Suffer the little children : genocide, indigenous nations, and the Canadian state

"Originally approved as a master of laws thesis by a respected Canadian university, this book tackles one of the most compelling issues of our time--the crime of genocide--and whether in fact it can be said to have occurred in relation to the many Original Nations on Great Turtle Island now claimed by a state called Canada. It has been hailed as groundbreaking by many Indigenous and other scholars engaged with this issue, impacting not just Canada but states worldwide where entrapped Indigenous nations face absorption by a dominating colonial state. Starblanket unpacks Canada's role in the removal of cultural genocide from the Genocide Convention, though the disappearance of an Original Nation by forced assimilation was regarded by many states as equally genocidal as destruction by slaughter. Did Canada seek to tailor the definition of genocide to escape its own crimes which were then even ongoing? The crime of genocide, to be held as such under current international law, must address the complicated issue of mens rea (not just the commission of a crime, but the specific intent to do so). This book permits readers to make a judgment on whether or not this was the case. Starblanket examines how genocide was operationalized in Canada, focused primarily on breaking the intergenerational transmission of culture from parents to children. Seeking to absorb the new generations into a different cultural identity--English-speaking, Christian, Anglo-Saxon, termed Canadian--Canada seized children from their parents, and oversaw and enforced the stripping of their cultural beliefs, languages and traditions, replacing them by those still in process of being established by the emerging Canadian state."--Amazon.com Cover Suffer the Little Children: Genocide, Indigenous Nations and the Canadian State Copyright TABLE OF CONTENTS Figures Figure 1: Domination and Dehumanization of Original Nations Figure 2: Churchill’s Illustration of Genocide, Figure 3: Genocide and the Child Welfare System Acknowledgments Foreword: Reconceptualizing Indigenous Peoples' Genocide by Canada by Ward Churchill Introduction: The Colonizer’s Way of Genocide: Confronting the Wall of Evasion and Denial Rubrics of Denial Beyond the Wall A Few Comments on Style and Terminology Finally, Some Anticipated Criticisms 1. Naming the Crime: Defining Genocide in International Law Origination of the Term The Litany of Definitional Distortions Elements of the Crime Actus Reus Mens Rea The Travaux and the Anti-Colonial Factor 2. The Horror: Canada's Forced Transfer of Indigenous Children The Goal of Complete Assimilation Forcible Transfer and Resistance Destruction of the National Pattern Imposition of the National Pattern Immediate and Long-Term Effects Forcible Removals in the Child Welfare Systems PHOTOS 3. Coming to Grips with Canada as a Colonizing State: The Creator Knows Their Lies and So Must We The Colonial Framework Cognitive Conditioning Colonialism and Genocide Doctrines of Racial Superiority Forced Transfer Affects Our Nationhood Model of Dehumanization and Domination Demonization, Isolation, and Destruction 4. Smoke and Mirrors: Canada’s Pretense of Compliance with the Genocide Convention Controversy The “Made in Canada” Approach to Genocide Reserving the Right to Commit Genocide Applying the Law to Canada Conclusion. The Way Ahead: Self-Determination is the Way You Take it Home Self-Determination is the Solution Afterword. Why the Children? by Sharon H. Venne Endnotes Index "Originally approved as a master of laws thesis by a respected Canadian university, Suffer the Little Children tackles one of the most compelling issues of our time - the crime of genocide - and whether in fact it can be said to have occurred in relation to the many Original Nations on Great Turtle Island now claimed by a state called Canada. It has been hailed as groundbreaking by many Indigenous and other scholars engaged with this issue, impacting not just Canada but states worldwide where entrapped Indigenous nations face absorption by a dominating colonial state."--Résumé de l'éditeur