"One man's debauchery..."

Imagine a really bad, and really serious, version of Footloose – but instead of Kevin Bacon and his pals triumphing over the closed minds of small-town authoritarians, it involves a decades-long campaign using the resources of the federal government to suppress cultural activities, including throwing people in jail for up to a month.

That was one of the passages which didn't make the cut in a new op-ed of mine published in today's National Post, but I think it provides a decent precis of the piece for purposes of this post.  Here, as well, is the original version of the concluding paragraph - I think the bolded portion is important:

Are you a conservative sick of hearing about what has been done to our aboriginal communities?  Fine.  But in addition to forgoing the inherent value of learning more about our national history, in addition to missing the chance to gain a deeper understanding of our fellow citizens and develop common ground for the pursuit of further solidarity, think of what else is being overlooked.  In a political era which promises an increasingly active, robust and interventionist government, our past provides us with excellent examples of the dangers inherent in such an approach.  We had a government so hell-bent on molding its subjects to its will and its view of what was “best” for them that it literally threw them in jail because they danced.  In a search for stories about the peril of overweening government, one could certainly do worse.

Comments

[Chris Taylor]

That is a fascinating (but mortifying) piece of history; I knew nothing about it prior to today. Thanks for drawing attention to it.

[Bob Tarantino]

The best in-depth study of the prohibition on aboriginal dancing can be found in Constance Backhouse's Colour-Coded - A Legal History of Racism in Canada (which is, in general, just an amazing book). She describes the various ways in which aboriginal communities tried to get around the ban (which sometimes included performing portions of the ceremonies at different times and in different places in order to evade the prying eyes of Indian Affairs inspectors) - I recommend reading that book to anyone with the time to do so.

[Self-Loather]

As I read your article, I thought to myself: the best left-wing writer in Canada is a conservative.

[Mike H]

Like Chris, I was also unaware of this despicable government imposed cultural subjugation.

The Post needs more Bob!

[Trish]

At least the prohibitions were abolished. No country's history is spotless, and Canada's history for racism is especially dirty. However, no one moves foreward by dwelling on the past. The best bet is to be thankful they were abolished, and ensure that no cultures have to be suppressed like that anymore in Canada, or anywhere else in the world for that matter.

[liberal lament]

I'd like to read a story about the prohibition on stories on the Aboriginal Slave Trade that flourished in most native communities before the European arrival. It was a massive, pervasive part of the GDP in pre-contact times, yet not a peep, a story an article or even a CBC mini-series.

Too politically correct for modern Canadians