Sometimes an apology says more than just sorry, and in this case it also seems to say “f--k off and die”. How trite it all was, too, coming shortly after a more heartfelt apology from the new Australian government to the aboriginal people there, who have long suffered a similar holocaust campaign to the one running here in Canada. Mr. Harper is right to sense the parallels between Australia and Canada, but cheap theatrics are no substitute for truth, and the horror that can’t be heard is still buried in the ground outside those fine upstanding institutions.

The voices who would speak for them seemed absent from the party.

Perhaps they were afraid that this was not a good time so say something?

More likely they were not invited, and this is a terrible shame.

To further amplify the shamelessness of the proceedings, I was able to read the name Peltier (perhaps with an extra ‘le’, or portion thereof) in two major daily newspapers with no mention of Leonard Peltier, set up and still in prison thanks to the complicity of then minister of Indian affairs Jean Chretien with the FBI. A Canadian Native is still in an American jail due to cynical Mahar-Arar-style intergovernmental bunglings, and on a day of great apology his name is swept under the red carpet!

There are few days I am not disgusted by this latest Canadian government, but I dare to doubt (and this is, indeed faint praise) that I can be any more disgusted by them now.

Harry T.O.