Photo by Whitehorse Star
Mayor Laura Cabott
Mayor offers remarks about Pope’s tour, reconciliation
It’s everybody’s responsibility to advance reconciliation with First Nations, Mayor Laura Cabott said in her closing comments at Monday’s city council meeting.
It’s everybody’s responsibility to advance reconciliation with First Nations, Mayor Laura Cabott said in her closing comments at Monday’s city council meeting.
Cabott said she knows many First Nation citizens from the Yukon and across the country made the trip to Edmonton at the site of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School.
They went to witness Pope Francis’ apology, and his appeal for forgiveness for the Catholic Church’s institutional co-operation in the residential school system, she said.
“Most Indigenous Yukoners had someone in their family, or were themselves, forced to attend one of the seven residential schools in the Yukon and northern British Columbia,” Cabott said.
“And for many, that legacy has manifested itself in devastating ways that continue to be felt in Whitehorse and communities throughout the territory.
“While today’s papal apology is important, it is equally as important that residents of Whitehorse, especially non-First Nation residents, learn about the impacts these schools had on our community and what role they can play in this community to move us all towards reconciliation,” the mayor added.
“It is all of our responsibility to ensure the things we do, the things we say, and especially the language we use move us towards reconciliation every day,” she added.
For survivors of residential school who need support, she pointed out, there is the Indian Residential School Survivors and Family Crisis Line available 24 hours a day for anyone experiencing pain or distress as result of the residential school experience. The number is 1-800-721-0066.
“Shãw níthän,” the mayor concluded, using the Southern Tutchone words to say “thank you.”
Pope Francis arrived in Canada last Sunday to begin a six-day tour which involves meeting with residential school survivors.
See the latest on Pope’s tour, p. 10.
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Comments (33)
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MITCH on Aug 3, 2022 at 12:30 pm
@ JUNIPER - "How come the FN are not demanding apologies from the Anglicans?"
I took this as being asked by a first nations person. If you are not, then obviously none of my reply makes sense. So I am sorry for my presumption. Perhaps they are not asking that because they know as well as we do, the average person did not cause this, the church and corrupt government did. Kind of why I deal with either as little as possible.
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Juniper Jackson on Jul 31, 2022 at 8:57 pm
Mitch: Hmmm. I AM sorry that I don't follow your post. What would I want an apology for? "If I apologize to you, is that it? Are we reconciled?" You have your opinion, I have mine. "Am I sorry that the Roman Catholic church destroyed your heritage in the name of ignorance?" (It was the English Protestants who came to Ireland that destroyed what could have been my heritage.) Though, If i demanded compensation for my great grandparents having to flee they would laugh me out of the country.)
I am not FN. I am a 2nd Gen Irish/German and an immigrant to Canada in 1965.
Agree, or disagree, at this moment, everyone gets to have an opinion.
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Groucho d'North on Jul 31, 2022 at 12:47 pm
I am growing tired of elected officials saying we all have to work to make things right with aboriginal Canadians. It was politcians who way back when decided to do what they did to address the 'indian problem' They commissioned the church to help advance their 'solutions'. Now as our society is wrestling with the resulting outcomes of their bad governing, somehow the public at large is responsible to make things right.
Our politcians get away with far too much and need to be held accountable for their deeds. Perhaps if they get caught breaking our laws they are automatically stripped of any pension or similar benefits as a penalty for their violations?
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Sarah Davison on Jul 31, 2022 at 11:27 am
Who is Laura Cabott speaking on behalf of, herself, or the City of Whitehorse?
She does not have the authority to speak for the people or the city of Whitehorse on this matter, imho. Not that I disagree with what she said. The point is that it's not for public officials to presume to speak on behalf of the people of Whitehorse on these issues.
Cabott is a good mayor, but she's been hired to run the City of Whitehorse, that's all. She is not there to lecture the people of this community or to tell us what to think, about this or any other issue. There are strong views in the Catholic community about this Pope, for example. Very easy for Cabott to tread where angels dare to tread by presuming unto herself an authority that does not exist.
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drum on Jul 30, 2022 at 5:05 pm
Nothing is enough. We will pay for the next 100 years. My tax dollars.
