Aboriginals Demand IOC Suspend Member for 'Savages' Remark

JORGE BARRERA, Canwest News Service
Oct. 18, 2008

A former Olympian says she was "disturbed" and "disappointed" by McGill University chancellor and Canadian International Olympic Committee representative Dick Pound's published statement that Canada was a land inhabited by "savages" 400 years ago.

Waneek Horn-Miller, a Mohawk and coordinator of McGill's student service's First Peoples' House, said she hoped Pound's views did not reflect the university's "attitude toward the indigenous people of the country." While stopping short of calling for his removal as chancellor and from the IOC, Horn-Miller said the statement was "ignorant" and "racist." "Here the chancellor is making statements like that; it is really disappointing," said Horn-Miller, who was co-captain of the Canadian women's water-polo team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

"I am not going to say whether he should or he should not step down; all I can say is my reaction and McGill has to look at how it's represented." McGill Faculty of Education professor Michael Doxtater, director of the university's indigenous education project, said Pound must apologize along with the university.

"The worse thing the university could do is not respond," said Doxtater, a Mohawk and chairman of the university's joint senate-board subcommittee on first peoples' equity.

Doxtater, brother-in-law to Waneek, said current scholarship on indigenous history shows North America was inhabited by thriving, advanced and organized civilizations that were decimated by disease and the "Indian wars" of the 1700 and 1800s.

Pound made his controversial statement during an interview with La Presse published Aug. 9. The issue lay dormant until the National Post reported Friday that a native advocacy group had written a letter to the IOC's ethics commissioner demanding Pound's resignation.

"We must not forget that 400 years ago, Canada was a land of savages, with scarcely 10,000 inhabitants of European origin, while in China, we're talking about a 5,000-year-old civilization," Pound said in the interview.

The comments were made after a question about whether the IOC was embarrassed to be affiliated with China's political history.

The university had no immediate comment yesterday, but an official said a statement could be released later in the day.

In a more recent media interview, Pound said he had made a clumsy comment that was taken out of context.

The Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador said in a statement Friday they would be asking McGill to officially sanction Pound.

AFNQL Chief Ghislain Picard said Pound should do the right thing and resign.

"Mr. Pound should himself understand the immense discourtesy of his remarks and offer to resign," Picard said.

"Contrary to the beliefs of Richard Pound, the First Nations of Quebec are descendant from great societies that have occupied the territory of Quebec for more than 5,000 years. Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, America was inhabited by nations that lived in well-organized societies. We were not mere herds."

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

Aboriginal group demands IOC suspend Pound for 'savages' remarks

National Post Published: Friday, October 17, 2008

An aboriginal advocacy group wants the International Olympic Committee to suspend Canadian IOC member Dick Pound for comments he made to a Montreal newspaper, which they believe suggests he views aboriginals as cultureless savages. In a letter to the IOC's ethics commission, LandInSights' director Andre Dudemaine called for sanctions against Mr. Pound in the lead-up to the Vancouver Games. On Aug. 9, Mr. Pound was quoted in Montreal's La Presse as saying, in French, "We must not forget that 400 years ago, Canada was a land of savages, with scarcely 10,000 inhabitants of European origin, while in China, we're talking about a 5,000-year-old civilization." The comments were made after a question about whether the IOC was embarrassed to be affiliated with China's political history. Mr. Dudemaine said it suggests that Indians have no culture or civilization.