Bruce Dowbiggin
Grave Mistake: Blame The Trudeaus, Not Sir John A.
Pop Quiz: Since the 2021 Residential schools “secret burials” hysteria allowed prime minister Justin Trudeau to declare Canada a genocidal state, how many of the graves in question have been exhumed? Examined, even, to judge the merits of the wild claims?
The answer to that would appear to be zero. Because they know what will be found. “There is no recorded case of any indigenous parent claiming that their child had disappeared after being enrolled in a residential school. Not one police report, or historical records, of any of these tales from the crypt ever occurring,” writes Brian Giesbrecht.
Which didn’t prevent Trudeau’s grotesque teddy-bear photo op in a former residential cemetery. Nor his lowering of the Canadian flag for months to draw attention to murders and abuse he has never proved—or even bothered to prove. Nor his libelling the nation he leads before the world community. (Nor firing the first Indigenous Justice Minister, Jodie Wilson Raybould, for trying to protect justice from the political needs of the PMO.)
While the federal government, in a spasm of settler guilt, set aside $320 million to indigenous nations to find more evidence of a horrific crime, the dead remain undisturbed in their graves. If only we could say the same for the truth over allegations that went across the globe about the church-run residential schools.
These “truths” are behind the recent hounding of former Mount Royal University professor Frances Widdowson at University of Lethbridge over her claims that most, in not all, the allegations of priests murdering residential kids or being used for sado-masochistic purposes had no basis in fact. Widdowson lost her job for questioning the Trudeau catechism of white guilt on the Prairies.
Widdowson is one of the people Indigenous Affairs Minister Marc Miller described as “ghouls” for pointing out that residential school indigenous children died of the diseases of the day— in particular tuberculosis. Even more children were dying of TB on the reserves where they came from. (As we pointed out here ) If residential schools had never existed these children would, sadly, still have died.
Widdowson is in good company. In the white-guilt frenzy unleashed by Trudeau many of the founding figures of the nation have been denounced, their statues toppled, their names removed from schools. None worse than Sir John A, Macdonald, the first prime minister of the nation. While radicals doused his image in fake blood, it is an uncomfortable truth that, had Macdonald not been a visionary about the nation and its Indian tribes, the Plains Indians would not exist today.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, poses for a selfie with an elder after receiving a ceremonial headdress while visiting the Tsuut’ina First Nation near Calgary, Alta., Friday, March 4, 2016.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
In a time of economic frugality Macdonald’s government paid the entire cost of inoculating the Plains population for TB, against which they had no immunity. It is no exaggeration to say that were it not for this policy there would be few or no Indigenous Plains peoples for Trudeau to use as political props.
As Giesbrecht explains here Macdonald was instrumental on a number of fronts that saved the population.“Canada’s Indians escaped the bloody fate of the American Indians and their Trail of Tears,” writes Giesbrecht. “Macdonald was justly proud of this accomplishment.”
While the U.S. Seventh Cavalry was hunting down its native population on horseback, Macdonald was concluding treaties that ended the bloody inter-tribe wars between Plains Indians in the West. He tossed the rotgut whiskey purveyors exploiting Indians south of the border. That guaranteed the natives safety from U.S. imperialism by extending the railway from coast to coast, installing the Crown, not Washington, as their partner in treaties. He also saved them from the starvation brought on from the extinction of the buffalo herds.
Most of all, Macdonald saw education, not genocide, as the saviour of natives in Canada. When the concept of building conventional day schools for them failed he proposed the idea of boarding schools where native children could be educated and, hopefully, become Christian. As Giesbrecht notes, “providing education to Indian children was a treaty obligation demanded by the Indians chiefs, and gratefully granted by the federal government. The numbered treaties included provisions that schools would be built on reserves if requested, and all of the chiefs made that request.”
Further, attendance at the schools was voluntary until about 1920. Under Macdonald parents had to agree to send their children. The government would accept the full cost of the program and the treatments of disease that so many of the children brought with them to the schools. For this and many other policies towards Indians the population of the Plains nations has increased at least tenfold since his time.