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Heathen on Jul 29, 2022 at 7:30 pm
I am inclined to shrug this off as a bit of puff but lines like, “It is all of our responsibility to ensure the things we do, the things we say, and especially the language we use move us towards reconciliation every day,” are not just vapid but imply a measure of intimidation or an attempt to ensure only the "acceptable" opinions are expressed and permitted thinking thought. This is parroted across the country on not only FN issues but a host of others. It is patronizing and well outside of the scope of such office holders and to the issue in hand; kind thoughts and nostrums to FN communities do very little. Action and honest reforms from relevant institutions do. John Q. need only be a tolerant and decent person which he can do without second-guessing his every language or action.
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MITCH on Jul 29, 2022 at 4:54 pm
@ Juniper - If I apologize to you, is that it? Are we reconciled? You will forgive me if I cannot trust you on your word on that. Am I sorry that the Roman Catholic church destroyed your heritage in the name of ignorance? Yes, I am. I am sorry. Are you the only one that church destroyed in this world? No, no you are not. I am sorry for that too. Are you sorry for what the church did to any of us? I promise you, we have some of the same scars you do and they are not for being different, so what does that tell you? Will I ever apologize as an Anglican? Yes, I will. I am sorry you feel that way. But I didn't touch your people, I didn't hurt your people and I never will, I stand in opposition to our government and I couldn't even attend a catholic school because my family name has a black mark on it because of abortion before my time. I believe not so much differently than you Juniper, that there is a higher power, I believe it is the universe itself and that we live once and then return to the energies that animated us in birth. If I am accountable to that then I am living my only life now and whether I will apologize for everyone or not, I want to be to be a positive force, not a negative one, and looking back, there are only shadows. If you want to go forward with me, I would love to share the road, share the Manitou. I was born among the manitou, I know what it means to live with Doonen and follw the right path. I was auditing part of an online course on Anishnaabe astronomy course last night I have been studying so I can know this people when i return to my hometown after this pandemic to find the roots I lost. I am the whitest dude, Irish descent, but I also study my own ancestral culture, Celtism, which has a lot in common with first nations cultures, that I love.
Not all who wander are lost, some of us found a second chance over here. Some of us would have abandoned our cultures that abandoned us to be a part of yours.
Up 38 Down 4
Bill on Jul 29, 2022 at 11:28 am
Ms Cabott, who is obsessed with everything but her job. That is why your pot holes and snow removal is in the mess it is in. If only she and her cronies in council would do their jobs and put their collective energy towards what really matters to the taxpayers - sigh, but alas it is a dream. They are far too busy concerning themselves with their socialists agenda...
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Bill on Jul 29, 2022 at 11:23 am
@ Patti
Always has a kind word for Juniper. You must have a lot of hate within you...
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TheHammer on Jul 29, 2022 at 10:53 am
What happened to indigenous cultures on the American continent was described by Historian of Religions Mircea Eliade as, 'The greatest spiritual catastrophe in the history of the world.' What the Pope and the church and others are not saying is that the second millennium of Christianity, under the astrological sign of Pisces, the two Fish, came under the Fish representing the Anti-Christ. The first 1000 years came under the vertical fish, representing Christ, and striving for spiritual height, the second fish, the horizontal representing the Anti-Christ, saw the expansion of Empires, and obsession with materialism. The latent argument behind Christianity is the machine gun.
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Juniper Jackson on Jul 28, 2022 at 10:25 pm
Hi Mitch. Thanks for the non attack reply. Yeah..I guess my comment is a tad bitter. It just seems like everything, no matter what is the issue ends in give us money. About living in the past, not moving forward.
I don’t know if there is a Jesus. I am Catholic, but I do not believe in the God of my Fathers. Big white dude with open arms. I do believe in a driving force, a greater power. I can’t believe that ‘we” the universes, the suns, moons, mankind and evolution is one big cosmic accident.
How come the FN are not demanding apologies from the Anglicans?
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MITCH on Jul 28, 2022 at 3:56 pm
@ Patti Eyre - today ma'am (and not for the first time) we are in agreement there. I found that controversial enough to not acknowledge it with response. Juniper, I am as objectively skeptical as a cynical 90 year old man at 42, so I can relate with your frustration, but that was a bit much, even for me, an excommunicated Catholic, 2nd generation. I ask you, what would Jesus speak to this if he were walking among us now?
