous peoples. In particular, she has advocated for claims made by the former Kamloops Indian Band, now the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc, which has alleged that 215 “missing children” are buried in unmarked graves on the site of a former residential school there.

    >Widdowson, a former Mount Royal University professor, has for years questioned the validity of those claims, and has pointed out that the First Nation’s ground-penetrating radar surveys have not yet confirmed the remains of missing children.

  5. The people whose ancestors committed those same atrocities and wanting to cover it up/revise history out here pearl clutching lmfao. Spare me.

  6. She is so oppressed of course everyone in this situation will go in public tell these things without fear of any repercussions. /s

  7. ADearthOfAudacity on

    Elder just wants the residential school denialist to walk a mile in her shoes.

  8. Are these the “traditional ways” I’ve heard so much about?

    Here’s proof that elders don’t necessarily have wisdom. That’s not a reasonable response to someone questioning ithe purported existence of ndigenous graves of missing children at residential schools.

    Especially when these graves are still as missing as the children. GPR is not conclusive proof.

  9. So the church and government block every attempt to find answers to these questions. Force each indigenous organization to spend insane amounts of money just to get the church and government to do the right thing and release the names.

    And some racist uses that decades long court struggle as proof there is nothing there. In my mind, if there was nothing there, why is the church and government working so hard and spending so much money to hide it?

    I’d be upset too, though her suggestion might end up rewarding bad behaviour, since that would probably be the most intimacy he’s ever had. Otherwise, he’d probably have some compassion.

  10. Agreeable_Manner2848 on

    this is sad in so many ways, my father was a straight white man and he got the bricks beat out of him by priests and nuns alike, if the indigenous perspective is they are the only ones who suffered at the hands of the church they are missing out on considerable allies that would support making the church come to terms with what it brought into this world, and start to pay for it properly

  11. cajolinghail on

    Trust r/canada to be as disingenuous as possible. If you read the full context she’s obviously not literally hoping this woman gets raped, she’s just expressing her anger that she had denied residential schools repeatedly.

  12. There are two type of hurt people: people who use their pain to try and make it so that other people don’t get hurt and people who wallow in their victimhood and think they get to treat others around them like garbage.

  13. CaliperLee62 on

    Threatening a woman with rape because she dared to speak the truth. Charlene Belleau is a disgrace to all Canadians.

  14. LemonLimeNinja on

    Despite the extensive media coverage, to date there has not been any concrete evidence of the mass grave in Kamloops. We could easily clear this up but the indigenous block it at every turn. If they were so convinced it was a mass grave wouldn’t they want to show everybody the proof? It’s crazy that Frances lost her job for wanting evidence. Should we just take everything indigenous people say as truth because of historical guilt?

  15. How many times on Reddit have I seen people asking for pedophiles to be raped in prison, buried under prisons, killed, incarcerated forever plus a day. All the “protector” type men say if what they would do if someone raped their daughters or wives. How many times I’ve read about what should be done to defence lawyers of child abusers, to judges who give lenient sentences to child abusers, to parole boards who let child abusers out of prison.

    Indigenous children were ripped from their families, put in little better then concentration camps, abused, starved, beaten, raped, impregnated by priests & other grown men, denied medical care, punished for speaking their native language- all by the very people who kidnapped them. And people are angry about the fact someone is angry, and uses the same language white people spout off about doing to the same type of criminals and those complicit???

  16. ProduceIntelligent38 on

    Kamloops band has refused to dig on their property to confirm the buried children suggestion. Why not?

  17. YourOverlords on

    This is justified anger in my view. An outburst for sure, but was she wrong for feeling that way after all these years? That’s a lifetime of chaos inflicted upon her and her family and her people and we probably shouldn’t be offended so much as we are curious about how to alleviate this.

  18. ItsTheAlgebraist on

    You know, if you say “if you had been abused at residential school you would understand my point of view better”, that’s one thing.

    If you say “I wish a bunch of guys from my town would drag you to a basement, and rape and beat you”, you have gone too far.

    What is really interesting is that if you watch the footage of her confronting Widdowson at the university, she says something worded very similar (“take you to the basement, hit you, starve you”, or thereabouts) , which makes me think these aren’t the only two times she has played out that scenario in her mind.

  19. I’m glad she’s spoken her mind while she still had the chance to make sure her story is not a forgotten part of History.

  20. UtilisateurMoyen99 on

    “‘I wish our people could grab you, drag you over to the Kamloops residential school, put you into the basement, speak our language to you — nothing but Secwepemctsín — beat you, rape you, hurt you,’” she recalled at the UBC event. “‘And maybe you’d understand what our people went through.’”

    I’m far from a supporter of the mainstream “politically correct” opinions on the intent and impact of the residential school, but I fully support the right of Charlene Belleau to say what she said.

    Not because I agree or disagree, but because we must accept to be offended when trying to defend our opinion (or when trying to form one). We must allow free speech. We must allow people to speak from their guts. We must distinguish between figures of speech and true threats. Her argument is basically “it’s easy to dismiss the impacts when you have not lived through it”, not “you REALLY deserve to have this happen to you”.

    We applaud videos of fathers assaulting their daughter’s abusers in courtrooms (myself included) on one hand and condemn such speeches on the other. Makes no sense to me.

  21. Remote_Cantaloupe on

    Is this basically how in the “old days” white men reacted after a black man raped a white woman? It’s just tribal hatreds being fomented, and it’s regressive for society.

  22. https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/136-53223

    > “ Chief Charlene Frances Belleau

    > Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada

    > Esk’etemc First Nation, British Columbia

    > Chief Charlene Belleau is a catalyst for change in her home community of Esk’etemc First Nation, as well as throughout British Columbia and across the country. An advocate for improved health and social programs, a supporter of residential school survivors and of reconciliation, and a leader in the campaign to end violence against women, she is dedicated to community healing and to building respectful relationships.”

  23. Objective-Apple7805 on

    A terrific way to make a distinctly unsympathetic character like Widdowson the good guy