Tim Thielmann

Unpopular take: Getting off the reserve alive is what makes an indigenous person a “survivor,” not having attended a residential school. Here’s why. You may want to bookmark this one. 1/10 🧵

@Travis_M_Ross @thesovereignceo Actually, there is. Because it was the British who ended slavery -the slavery that every other human civilization is practised until they ended it.

@timthielmann @thesovereignceo There was a pre-existing transcontinental slave trade in the Americas b4 Europeans arrived. And all the European imperialist powers who colonized the Americas were engaged in brutal, transcontinental chattel slavery There is no moral highground on which reactionaries can perch

Did Canadian settlers disturb a peaceful First Nations utopia? Or does the real history of colonialism show that they arrived to find slavery, cannibalism and death? Seems like the history isn’t as black and white as what we’ve been told. @timthielmann

@WhiskeyTango59 Thank you very much

@timthielmann Great interview really enjoyed it. Many thanks. 👍

Is anybody going to argue that the colonial abolishment of indigenous slavery and cannibalism in Canada was a bad thing? FULL INTERVIEW below 👇👇👇

@TylerHolte86215 All humans practice slavery until the British ended it. That’s our legacy and we should be proud of it.

@timthielmann The British showed up MUCH earlier than the 1800s (hence why I said participated for generations). Colonial settlors purchased indigenous slaves for generations. It was a ubiquitous commonality for a long time.

Where I started learning about Canada’s colonial past? 1. Colonialism: amoral reckoning by Nigel Biggar - an Oxford ethics professor answers the most common misconceptions about imperial British rule. 2. Journals of early explorers, like Cook, Thompson, and Menzies — these are free and accessible online. 3. The adventures and sufferings of John R Jewett.1- stories of a British trader who was taken as a slave for two years by a chief on Vancouver Island in the late 1700s. Leave your own recommendations in the replies below.

Canadiens settlers were also far more civilized than the Iroquois and other warring tribes who conducted brutal and endless night raids, capturing enslaving and torturing the men, women and children of neighbouring tribes. During the beaver wars of the 1600s, the French were responsible for perhaps 100 or so direct deaths whereas 10,000 to 20,000 died in the native on native warfare.

@thesovereignceo @timthielmann "Compared to the Conquistadors Canadians were nice to Indigenous ppl" = "we're not as bad as Nazi's". He's pushing a reactionary take on British & French imperialism and the know-nothing host clearly hasn't prepared for the interview. She should have interrupted and pushed back

That is not true. The British ended slavery within the British empire in the early 1800s and went to great lengths to eradicate it throughout the rest of the world, including within the colonies, where it was practised by natives. The British did not enslave the natives, they made them subjects into the law and provided protection from external threats as well as food supplies, and other benefits.

@timthielmann I find the notion that colonialism freed indigenous slavery strange revisionism. Slavery was common worldwide at the time, including the colonials being active participants in the same for generations. To call a rather subjugating force liberators is very strange indeed.

@warrenksmith @thevivafrei @GordonShar95541 @Shawnbuckleylaw Thank you

@timthielmann @thevivafrei @GordonShar95541 @Shawnbuckleylaw I highly recommend this @timthielmann conversation Viva.

What is UNDRIP? United Nations Declaration of Rights for Indigenous People. You've probably never even heard heard of it, and it's going to destroy Canada. With @Shawnbuckleylaw

There are other medical experiments where the doctor experimented first on himself and his own children, but somehow there aren’t any statues or monuments to his honor. Only ghost stories of evil colonizers, and the manipulation of historical events to impute malice and justify ongoing guilt.

@rwrandall @ShareawareCdn @timthielmann @NeilGolley In your comment about the schools (which you linked), you make it sound like the doctors were testing harmful drugs, or strange experiments or had malicious intent when you say, "medical experiments". They were trying to find out what nutritional supplements would help.

You’ve probably heard about the poorly ventilated and cramped living conditions in residential schools of the early 1900s, where many students succumbed to tuberculosis and other diseases. It’s one of the reasons some people blame residential schools for “killing” students. But did you know that indigenous children who weren’t able to attend residential schools actually died in far higher numbers? That’s right. Residential schools SAVED the lives of indigenous children. Thousands of them. Let’s dig in. Tuberculosis and other diseases ravaged Indigenous communities in the early 20th century, killing children at shocking rates due to poverty, overcrowding, and isolation on reserves. Tragically, kids did die in residential schools too, often from these same illnesses. Yet, data shows death rates were far lower in schools than on reserves. Why? Schools, despite their early flaws, offered better medical access: improved ventilation, nutrition, vaccinations, and later antibiotics. This care was simply unavailable in remote reserve communities. In fact, this was one key reason some parents and officials sent children there: to protect them from the deadly conditions at home. Historian Ian Gentles' Quillette article ("Not a Genocide") crunches the numbers: TB death rates in schools plummeted from ~900 per 100,000 in 1907 to under 100 by 1921—a 9x drop—while reserve rates stayed stubbornly high. By 1943, schools were ~1/3 as deadly (230 vs. 627 per 100,000 for First Nations overall); by 1953, just 1/5 (20 vs. 100). Even during the 1918-19 Spanish flu, school deaths were only ~27% of reserve rates. Using the mortality rates above, Grok estimates that attendance at residential schools likely saved 2,000–4,000 lives compared to staying on reserves. Residential schools didn't kill thousands. The evidence demonstrates the opposite. Assessed in terms of their entire history, residential schools saved the lives of thousands of indigenous children from disease.