I stake my eternally burning soul in hell it wouldn't be about culpability.
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MITCH on Jul 28, 2022 at 3:51 pm
@ John - Sometimes, the fewest words are best. Excellent quote.
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Henry on Jul 28, 2022 at 2:59 pm
@ John 27 July 3:11 PM
Couldn't agree with you more.
I for one do not appreciate the lecture on my responsibilities as a citizen from Ms Cabott. This is especially so when I see the Fed Liberals with their divisive politics. Even this week they chose to divide seniors into two classes - 65 to 74 and 75+ regarding OAS benefits. Shameful.
I have served my country in a multitude of ways - in battle to daily putting my life on the line as a first responder. For you to condescend telling me that reconciliation is equally my responsibility is insulting. Reconciliation cuts both ways. Unfortunately I only see a one way road. Non-natives give and natives take. I see very little, if anything, in return, except the asking for more 'give'. TRC, highlighted that everything that is to be done is put on the shoulders of non-native peoples.
All the woes of the past and today are the fault of non-natives. Wrong. I do not feel the slightest remorse, or guilt, about what my ancestors did. In short I am not accountable for their actions any more than any other citizen in this country. We learn from history - we don't rewrite it. We have to put an end to this beggar mentality if we are going to move forward, otherwise we will continue to drag the chains we have on long into the future.
Your little speech is nothing more than an 'in fashion/vogue' woke verbiage. It is cheap political theatre.
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MITCH on Jul 28, 2022 at 2:56 pm
@ JOHN - Please enlighten us how she in any way is "outside her comfort zone"? Outside her jurisdiction, sure, but she seems blissfully ignorant in assuming we "all have to do more". Wrong. The government has to "do" more, do, not say, and leave the populace out of their own mistakes. That is called modelling an example.
I didn't hide people's loved ones for a century, to Quote Gord Downie, "We are ahead by a century".
And disappointing you is gettin' me down.
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MITCH on Jul 28, 2022 at 1:01 pm
@ BONANZAJOE - I am going to answer this honestly as I can because I wonder the same thing. The time will come, when this reconciliation brings to light more exploration into the world's current state of affairs. Canada will go bankrupt trying to financially solve this mistake. Hell, we could barely afford to rent the Pope for a week. I think in time, descendants of settlers living here will turn their ire on Europe and we ourselves will demand reparation for being kicked out of the old countries. Europe prospered by removing millions of our ancestors and sending them here like animals. They reap the spoils of opulence, castles and history and the Vatican holds as much of our stolen wealth as anyone else's. In saying this, it is important to consider that the first nations might even be a powerful ally in pressing such claims, as they do need to be pressed. Eurocentric racism and colonization externalized it's consequence and guilt upon those sent to do the colonizing. My ancestors had no desire to come here, they were shot at and forced onto ships in Cork Country, Ireland by invading English land barons who took our ancestral homes. Sound familiar? That is because it is.
In a way, our support of the first nations in their quest to be vindicated will one day open a new debate, that of the old world paying up for the damage to the rest of the world and it will happen, as surely as the sun is setting on the British Empire. If it doesn't, North America will not survive another century. My musings anyway, don't hold me to any of that, it is more conjecture and speculation and I doubt I will ever see the day that everyone is considered on the basis of their wellbeing.
I know in my life, I have been able to bring the pain of my past to bare in healing others wounds. There is a big fight to label me something other than a human being trying to do good by the world though. We should all take serious heed of that and act accordingly, in honour of our better natures.
If I was offered to repatriate to Ireland I would start packing today. Someday, I hope I am offered that opportunity. It would help with the intergenerational trauma the Catholic Church visited upon my family for centuries, causing much abuse, neglect and poverty even in my raising and beyond.
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John on Jul 28, 2022 at 11:21 am
Life is better when you build bridges between people, not walls.
