Winterpeg

We returned today from a conference in Winnipeg. We flew out last Sunday afternoon and came back this morning. The conference ran for three days but felt like years at times. As normal, there were one or two workshops that were beneficial, while the rest were better skipping. We had two keynote speakers. The first was Gabor Mate, a doctor from B.C. who has done a lot of work on holistic medicine and addiction. He spent 3 hours telling the audience that it is not the fault of those addicting drugs, but instead their parents and others. Furthermore, that kids misbehaving is on the parents. No personal responsibility whatsoever.

The second speaker was a Native from Manitoulin Island, Bea Shawanda. She had run several workshops throughout the conference. In one, in which Amanda and Jill attended, she spent the entire time discussing the us vs. them argument. Basically that before white colonization of Canada, the Natives were fine. This theme was pretty evident throughout the week and was tiring. Mate had stated during his 3-hour blame presentation that, "before white settlers came to Canada, Natives were not addicted to any substance, even though it was on the land (tobacco, herbs)." We spend most of our time in Deer Lake fighting both subtle and blatant racism. We figured that this week was going to be a vacation from that. Unfortunately this didn't happen. Here's hoping March Break goes differently.

On a similar note, a little comparison. Many of the more common 'hard' drugs make their way from South America. Almost any program on National Geographic will attest this fact. Can you imagine a family of an abused going to the, oh let's say Colombian, government and blaming them that their loved one is addicted to the drug. Well this same logic is currently being employed by those at the Workshops and in Deer Lake. Our students use the same approach when they are in trouble. They will whole heartily blame Claire or I for something they did. For example, it is our fault when the student gets suspended after swearing and threatening either of us. Unbelievable.

We did have decent time in Winnipeg. Able to see a couple of movies (The Vow, The Woman in Black). Obviously a lot of shopping was done. All three of us got sick at one point in the week, so that wasn't exactly nice.