But Macdonald’s statue at Queens Park in Toronto must be boarded up to protect it from the radicals stoked by Trudeau’s alleged infamy.
Sadly, another pioneer of education in Canada was not so fortunate. Egerton Ryerson’s name was stricken from the eponymous university when the Reign of Error thugs decided that his participation in starting free live-in education for natives was tantamount to genocide. Despite the fact this proponent of free education for all died before residential schools were in practice, his statue in Toronto was toppled. Whatever happened at the schools after his death in 1884 cannot diminish his desire to educate the native peoples of Ontario and establish universal access to education in Canada.
Guess which Canadian political leader is not having his statue toppled, his likeness removed from schools and his reputation sullied? That would be Justin’s daddy Pierre Trudeau. As PM in 1968 he proposed in a white paper to eliminate native status and turn indigenous people into ordinary Canadians, thereby abrogating all the treaties they’d signed in good faith with the Crown.
With his fellow Liberal cabinet member (and later PM) Jean Chretien, Pierre Trudeau set back native rights by advocating for assimilation when what native leaders wanted was self government under the treaties they’d signed with the Crown. When forced to finally withdraw the white paper, PET petulantly said, “We’ll keep them in the ghetto as long as they want.” In 1973, the Canadian Supreme Court validated those treaties.
Oh, from 1969 until 1978, control and maintenance of residential schools was in the hands the federal government of Canada. The Liberal Party prime minister throughout this eleven-year period ? Pierre Trudeau. Funnily, his son has not made an issue of his father’s role in the bureaucratic mess by calling him a genocidal leader.” Wonder why?
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Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Game 7 win in the World Series over the Toronto Blue Jays averaged a combined 27.3 million viewers. By comparison, the 2025 NBA Finals’ Game 7 between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers averaged 16.4 million viewers on ABC.
Granted, the MLB had the L.A. market as backstop while the NBA featured two small-market teams. But there was no second U.S. home market in the numbers, because Toronto doesn’t count in U.S. ratings. BTW: Canadian ratings were spectacular with over 18.5 million viewers watching some or all of Game 7.
For those who thought baseball was dead as a TV property, 2025 was a golden throwback to another age. Likewise, the NBA Final— with its Canadian MVP—was a flashback to the days when pro basketball played second fiddle to college basketball.
What’s wrong with pro basketball? Many think tying itself so closely with the DEI network ESPN has put off many. The obsession with the L.A. Lakers is off-putting, too. Betting scandals don’t help. But more than anything the NBA is tainted by its stars taking “maintenance days” off for R&R in the middle of the season.
Fans who purchase tickets when the schedule is announced to see LeBron James or Zion Williamson have no recourse months later when the coach sits a player on those maintenance nights. TV schedulers also see their feature primetime games blown up. According to surveys, 65 percent of fans express disappointment when they attend a game without the expected stars.
The trend really caught wind when Kawhi Leonard, with the Toronto Raptors over a barrel, took frequent maintenance days on his way to the 2019 NBA title. Leonard supporters might say that the Raptors beat a battered Golden State Warriors team missing numerous starters like Kevin Durant and Draymond Green whose injuries sidelined them for the Final.
Maybe. (Leonard continues his maintenance routine with the L.A. Clippers.) But the wholesale use of maintenance days during the season has fans asking, Are today’s players more vulnerable to the stresses of a long season or were the players of the Michael Jordan era just mentally tougher?
Just look at Jordan’s record from 1985 to 2003. In an era where there were no private jets, no personal chefs, no advanced sports medicine, Air Jordan flew all 82 games/missions nine times in his career. In fact, outside the two years he played baseball or there was a labour disruption, he played 78 or fewer games just once. This with the Detroit Pistons Bad Boys hammering him.
In defence of today’s stars, the more compact schedule has resulted in an almost 25 percent increase in injuries. The bar for athletic achievement— height, speed, recovery— has gone a lot higher. And the players have to protect the phenomenal salaries they now draw versus Jordan’s day.