- Mohammad Ali
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Sheepchaser on Jul 28, 2022 at 11:01 am
For the life of me I can’t figure out what the big deal is. A dude that whispers to a blonde, blue-eyed ghost from an opulent palace across the sea. Head of an organization that claims to wield exclusivity over human redemption. Claiming poverty and humility at every step while living a life of mostly privilege and financial security that, for the huddled masses of believers, is the salvation that will always remain out of reach. Top of a heap of unloved single men who’ve actively chosen not to engage with other people in the most intimate ways for favour of a dogmatic theatre performance, twice daily. For an apology to mean something, the person speaking it needs credibility. The Vatican brought with them their diplomatic immunity, enforced by Swiss guardsmen and backed up by vaults full of plundered wealth. Wealth that paid for all those settlements and non-disclosure agreements. This soul grifter has nothing to offer you.
Heal yourselves and each other. No amount of validation from the external can replace finding it within. What has been done to you does not define you.
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MITCH on Jul 28, 2022 at 10:08 am
@ Nathan Living - You are on fire this week my man. That is a very apt point, we expect woke garbage from YTG ( I will call it that until they prove they are better than that), NOT FROM THE PEOPLE WE PUT IN CHARGE OF POTHOLES, PARKING TICKETS AND BYLAW.
You want a wake up call Laura, here it is. I acknowledge that I am on Kwanlin Dun lands where we all live together - lands with an opioid crisis we ALL suffer from together. Food insecurity and living wage poverty we all suffer together, friends and family in all the peoples that make up this community that are observing history in the making this week, together.
Just get over it, Mayor, you are just not that important to all of us engaging in the reconciliation required for our existence to be ok in Canada, regardless of ancestry, under your government, caused by your government, perpetuated by your government. I have never made a first nations person go missing once in all my life, can you, as a representative of Canadian governance, say the same?
Until I was compelled to have to explain it in response to this endless empty virtue signaling rhetoric that seeks to identify white people as incapable allies, I sought no Laurels for such, if only we could rely on your discretion to not seek the same. Shameless. She needed to get some kind of platitude into the press and now I have to defend myself because she speaks for all, to her own mind. Speak for yourself late bloomer, most of us have been ready and waiting for these actions our whole lives and you and your institutions are just coming around now, because it's trendy and assists in other ulterior motives, readily transparent to all of us, namely political correctness- tell me, anyone, how do you politically correctly send an RCMP tac team against elders on their own unceded lands?
The Pope didn't come here to heal your wounds, he came for the first people's.
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John on Jul 28, 2022 at 7:47 am
I for one am glad the mayor said these thing. Why shouldn’t she. She is the head of a municipal government that is directly in the midst of all this.
Everyone seems to think she has no right to says these things. I think she does, and as a municipal leader she has stepped outside her political comfort zone and placed words of encouragement in the municipality.
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Patti Eyre on Jul 27, 2022 at 10:42 pm
The instant the pope apologized he took a step toward accountability. I part views with Juni Jackson there, since she’s obsessed with money.
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Max Mack on Jul 27, 2022 at 9:59 pm
I think the opportunistic grand-standing by politicians of every stripe on the residential school issue is grotesque. This is not to say that I am oblivious to the plight of FN in the Yukon and the massive sea-change in culture that happened when the "White Man" took over.
And, I am also alarmed at the censorship that has evolved around any critical examination of claims made about residential schools, including massive efforts by the MSM and government agents to silence dissent. Note I do not include Whitehorse Star here, for the most part, as it is thankfully often willing to allow readers to say things that are wildly unpopular and that contravene prevailing narratives.
Did the residential school system cause harms? Of course that system did, along with a litany of colonialist and assimilationist policies by the dominant European culture. But, those systems also led to positive outcomes. All policies have benefits and harms. There are always winners and losers. The real question should be; what would be the alternative and what would be the result if FN children/people were left as they were?
Anyone that knows the real history of FN in the Yukon will know how extremely vulnerable they were, particularly in the harsh Yukon interior.
It is interesting to note here that the vast majority (all?) of residential schools in the Yukon were NOT run by Catholics. Where should all this rage and politically opportunist opprobrium therefore be placed?
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bonanzajoe on Jul 27, 2022 at 8:56 pm
@"For survivors of residential school who need support, she pointed out, there is the Indian Residential School Survivors and Family Crisis Line available 24 hours a day for anyone experiencing pain or distress as result of the residential school experience. The number is 1-800-721-0066." And a cheque will be in the mail within 5 business days.
