Reformed neo-nazi skinhead UNBC masters student calls residential school system institutionalized white supremacy

A reformed neo-nazi skinhead, a UNBC masters student, said the residential school system was institutionalized white supremacy, reports the Prince George Citizen on May 16. The man was speaking to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings which held two days of testimony in the community. He talked about the cycle of violence; that the experience sometimes turned the abused into the abuser. “The reason I would beat people up was to respond to the abuses I suffered,” explained Daniel Gallant. “When I saw [a certain family member] beating [certain loved ones], I felt connected to that person. They were suffering what I was suffering. So later when I would beat people up, I was feeling a connection to them. I was making them into someone just like me. Now they knew what I felt. We now had a connection.” He said it was important to use the information that comes from the TRC events. “If we continue not using this information, it opens a climate of extremism. The mindset of extremism is actually very common; what is uncommon is the violence attached to it. But from this testimony we see that people in our own community are perfectly willing to do violence like that to people they think are vulnerable.” The newspaper reads: It is not enough to provide just a token compensation package and a forum for expression, said Gallant. Canadian children were taught for more than a century that Indians were inferior, that their social problems were their own fault, and that they were a burden to white society.