Still. There is caution and then there is indulgence. Coaches in danger of losing their job are subject to taking a knee when their stars tap out for a game. The NBA knows its fans were not onboard with the practice, as the TV ratings show.
What about maintenance in other sports? It was a big issue throughout the baseball season— in particular the playoffs. Managers and pitching coaches doing strategy by pitch count. In the ALCS and World Series, a cautious Blue Jays manger John Schneider yanked starters Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage and Max Scherzer with seemingly more pitches in their arm to bring in mediocre bullpen pitchers.
Schneider blew Game 5 of the Series with some wonky pitch-count decisions. But, in the end, it worked out for Schneider as he finally threw caution to the wind in the final games versus the Dodgers, using his starters from the bullpen and allowing more elevated pitch counts.
Not so much success for Detroit manager A.J. Hinch who yanked his ace Tarik Skubal, up 2-1, after 99 pitches in the final ALDS game against Seattle. His bullpen then blew the game in 15 torturous innings. Surely Hinch could get more from Skubal. In his day Nolan Ryan would throw 125-140 pitches in games. But Hinch was protecting the arm of his ace, who might just be traded or sign with another team in the next 12 months.
This protection racket has introduced a news strategy of running up pitch counts in at-bats against excellent pitchers early in a game so the hitters can get to the bullpens when the starters hit the magic pitch count. Managers are now having to bring in their stoppers in the sixth or seventh inning if the lead is getting away from them.
Fans, meanwhile, are confused why today’s pampered stars still tear up their arms, needing Tommy John elbow surgery despite the lowered innings. counts. Meanwhile everyday players never get tired?
So don’t be surprised when your fans turn off the TV because they see stars prioritizing their salaries over win/ loss.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
The tipoff came when the proud Canadian comic who couldn’t be bothered to still live here reprised Elbows Up. It was going to be Mark Carney’s dream come true, the perfect distraction from him apologizing to Orange Man Bad for Doug Ford’s commercial. A team from his political base claiming national status so he could whip up O Canada/ Hate Trump while he tries to sign a trade deal, any deal, with the U.S.
The Globe & Mail, once a serious newspaper, fell in line. “The Blue Jays aren’t just playing for themselves. Because of Trump they’re playing for all of Canada.” Corporate Canada, like Jays “proud owners” at Rogers, threw the Canadian flag into every commercial running. You’d have thought Melanie Joly was batting cleanup.
Never mind there are no Canadians playing for Toronto (Vlad Guerrero was born in Montreal but identifies as Dominican) or that the Dodgers first baseman actually plays for Team Canada. Or that Canadian anthem singers at the games whined about reconciliation while changing the lyrics of O Canada. All they needed to seal the deal was one measly win in Game 7 and a snap federal election was a shoo-in.
As blogger/ writer Jonathan Kay has observed, “I absolutely love that the Canadian media has gone from “Here’s why so-called Canada is a colonial settler genocide state” to “here is the correct way to be a proud Canadian nationalist” in like 15 minutes.”
The fans in attendance in Toronto and via television tuned it all out. In game 7, Toronto went up 3-0 on a homer by Bo Bichette, who already has one foot out the door headed to free agency. It was strictly ballroom for the Boomer Zoomers in the stands and watching on TV. Sure, Turtle Island may put in a land claim at any moment on the “ancestral home” occupied by the Roger Centre. Party on.
Till it ended sadly past midnight in lame jokes when L.A.’s catcher homered in the eleventh inning. “What did @Dodgers Will Smith say to @BlueJays pitcher Shane Bieber? SLAP!” Game. Set. Match.
The party rally over, the Dodgers— who hit just .203 in the Series— celebrated on the infield while Jays fans sat in stunned silence contemplating 12 hits, 10 men left on base and 3 for 14 with runners in scoring position. Remarkable the Jays didn’t win.