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bonanzajoe on Jul 27, 2022 at 8:48 pm
Canada can apologize and reconcile till doomsday, but it will never be enough. I and my 6 brothers and sisters spent 3 years in a residential home - they were called Orphanages back then before "politically correctness" was invented. How come we and the other whites don't get apologies and reconciliation? Oh and money? Anybody want to volunteer an answer to that one?
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Jeff Donaldson on Jul 27, 2022 at 6:07 pm
Yes, seeking Federal Political position next!
I will bet anyone $1000 bucks on it!
If I am wrong it can pay for the ridiculous 500 a cord of soft wood !
Bah hahaha!
Hey come do me in Alberta as I now have approx 90 acres of it!
Bah hahahaha!
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The Nathan Living on Jul 27, 2022 at 4:59 pm
Our Mayor should wait until she runs for the Yukon legislature before making these comments.
The City is run with an uncompromising colonial style, ask anyone who has had to deal with city administration. To grand stand and throw the Catholic church and colonialism our way is inappropriate and very deceptive.
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Matthew on Jul 27, 2022 at 4:42 pm
Look at the views on CPAC on YouTube about his visit.. that shows you all you need to know.. a mere few hundred views.. still waiting to prove all these deaths they claim..
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john on Jul 27, 2022 at 4:23 pm
Its awful when someone doesn't mind their own business and uses an opportunity to stand on a soap box.
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By my command on Jul 27, 2022 at 4:07 pm
No it is not! And I mean this in the most conciliatory way. This is strictly a government leader created and sustained problem. “You” did this! Not me, not him, not her, nor they.
In fact this whole mess is an example of the complete and absolute failure of government leadership - It is this same leadership that created the policies and laws that were enforced by their subordinates - For example, the Indian Act.
Quit it with the moral diffusion. People like you have been manipulating the “will of the people” for your own political advantage.
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Juniper Jackson on Jul 27, 2022 at 3:39 pm
The instant the Pope apologized, that's admitting culpability. Say good bye to your money Pope.
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Jeff Bikaboom on Jul 27, 2022 at 3:18 pm
Will the Mayor or the Pope be commenting on The Sixties Scoop, unmarked graves, The Indigenous Child Removal System in Canada, pass requirements to leave reserve, inability of Indians to vote, prohibition of solicitation of funds for Indian legal claims, or ban of religious ceremonies? Or are we just doing the standard virtue signaling?
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John on Jul 27, 2022 at 3:11 pm
Best madam you focus on what you were elected to do. Your task is simple - the affairs of the City of Whitehorse, providing programs directly related to the needs of it's citizens as it relates to municipal services. Leave the fairy dust off the table at Council. If you want to make personal Cabott comments as a private individual, by all means be my guest; but not on my dime. Outside of chambers and the office of mayor - and make it clear to those you address that your opinions are not as mayor or the city.
It is tiring to hear of your personal opinions as mayor about every woke item that peaks your interest.
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MITCH on Jul 27, 2022 at 3:09 pm
Sorry Laura, try again. Firstly, you don't know me or most people I know, so you do not get to say that we participate in your institutional or systemic racism at all. Your government and your church raped these people, I didn't. By the way, that church, has been a little indecent to my family too, has caused intergenerational trauma. I dare you to contest that. Secondly, though I argue the assertions made these days, I spent some 30 plus years of my life learning about the first nations, hearing about their traumas, from friends, from elders, from my community. I am informed, I had grade school teachers who risked their jobs to educate us on these very real matters outside of (then, and likely still) BC/Yukon educational curriculum (thank you for that Ms. M, you know who you are and I owe you a visit and some teas soon if you are still around, for being a teacher that kept me into education). I am informed on the wrongs suffered by our neighbours, friends and loved ones and have been my whole life and I stand with them! Go to hell with your rhetoric! i was taught by eight years old what happened in Carcross, went there to learn about it. You should too.
Secondly, you claim I am racist or support racism. I didn't start paying taxes nor was I able to vote until 1998 and had a few protests under my belt by then. Saved some friends from a beating or worse by then. Stood up and got put down by then. Was more intelligent than YOU, by then. Meanwhile, my whole life, this government, regardless of party, sterilized first nations women, invaded unceded territory, nearly went to war with the Mohawks, and continues the rich and steeped colonial traditions of offers of baubles for resources and assimilation, for them, and for me.