Local

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

A critical mass of comments

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 01/27/2013 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

An article subtitled Idle No More commenters could use some lessons in critical thinking attracted more than 1,615 comments.

Related Items

Articles
- First Nations advocates use protests, legislation to maintain pressure on Harper

"We need to do professional development in critical thinking and become critical thinkers ourselves."

Good advice; you should try heeding it sometime. When you 'teach' treaty and aboriginal rights, do you accept critical scrutiny as to whether or not treaty and aboriginal rights are consistent with the idea of equal rights and human equality?

You've accepted a raft of assumptions uncritically and adopted a position of labelling any opposition to those assumptions as being racist. It's pretty rich of you to decry racism while defending racial particularism and that in as cosmopolitan a society as has ever existed.

-- Grubfoot

There are a lot of inappropriate comments on these stories for sure. But too many legitimate criticisms of wrongdoing are met with the blanket reply of THAT'S RACIST.

When Bev Oda was bounced from cabinet, she didn't whine about racism. She took it on the chin. Politicians get criticized all the time -- it's part of the job. Yet too many times, Canadians are expected to overlook blatant misbehaviour on the part of band governments and councils for fear of being labelled racist. At some point a more sophisticated response than THAT'S RACIST is required from the aboriginal power structure.

-- lollipopsandsunshine

What ridiculous, insulting nonsense. The author picks a handful of hateful comments out of a sea of valid objections to this "movement."

The author may not see a difference between these protests and the others he references, but most Canadians do. Nobody here is oppressed. Nobody's land was "stolen." Perhaps someone's ancestors made a bad deal; perhaps not. That is up for debate. Resorting to hysterical hyperbole is the tool of the weak-minded who have nothing to back up their arguments.

One could easily characterize the Idle No More movement as a call for more money from government. Let us be clear -- the failure of government to give a racial group as much money as they demand is NOT oppression.

-- RK

What an idiot. We Canadians are angry, not racist. The Indians are being racist against we the taxpayers that have been supporting them.

THEY opened a big 'can of worms' that they will probably regret as support is being extinguished.

-- Boe65

The hardest yet most important part of reconciliation is forgiveness.

When anger is your driving force, rational thought is absent.

-- Sarah G

It would seem that the central point of this article is to make generalizations about the Canadian public's opinions on Idle No More and recommend changes to secondary school curriculum based on a handful of obviously stupid message-board posts? Is that not a classic example of the Fallacy of Composition?

-- mikethepinballclemens

I disagree that there is a racist attitude toward the First Nation's People. The negative response to the Idle No More movement has more to do with Canadian taxpayers seeing billions of dollars poured into Indian Affairs with Third World living condition results. Living on a reserve is not forced apartheid, but rather a cultural and personal choice. Canada is a free country and anyone can choose to work and live anywhere they want. You must first want to improve your situation through your own efforts and hard work.

-- schrop

If this article is considered critical thinking, I feel sorry for Mr. Henderson's students. They are being cheated out of an education. My opinion of SJR has been drastically lowered. Mr. Henderson's argument would have been slashed to ribbons by my first year philosophy prof. In addition to being factually inaccurate to the core, starting with the fact that nobody's land was stolen, the article simply does not make sense.

-- Gordon Arnold

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 27, 2013 A10

Fact Check

Have you found an error, or know of something we’ve missed in one of our stories? Please use the form below and let us know.

* Required

In which story did you find the error? *
Please post the headline of the story or the title of the video with the error.
What was the error? *
Please post exactly what was wrong with the story.
What should we have written?
Please indicate your source for the correct information.
Who else should we interview to improve this story?
Please include any contact information you may have.
Can we contact you in the future for advice on stories about this topic?
Yes

No
First Name: *
Last Name: *
E–mail Address: *
This will only be used to contact you if we have a question about your submission, it will not be used to identify you or be published.
Phone: *
This will only be used to contact you if we have a question about your submission, it will not be used to identify you or be published.
Colour:
Are you blue? If you can see this, leave it blank and get some CSS support.
Enter the words that you see: * This is to prevent our forms from being filled out automatically.
You have failed to correctly identify the words in the box above. Please try again.

More Local

Undock

You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. You can also agree or disagree with other comments. All you need to do is register and/or login and you can join the conversation and give your feedback.

Have Your Say

New to commenting? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions.

The Winnipeg Free Press does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comment, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. These terms were revised effective April 16, 2010.