Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Mindless Ramblings of a Wool Playing Man #2



In the past weeks and months, every once in a while various media sites discuss one group or another's attempt to rename a school, a street or to take down a statue. In the USA it is usually because the individual (almost always a male) the street, the school or the statue honours is a person who was an active supporter of slavery. In Canada - it is because the person proposed or enacted policies that were designed to limit or destroy the Indigenous way of life.

I am of mixed minds about these attempt. While there is no doubt that in the brilliantly shining light of twenty-first century hindsight, these people were racist. Their policies whether they were intended or not, were destructive, punitive and in many cases - soul destroying. However, I am not always convinced that destroying all memory of these individuals is the best way to teach histories and the lessons that we need to learn. There are times when I wonder why we spend energies on these discussions when there is so much more to do, things such as clean water or adequate health care and education are critical to the well being of Indigenous Canadians.

Most recently CBC reported the removal of a statue of Edward Cornwallis - the founder of Halifax - from a city park. Indigenous leaders in Halifax had argued that Cornwallis had authorize a cash bounty to anyone who killed a Mi'kmaw person and that therefore his activities should not be publically celebrated. I have no allegiance towards Cornwallis - I barely even recognized his name. I do not know if he did anything of merit that warrants a statue, neither do I know if he actually offered and paid out the cash bounty. However, I have no doubt that he was a racists both in terms of Indigenous peoples and Africans.

What I find remarkable about the story was that a city council who are usually far more concerned about budgets, pot holes and by-laws, took the time to pass the motion to immediately get the statue out of the park. I suspect that the majority of councillors and in fact the majority of residents of Halifax could not have cared less if the stature stayed or went. It was removed because a small number of people argued that they were directly affected/offended by the statue and they were listened to. The Halifax municipal councillors did not have to do what they did, they would not have lost the next election if they had done nothing, they listened and responded.

I am not sure if Canadians recognize that at least occasionally we live in a very special place. It is a place where a minority, with no political, social or economic power base can influence people who have or belong to a political, social or economic power base, and they can do it solely by appealing to those people to do what is right. It will take another life time or two to correct all of the profound injustices that have been dealt to those Canadians from Indigenous communities. We have so much left to do - but I think we should all have a little bit more hope and even a little bit more pride that not only is change possible but in at least some parts of Canada, sometimes we do what is right for the simple reason that it is the right thing to do.

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