Apologies all around

Re: I’ve had enough of saying sorry; Christie Blatchford, Aug. 15

I’m sure Christie Blatchford speaks for many Canadians in criticizing what has become a preposterous progressive apology industry; however, I’m sure she does not speak for many of us when she uses the language of the Holocaust in reference to the residential schools.

To refer to residential school students as “survivors” is just one more aspect of a historical revisionism that has served to self-righteously destroy the names of many from previous generations, people who were imperfect but certainly no more so than are we, the latest example being the removal of Sir John A. Macdonald’s statue from in front of City Hall in Victoria.

Certainly the residential schools had some serious faults, but to equate them and their founders with Nazi death camps is beyond the pale. Let’s return to a reasonable and historically accurate perspective on this subject. Derek Frew, Vancouver Before Ms. Blatchford bans saying sorry, could we just have a “sorry” from the Italian government for having the Romans invade my homeland in 50 BC?

And the French for invading my homeland in 1066 AD?

And my parents for sending me to boarding (residential) school in 1946, at an age when I was too young to give consent?

Some cash compensation would be nice, or a statutory holiday, even better. Dr. John Cocker, Stouffville, Ont.