Dear Backwoods Bernie: Before You Go Around Accusing Canadians of Waging a Genocide, You'd Best Bone Up on Your Geneva Conventions

A letter published in the Calgary Herald 'splains why what happened to Canada's Aboriginals, as awful as much of it was, does not fit the definition of genocide (my bolds):

Re: "Genocide defined," Letter, Aug. 1. Reports of First Nations children at residential schools as part of TB medical experiments are true, but lack historical context. 

From the turn of the century to the 1950s, tuberculosis was the leading killer of Canadians. People most at risk were those who were undernourished, living in poverty, unsanitary conditions or crowding. In Saskatchewan, a leader in global research on TB prevention, it was discovered that in the mid-1920s, some 90 per cent of First Nations people were infected with TB. 

From today's distant view, we forget that plagues killed millions. In the 1837-40 smallpox outbreaks in the U.S., entire First Nations villages were wiped out. The Spanish flu of 1918 killed up to 100 million globally. The dead were buried immediately to avoid contagion. 

TB ravaged First Nations people in Saskatchewan as early as 1884, and death rates were 10 times higher than among whites. Experimental vaccines used on aboriginal children saved lives in a public health crisis. 

Schooling in Canada's early days was a luxury. First Nations children were provided with what nonnatives were denied - free, full education. Infectious diseases went everywhere with no mercy, including residential schools. 

A 1948 Geneva Convention definition of genocide, which Bernie Farber cited in his letter, specifically applies to circumstances of armed conflict. 

Michelle Stirling-Anosh
Calgary