@wobblyhedg31106 @JamesRichy1234 @Stormyseas77508 @thesovereignceo It’s a good point. Western civilization expanded indigenous lifespans from 25 to 75 and has increased in indigenous populations by orders magnitude. So ironically, on a net basis, colonialism is responsible for a reverse genocide — call it a genocrescence, the growth of a people.

@JamesRichy1234 @Stormyseas77508 @thesovereignceo @timthielmann And there are more of us Indigenous today than eveet before

@gddub Precisely. Well put.

Canada wants to mandate more grievance politics into law with C-9. Make no mistake: 'denialism' are modern iterations of blasphemy laws. These radical activists and their twisted religion of worshipping hurt feelings must be stopped.

@TTrish95604 @thesovereignceo There are certain corporate and political actors that benefit from the degradation of the nation, that is for sure.

@thesovereignceo @timthielmann The UN is behind all the current conflicts with FN. The taking of private property is a major Agenda item. FN's may have a temporary elation they took back territory, but the UN/WEF will take it from them.

@Sonfire5150 @thesovereignceo I think a better metaphor would be of adoption. The British came and took custody of the natives, caring, for and protecting them from other tribes, from the American gold, miners, and whiskey traders, and from the brutality of nature.

@timthielmann @thesovereignceo Proud? I’m not sure “proud colonizer” is a correct way to look at it but I know what you mean. It couldve been worse. As far as colonizers go, we were the kindest….

@BachDisapproves @thesovereignceo There’s nothing enlightened about denying the obvious benefits of civilization.

@thesovereignceo @timthielmann Oh yes, the benevolent colonizers bringing civilization to the violent savages trope. So tired, it's unbelievable it's being trotted out in 2026.

@JamesRichy1234 @thesovereignceo The Spanish were ruthless.

@thesovereignceo @timthielmann We should be thankful every day we were colonized by the British, and not the Spanish. They were right behind. BC was vast and virtually empty. Colonization was inevitable. I don’t think it could’ve turned out any better.

@CharlesAllnut @thesovereignceo No good deed goes unpunished

@timthielmann @thesovereignceo A Careful Canadian would say, there we go again, a'vaulting the high horse as usual. We just can't win it seems. Nobody cares to laud our generosity. Perhaps we really are the nicest ones. Was Glenda (the good witch) Canadian? Probably. But In the end, the dog got all the credit.

@buck_canadian Thank you

@timthielmann Samuel Hearne - A Journey from Prince of Wales' Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean archive.org/details/bwb_S0…

@KarinLitzcke Really well done

This is pretty interesting, because much of Canadian history played out as an alternative to what happened in the US.

@PierrePoilievre We don’t need an inquiry, we deserve resignations. Everybody knows why the CBC Greenlet this project: they hate our heroes, our past, and the people who defend it.

We need an inquiry.

@UNHYPHENATEDCDN Thank you

For starters: ~Refugees From Slavery: Autobiographies of Fugitive Slaves in Canada, Edited by Benjamin Drew ...circa mid 1800s ~Sayward (For Kelsey Bay) by Frances Duncan and Rene Harding ~In the Wake of the War Canoe by William Henry Collison

$12 million to dig, zero Graves Doug. 51 recorded deaths at Kamloops all accounted for. Zero names of children missing from Kamloops. Zero police reports of missing children in Kamloops. Zero evidence of a mass burial in Kamloops. Zero homicides at any residential school in Canadian history.

@mario4thenorth +4100 official death records 0 burial records for majority = 1000s unmarked graves at IRS including Kamloops Millions of missing records 51 deaths is NOT final tally GPR section is WRONG No pig carcasses detected does NOT mean ‘no child burials’ +Grave shafts were detected

Some hard facts on “mass graves”: -The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, found 0 cases of homicide. ZERO. -In 165 years of residential schools, there were a total of 6 suicides in residential schools. -From 2011 to 2015, the estimated deaths by suicide was 1,180 for First Nations -There were a total of 3201 deaths in 165 years -Over a third were before 1940 -Tuberculosis, influenza (the Spanish Flu), and pneumonia were the leading cause of death -Antibiotics weren’t widespread until the 1950s -This is well documented in the 1907 Dr Bryce report (screenshot attached) -Back then, there was NO admission medical exams & kids who were admitted were documented as sick -IMPORTANT FACT: the Spanish Flu FORCED common graves with PRIESTS, STAFF, & STUDENTS -This was the norm during this era: Philadelphia, the UK, and Norway all used mass graves in 1918–19 -And yes, outside of the 1918 Spanish Flu there was SHARED USE cemeteries -School cemeteries buried priests, bishops, settlers, and reserve community members so remains aren’t necessarily students -This is a FACT CONFIRMED by the truth and reconciliation commission of Canada -Pupil burials were free to First Nation parents; what was known as Indian Affairs, they had a policy to do this to keep costs low -This ensured that on site burials were the cheapest option -This was consistent with how institutions treated the impoverished or indigent in a general sense -It’s worth considering that neglect can explain “unmarked” graves -Wooden crosses with painted names deteriorated or were destroyed after schools closed and were abandoned post 1969 -So “unmarked” reflects decay, not some sort of secret burial -Here’s a major discrepancy which you might not know of: Kamloops -The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada documented only 51 deaths at Kamloops -This completely contradicts against the May 27, 2021 press release of “215 children.” Where did that number come from? -The community’s own framing, Chief Rosanne Casimir stated it was “not a mass grave, but rather unmarked burial sites,” and the press release acknowledged the cemetery was already “spoken about” and known -FYI: ground penetrating radar detects ONLY soil anomalies -It cannot confirm human remains, identify age, nor determine whether a body is a student, former student, a nun a priest or community member FIN.