The contrast with the 1992-93 experience couldn’t be more stark. But baseball fans not dragging all the political baggage shouldn’t lose sight of the rags-to-riches season on the field. Here was our tepid assessment of the team’s chances in March. “While it’s true that the sun can’t shine on the same team every day, Jays fans believe it would be nice if the great orb would find their club as it did back in the 1992/93 World Series days. Instead of the reflected glory of past stars winning for other teams. Patience is thin. And time is ticking.”
After that was written the Jays did give Vlad Guerrero his 14-year, $500 million deal, locking up their star for his baseball life. But if that was supposed to inspire the team it was a loser. By May 8 they were 16-20. Then they hovered near .500 till the start of June. When we remarked, “Even the Jays’ paid broadcast team was having a tough time putting a happy face on ever catching the Yankees for first.
In desperation manager John Schneider began giving at-bats to prospects like Addison Barger and Jonatan Clase. Journeymen like Nathan Lukes, Ernie Clement and Davis Schneider also thrived in platoon situations.
Another journeyman Eric Lauer solidified the fourth starter spot while Max Scherzer convalesced. In the bullpen unheralded lefties Brendan Little and Mason Fluharty gave Schneider valuable late-game innings. Catcher Alejandro Kirk, handed a new contract, gave the pitching staff a reliable asset.”
Then came the hinge point. In late June/ early July the battered Blue Jays went on a wholly unexpected tear. They won 19 of 24 games, ending with taking three games from MLB’s best team, the Tigers, in Detroit. They didn’t just beat opponents, they pounded them.
Still, management was cautious at the trade deadline in July. They picked up useful bullpen arms in Seranthony Dominguez and Tommy Nance. They rolled the dice on former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber who hadn’t pitched in two seasons. And they picked up versatile Ty France.
But nothing earth-shattering. By August the Jays had earned a 91.9 percent chance of making the postseason, a five percent chance of winning the World Series. But Mr. Carney was not adopting them just yet as the Jays staggered through September. Guerrero didn’t get an extra base hit from Sept. 7- 20. They were playing without, arguably, their best player in Bichette.
Their pitching staff was in tatters with Chris Bassitt gone to the injured list, José Berrios banned to the bullpen, Max Scherzer strafed for seven runs in one start, Jeff Hoffman blowing leads like he blows his nose. All Star catcher Kirk, OFs Addison Barger and Daulton Varsho went cold at the same time.
But the Jays pieced together enough offence centered on George Springer and spare parts like Ernie Clement to keep the wheels on. Bieber, the former Cy Young winner, was a life saver. And as Detroit completed the worst choke in MLB history, Toronto was able to grab home field advantage in the playoffs.
That was when Team Toronto became Carney’s Team Canada, a rallying point for his base as he floundered on the world stage. It’s hard enough to buy into the Team Canada pitch with a Canadian NHL team where at least half the players are Canadian. The Jays don’t even have a surefire domestic prospect in their system at the moment. (They had Toronto’s Rob Butler on the 1992-93 Series winners).
The Laurentian elites were undeterred. According to the G&M, the surrogate Jays were the happy face of their federalism. And for a dizzy month they delivered for both baseball fans and the PMO. For good measure the World Series records fell like autumn leaves, culminating in the final weekend in Toronto. When the dreaded Dodgers squeezed out the wins they needed.
L.A. Times reporter Dylan Hernandez rubbed it in. “It’s amazing how the city of Toronto just keeps producing one loser after another. They’re like San Diego north. I did have to give one last parting shot to my friends up north, because they’re not coming back here anytime soon.”
But Jayson Stark of The Athletic was more sympathetic. “How can you tell when you’ve just been part of the greatest World Series game of your lifetime? Or maybe we should make that anybody’s lifetime? Do you have to wait for a panel of historians to rule on it? Or do you just look into the eyes of your teammates and recognize that you all know it when you see it, when you live it, when you play in it?”
We are with Stark and all baseball fans who resented the first nighters, red-carpet snobs and jock-sniffing politicians horning in on the fun of baseball. It was a time to remember that will linger long after the Elbows Up crew leave us. For now, go Oilers, Habs, Senators, Jets, Canucks, Flames and (gasp) Oilers.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
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