[quarterdime]

Your thoughts are interesting, but I am having trouble seeing how this relates to the Wikipedia article. The Wikipedia article is about police murdering a number of Indigenous Canadians. I am not sure what the connection is to a "virus" of drugs and anger spreading among Inuit people.

I believe that none of the men in this Wikipedia article are Inuit. Wikipedia reports 2016 census showing the following Indigenous population of Saskatoon: 85 Inuit, 14,430 First Nations, and 12,255 Métis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskatoon#Demographics

[voisin]

> I am not sure what the connection is to a "virus" of drugs and anger spreading among Inuit people.

I think the parent poster is referring to the non-native population’s history of inflicting trauma on native populations and how this trauma is like a seed that begets it’s own cycle of behaviour that causes still more trauma (hence a virus that spreads). Prior, native populations weren’t known to have traumatized their own peoples (though wars between tribes are well documented).

Edit: are you strictly limiting your comment to the Inuit? I think collectivism was the base case among native populations. Non-violence within tribes as well.

[ygjb]

First, the practice of "Starlight Tours" wasn't isolated to Saskatoon. It was, and is speculated to still be a practice in many communities, with verified occurrences in Montreal and Winnipeg, as well as claims of it happening in many other small communities.

Second, the genocidal practices of the Canada towards it's indigenous population included the Inuit. There is a laundry list of genocidal tactics: * criminalization of cultural practices * residential schools * isolating communities into reserves * underfunding or denying funding for critical infrastructure * forced separation at birth * forced sterilization * extrajudicial punishment by federal, provincial, and municipal police forces

The list goes on, and on, and on. There isn't a direct line between the spread of drugs and destruction of Inuit culture, and the prevalence or incidence of starlight tours, but they are all part of the threads of racism and genocide that are tightly woven into the fabric of Canadian culture.

[quarterdime]

Thank you for this. Especially your first two paragraphs I agree 100% and I think those points are closely related to the Wikipedia article.

Along these lines I could add that in Saskatoon, despite at least three men being murdered by police and many more kidnapped by this practice, only two officers have ever been convicted (for unlawful confinement). There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of things to say about this story.

Which is why I found it surprising that the top comment was about drug use and violence in Inuit communities. As I measure it, this is at least two logical "hops" from the topic of the 'starlight tour' story in Saskatoon. Furthermore these topics are extremely sensitive in this context. Violence and substance use have been (and still are) used to justify the practices that you described above--in particular separating children from parents.

I don't know how to say well what is in my heart now. In what I have written, I am afraid of sounding like a person yelling accusations on the internet. This is not my intention. I am bringing this up in a spirit of honest dialog. I often choose to say nothing rather than risk saying the wrong thing, or even saying something in the wrong way. I think in a perfect world we would discuss these topics without fearing the shame of feeling this. Even as I type this, I feel a thin film of sweat on my hands. I am again afraid of saying something wrong. People on the internet might yell at me. I am equally afraid of giving anyone else the feeling of being yelled at. I wrote and deleted, rewrote, and redeleted this comment and my earlier comment a number of times. But I click "reply" with the hope that we can all somehow make a better world, and that we won't get there unless we try to talk about it. I am trying to learn my history, I am trying to learn how to talk about it. I hope I have written this in line with what is in my heart, which is a desire to better understand and be understood. And for every one of the comments on this topic, I am glad that so many people clicked the same "reply" button to openly share their thoughts.