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while i very much support his anti drug stance i am appalled at this statement
mr pound made that"We must not forget that 400 years ago, Canada was a land of savages,"
this is just straight up racism.
i am a film maker and found out about when i received a copy of this letter.
Letter to the President of the International Olympic Committee Ethics Commission
Posted by Administrator
Montreal, October 2nd 2008
International Olympic Committee Ethics Commission
Mr Youssoupha NDIAYE, Chairman
Villa du Centenaire
Avenue de l'Élysée 28
1006 Lausanne
Switzerland
Dear Mr Chairman,
The purpose of this letter is to lodge a complaint against Mr Richard Pound for uttering racist and discriminatory words causing a grave prejudice to Amerindians. He thereby contravened his duty as an Olympic official to “fidelity to the Olympic ideal inspired by Pierre de Coubertin” (foreword to the IOC Code of Ethics. The Olympic Charter stipulates that “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement”.
The facts
Following a question by journalist Agnès Gruda,
Q: And yet, since Beijing was chosen as host city for the Games, we have seen the repression of the Tibetan revolt, Chinese support to the Sudanese government against Darfur and the jailing of many dissidents. Don’t you find this embarrassing?
Mr Richard Pound responds:
“A: We must not forget that 400 years ago, Canada was a land of savages, with scarcely 10 000 inhabitants of European descent, while in China, we’re talking about a 5000-year-old civilization. We must be prudent with our great experience of three or four centuries before telling the Chinese how to manage China. The president of China has to make sure 1.3 billion people can eat two meals a day. Their situation is not comparable with ours”.
These words were widely circulated because the interview was published in the first section of the Montreal daily La Presse, Saturday August 9th, 2008, and made available over the Internet afterwards on the site www.cyberpresse.ca (http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080 ... ACTUALITES)
The prejudice
Mr Richard Pound is a distinguished man. He has been Chancellor of McGill University, member of the Quebec and Ontario Bars, member of the International Olympic Committee, president of the World Ant doping Agency, author of works about law and history. His social role as spokesperson for the Olympic movement and his professional titles confer upon him prestige giving his opinions an important stature in public opinion, and in the case before us, have a considerable impact on the people he is denigrating.
Through his words, he is affirming that the Amerindians had no culture or civilization (“a land of savages”) and that only the presence of “scarcely 10 000 people of European descent” represents civilized life in the Canadian landscape. He reaffirms these words by speaking of our experience “of three or four centuries”, leaving the cultural and civilizing contributions of the Amerindian nations out of humanity’s heritage and Canadian history. Over the course of thousands of years of life in these lands, these nations have developed languages, cultures, social and political organizations, networks of trade exchanges, farming techniques, religions, artistic practices, sports (now Olympic Games events), diplomatic relations and environmentally-respectful models of development.
Racial and ethnic prejudices against Amerindians have had tragic historical consequences: exclusion from political life, relegation on reserves, denial of social rights, expropriation of lands, locking up children in concentration-camp residential schools.
This painful legacy is a long way from overcome since the marginalization of people belonging to First Nations remains to this day a constant challenge for the progress of human rights in Canada and throughout the Americas. Evidence of this is the solemnity of the recent official Parliament of Canada ceremony apologizing to residential school victims, the international community’s concern expressed through a Universal Declaration of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, the many awareness-raising programs about First Peoples’ history and current situation that have emerged to in Quebec and Canada, including the program established by the Quebec Commission on Human Rights and Youth (Commission des droits de la personne et de la jeunesse du Québec).
When the most stubborn prejudices are suddenly bolstered by a public figure representing the prestige and authority of the Olympic movement, this is a significant step backwards for people who have organized to combat the discrimination First Nations have been victims of. Olympic prestige is the very reason the speaker of the aforementioned words will reach a significant audience through mass circulation media.
The sanction
Simply closing our eyes to the expression of discriminatory comments about First Nations would encourage bigots against Amerindian people to persevere in their sinister crusade, in other words, give ethnic and racial prejudice a free rein.
Thus we call upon the IOC Ethics Commission for sanctions against Mr Richard Pound for his racist statements about Amerindians, and that a strong sanction be pronounced to let Canadians know the Olympic movement does not subscribe to Richard Pound’s racist creed, on the eve of the Vancouver Olympic Games.
