The Great Slumber: Canada's Indigenous Children and the Eternal Dance of Power

In the land where comfort breeds complacency, where the mighty nation of Canada slumbers beneath blankets of self-righteousness, a tale of power and suffering emerges through the mists of time. The weak have raised their voices against the strong, as is the eternal dance of existence, through a class-action lawsuit that unveils the darker truths beneath society's veneer of civility.

Behold how the sleepers of this nation wrap themselves in cloaks of righteousness! They speak of reconciliation while the echoes of their past deeds still reverberate through generations. What is this reconciliation but another comfort they seek, another pillow upon which to rest their troubled conscience?

From the 1950s until the very threshold of our present age, the Canadian government, that great machinery of conformity, tore Indigenous children from their ancestral hearths and cast them into the abyss of group homes. These were not mere buildings of brick and mortar, but forges designed to hammer out difference, to flatten the spirit into shapes deemed acceptable by the masters of the day.

The lawsuit, filed in Vancouver's Federal Court, speaks of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse that was not merely present but "commonplace, condoned and, arguably, encouraged." How fitting that the descendants of warriors now must seek justice through paper and ink, through the very system that once sought to destroy them!

See how the masters of yesterday become the penitents of today! They who wielded power with such certainty now scramble to make amends with gold and silver. But can coin truly measure the weight of a stolen spirit, of a severed bloodline?

Four brave souls step forward as lead plaintiffs, each carrying tales that would make the mountains weep. Carol Smythe of the Nisga'a First Nation, cast into the depths at thirteen; Reginald Mueller of the Tsqéscen First Nation, torn from his people at ten; Donna Kennedy of Garden Hill First Nation, and Toby Forest of Lac La Ronge First Nation - each a testament to the will to power that courses through human veins.

The tale of young Forest rings with particular potency - eleven times did he attempt escape, eleven times did his spirit refuse to bow before the altars of assimilation. On the eleventh attempt, victory was his, a triumph of will over the machinery of conformity.

Mark well the tale of Forest, ye who slumber in comfort! Eleven times did he rise, eleven times did he defy! Here is one who refused to accept the chains that bound him, who dared to transform his suffering into strength!

The government, that great leviathan of bureaucracy, now speaks in measured tones of "significant steps" and "reviewing to determine next steps." How characteristic of the last men, who move with the speed of glaciers when faced with the consequences of their actions, who seek always to moderate, to mediate, to maintain their comfortable existence!

The lawsuit speaks of "profound disruption and disconnection" - such sterile words for the systematic destruction of spirit and culture! The group home program, distinct from the already-acknowledged residential schools and day schools, stands as yet another head of the hydra of assimilation.

How they love their programs and policies, these administrators of pain! They create categories and subcategories, splitting hairs while souls splinter! Each new revelation shows but another facet of their will to power, executed with the cold precision of bureaucrats!

The Crown-Indigenous Relations department speaks of resolving claims "outside of the courts, whenever possible" - a masterwork of understatement that would make Socrates himself weep with irony. They who once wielded the law as a weapon now seek to avoid its gaze!

O Canada, land of the sleeping! Your children cry out from the depths of history, yet you continue your slumber, dreaming dreams of reconciliation while the wounds of yesterday still weep! How long will you remain in this twilight state, neither fully awake to your deeds nor fully asleep to your conscience?

Let the truth thunder forth! Let it shake the foundations of this comfortable society! For only in the earthquake of revelation can new mountains rise, can new spirits take flight!

The time has come for Canada to awaken from its great slumber, to face the mountain of its deeds with clear eyes and strong spirit. For in this awakening lies the seed of transformation, the possibility of becoming more than what was, more than what is. The lawsuit stands not merely as a claim for compensation, but as a mirror held up to the face of a nation still drowsy with self-satisfaction.