(LifeSiteNews) – One of Canada’s top constitutional lawyers gave a blunt assessment regarding his views of so-called Indigenous “land acknowledgements” that have become commonplace in all forms of Canadian society, saying they are nothing more than “hypocritical virtue signaling.”
“Aboriginal land acknowledgements are hypocritical virtue signaling by people who would never ever give away their own home for free to an Aboriginal,” Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) president John Carpay said in a recent video message.
“They like to pretend the land was stolen, but they themselves are not going to give up their own home or land and give that back to an Aboriginal.”
Carpay noted that in his view, if the land is “stolen,” then to “give it back.”
“If you’re not willing to give it back, don’t describe it as stolen land acknowledgements do nothing to help Aboriginals on reserves who are facing poverty and unemployment and high rates of suicide, drug addiction, often very corrupt local governments,” he reasoned.
Indigenous land acknowledgments have become common in Canada and have increased since the unproven claims that unmarked graves have been discovered at former residential schools gained media attention. Indeed, so prevalent that even King Charles III gave one recently while delivering the Throne Speech on behalf of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government.
Canadians in positions of authority who have refused to go along with Indigenous land acknowledgments have been outright cancelled.
As reported by LifeSiteNews recently, the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board was issued a legal warning from the JCCF after it suspended parent Catherine Kronas from a local school council after she respectfully objected to going along with Indigenous land acknowledgments.
Carpay spoke about Kronas’ plight, noting that “Land acknowledgements don’t do anything to help Aboriginals,” but instead “refer inaccurately to unseated territories when in fact the treaties that were signed formalized what was already a reality the French and the British had moved into the land and bringing with them their agriculture industry, technology, police, courts, military laws, language, religion, culture.”
“And so, the treaties that were signed formalized and recognized the reality of British sovereignty over what is today Canada. So, these land acknowledgements that talk about unseated territories are not accurate,” he added.
Carpay said that Indigenous peoples “have the same human nature as every other people group all around the world.”
“So, when the Europeans arrived in North America, the Aboriginals fought and killed and tortured and enslaved each other in exactly the same way that other people groups on other continents have been doing throughout human history,” he observed.
Canadians must take back their freedom of speech, says Carpay
Carpay, in his opinion video, noted that what needs to happen today is that all Canadians “push” back against forced land acknowledgements in order to preserve freedom of speech.
“All Canadians have freedom of expression. We’ve got a lot of it left, some of it’s been taken away, but Canadians need to politely object to land acknowledgements when they’re taking place,” he said.
“We need to push back against this,” he emphasized.
Residential schools, while run by both the Catholic Church and other Christian churches, were mandated and set up by the federal government. They were in operation from the late 19th century until the last school closed in 1996.
While some children did tragically die at the once-mandatory boarding schools, evidence revealed that many of the children passed away as a result of unsanitary conditions due to underfunding by the federal government, not the Catholic Church.
In 2021 and 2022, the mainstream media and federal government ran with inflammatory and dubious claims that hundreds of children were buried and disregarded by Catholic priests and nuns who ran some of the schools. As a result, over 100 churches have been burned or vandalized across Canada in seeming retribution.
Instead of making clear that no bodies have been found, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government and the mainstream media have seemed to sympathize with those destroying churches, as evidenced by a CBC report that appeared to justify the attacks, many of which took place at churches located on Indigenous land.