André Dudemaine
Director
InSights, society for the dissemination of Aboriginal culture
mr pound made that"We must not forget that 400 years ago, Canada was a land of savages,"
this is just straight up racism.
i am a film maker and found out about when i received a copy of this letter.
Letter to the President of the International Olympic Committee Ethics Commission
Posted by Administrator
Montreal, October 2nd 2008
International Olympic Committee Ethics Commission
Mr Youssoupha NDIAYE, Chairman
Villa du Centenaire
Avenue de l'Élysée 28
1006 Lausanne
Switzerland
Dear Mr Chairman,
The purpose of this letter is to lodge a complaint against Mr Richard Pound for uttering racist and discriminatory words causing a grave prejudice to Amerindians. He thereby contravened his duty as an Olympic official to “fidelity to the Olympic ideal inspired by Pierre de Coubertin” (foreword to the IOC Code of Ethics. The Olympic Charter stipulates that “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement”.
The facts
Following a question by journalist Agnès Gruda,
Q: And yet, since Beijing was chosen as host city for the Games, we have seen the repression of the Tibetan revolt, Chinese support to the Sudanese government against Darfur and the jailing of many dissidents. Don’t you find this embarrassing?
Mr Richard Pound responds:
“A: We must not forget that 400 years ago, Canada was a land of savages, with scarcely 10 000 inhabitants of European descent, while in China, we’re talking about a 5000-year-old civilization. We must be prudent with our great experience of three or four centuries before telling the Chinese how to manage China. The president of China has to make sure 1.3 billion people can eat two meals a day. Their situation is not comparable with ours”.
These words were widely circulated because the interview was published in the first section of the Montreal daily La Presse, Saturday August 9th, 2008, and made available over the Internet afterwards on the site www.cyberpresse.ca (http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080 ... ACTUALITES)
The prejudice
Mr Richard Pound is a distinguished man. He has been Chancellor of McGill University, member of the Quebec and Ontario Bars, member of the International Olympic Committee, president of the World Ant doping Agency, author of works about law and history. His social role as spokesperson for the Olympic movement and his professional titles confer upon him prestige giving his opinions an important stature in public opinion, and in the case before us, have a considerable impact on the people he is denigrating.
Through his words, he is affirming that the Amerindians had no culture or civilization (“a land of savages”) and that only the presence of “scarcely 10 000 people of European descent” represents civilized life in the Canadian landscape. He reaffirms these words by speaking of our experience “of three or four centuries”, leaving the cultural and civilizing contributions of the Amerindian nations out of humanity’s heritage and Canadian history. Over the course of thousands of years of life in these lands, these nations have developed languages, cultures, social and political organizations, networks of trade exchanges, farming techniques, religions, artistic practices, sports (now Olympic Games events), diplomatic relations and environmentally-respectful models of development.
Racial and ethnic prejudices against Amerindians have had tragic historical consequences: exclusion from political life, relegation on reserves, denial of social rights, expropriation of lands, locking up children in concentration-camp residential schools.
This painful legacy is a long way from overcome since the marginalization of people belonging to First Nations remains to this day a constant challenge for the progress of human rights in Canada and throughout the Americas. Evidence of this is the solemnity of the recent official Parliament of Canada ceremony apologizing to residential school victims, the international community’s concern expressed through a Universal Declaration of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, the many awareness-raising programs about First Peoples’ history and current situation that have emerged to in Quebec and Canada, including the program established by the Quebec Commission on Human Rights and Youth (Commission des droits de la personne et de la jeunesse du Québec).
When the most stubborn prejudices are suddenly bolstered by a public figure representing the prestige and authority of the Olympic movement, this is a significant step backwards for people who have organized to combat the discrimination First Nations have been victims of. Olympic prestige is the very reason the speaker of the aforementioned words will reach a significant audience through mass circulation media.
The sanction
Simply closing our eyes to the expression of discriminatory comments about First Nations would encourage bigots against Amerindian people to persevere in their sinister crusade, in other words, give ethnic and racial prejudice a free rein.
Thus we call upon the IOC Ethics Commission for sanctions against Mr Richard Pound for his racist statements about Amerindians, and that a strong sanction be pronounced to let Canadians know the Olympic movement does not subscribe to Richard Pound’s racist creed, on the eve of the Vancouver Olympic Games.
André Dudemaine
Director
InSights, society for the dissemination of Aboriginal culture
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