It was edifying to learn that colonialism was responsible for the death of five-year-old Phoenix Sinclair of Fisher River, Man. I always thought that her mother, Samantha Kematch, and Kematch鈥檚 common-law husband, Karl McKay, were responsible. After all, they鈥檙e the ones serving life sentences for her murder. They鈥檙e the ones who chose to torture her to death.
According to Jay Funke, a lawyer for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and the Southern Chiefs Organization, it was colonialism. Last week, he told an inquiry into the little girl鈥檚 death that 鈥淔irst Nation leaders believe that the tragedy suffered by Phoenix was, in large part, the result of centuries of colonial-based policies and practices which have been forced upon the First Nations people of Canada.鈥�
That鈥檚 odd. All the colonials I know had the same reaction when they heard of the terrible abuse Kematch and McKay inflicted on this poor child, including beatings, shooting her with a BB gun, choking her till she was unconscious, forcing her to eat her own vomit and leaving her to die on a cold basement floor, eight years ago. That reaction was: 鈥淚 wish I could have adopted her and loved her and saved her life.鈥�
Oh, these heartless colonials, eh? But First Nations leaders believe colonialism was responsible.
Deflect, deflect, deflect. Excuses, excuses, excuses. Poor Kematch and McKay, they鈥檙e not to blame. They were just puppets of forces bigger than themselves. Apparently not endowed with the ability to make decisions, know right from wrong or take adult responsibility for their adult lives, they were victims of colonialism.
Odd, too, how colonialism could have such a huge effect on McKay, but leave his teenage son unaffected and perfectly able to distinguish right from wrong.
The boy testified at his father鈥檚 trial that he noticed how 鈥渟kinny鈥� Phoenix had become in the spring of 2005, but that Kematch threatened him if he tried to give Phoenix food. He told the court he never saw the little girl eat and then, weeping, he testified that 鈥淚 waited until those guys left and gave her food. They didn鈥檛 help her.鈥�
They didn鈥檛 help her 鈥� not because of the historic wrongs done to aboriginal people, but because 鈥渢hose guys鈥� were scum. They alone are responsible for her torture and murder, not history. This is about individuals and their character, not their ethnicity.
Funke also told the inquiry that a lot of aboriginal people see the seizing of native children as being like the residential school system. Who cares how they see it? If Phoenix had been placed with foster parents, white or aboriginal, and not returned to the piece of garbage who is her mother, she would be alive today.
There are no circumstances that prevent anyone from deciding that they are going to be the best parents they can be. Nothing prevents them from seeking help to achieve that goal. No situation, whether it took place in history or is being lived now, is so bad that it makes individuals decide to shoot, choke, beat and otherwise torture a five-year-old child.
Funke told the inquiry that 鈥渢he First Nations leaders of [Manitoba] are committed to ensuring that Phoenix did not die in vain.鈥� Sadly, Phoenix did die in vain and nothing can change that. But those leaders can see to it that more children do not die in vain by dropping the victimization mantle because it is not doing aboriginal people any favours.
There is not an ethnic group in the world that has not suffered terrible injustices at one time or another in its history. No one has escaped this. To name just a few, the Armenians suffered genocide in 1915, the Tutsis of Rwanda in 1994, the Jews and Roma suffered unspeakable horrors during the Holocaust, the Ukrainians were victims of Josef Stalin鈥檚 forced famine, with more than seven million starved to death in Stalin鈥檚 diabolical plot to destroy them for the 鈥渃rime鈥� of wanting independence from his reign.
None of these ethnic groups blames their own histories when a member of the group abuses, neglects or tortures to death their own children, as Kematch and McKay tortured Phoenix to death.
If Manitoba First Nations leaders want to start somewhere, a good place would be with the concept of individual responsibility.
