So does this renaming effort have as much moral force as similar efforts in the US? Was PM MacDonald a racist? Will the renaming effort succeed? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-canada-faces-its-own-historical-controversy/ WorldViews As America debates Confederate monuments, Canada faces its own historical controversy By Alan Freeman August 28 at 4:07 PM Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, in an undated photo. (Library of Congress) OTTAWA — The name of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, is ubiquitous in the country's capital. Ottawa's airport, a major bridge, a parkway along the Ottawa River and several government buildings are all named for him. He's also in most Canadian wallets: Macdonald’s portrait is on the $10 bill. But in an echo of the American debate over memorials to Confederate leaders, there’s a movement afoot to strip Macdonald's name from the structures that honor him, starting with schools in the province of Ontario. The reason? The long-dead leader is accused of harboring racist views toward Canada’s native people. This month, the union representing primary-school teachers in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, passed a resolution that supports renaming all Ontario schools honoring Macdonald, calling him “the architect of genocide against Indigenous peoples.” The resolution, backed by the head of Canada’s largest indigenous group, the Assembly of First Nations, has provoked a massive backlash from historians, politicians and members of the public. John Baird, a former Canadian foreign minister, called the idea “political correctness on steroids.” The Globe and Mail newspaper called the renaming “an absurd idea — insulting to our history, and to the intelligence of Canadians.” Sir John A., as he's affectionately known, was the driving force behind Canadian Confederation, in which Britain's North American possessions were banded together in the 1860s into the forerunner of modern Canada. The hard-drinking, Scottish-born lawyer is credited with bringing the fractious group of feuding colonies, divided by religion, language and ethnicity, together to form a united country. He was elected prime minister six times and served for almost 19 years until his death in 1891. But Macdonald was also a proponent of the now-reviled system of residential schools for Canada’s indigenous people, which forced children from their homes and placed them in schools far away. Abuse was rife in the schools, some of which existed until the 1990s. The Canadian government has set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission over the past decade to document the schools' unfortunate legacy and has paid out billions of dollars in restitution to survivors. [‘Need your prayers’: The youth-suicide crisis gripping a Canadian community] To back their allegations of racism, Macdonald’s critics cite a speech he gave to Canada’s House of Commons in 1883 in support of the residential school idea. “When the school is on the reserve the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read or write,” Macdonald said. Perry Bellegarde, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, says having schools named after Macdonald perpetuates such racist ideas. “How would you feel if you were a young First Nations person going to that school, knowing full well that Sir John A. Macdonald was one of the architects behind the residential school system?” Bellegarde asked the CBC. The anti-Macdonald movement follows a decision in June by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to rename the Langevin Block, the building in Ottawa that houses Trudeau’s own office. The building honored Hector-Louis Langevin, a minister in Macdonald’s cabinet who is credited with creating the schools. In making the announcement, Trudeau said he was acknowledging the “deep pain” the Langevin name caused. While that decision got some public support, the idea of stripping Macdonald from school buildings has provoked widespread anger and derision. “Words escape me,” Patrice Dutil, a political historian at Toronto’s Ryerson University, told The Washington Post. “It’s fundamentally unfair to the man’s historical contribution.” Dutil said that Macdonald’s belief in the need to “civilize” indigenous peoples and have them join the mainstream of Canadian life was perfectly in line with Victorian ideals. “The intentions of Macdonald were not murderous, and to use the term 'genocide' is particularly inappropriate,” he said. Critics have also noted that the reasoning behind removing Macdonald's name would apply to other Canadian prime ministers, too. Wilfrid Laurier, the country’s first French Canadian prime minister, opposed Chinese immigration; William Lyon Mackenzie King, who led Canada during World War II, helped keep the nation's borders closed to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s. For now, as Toronto Star columnist Thomas Walkom wrote Monday, Macdonald's name appears safe: Ontario’s premier has indicated that she doesn’t intend to change any school names. “But I’d be surprised if any new government buildings were named after the first prime minister,” Walkom noted, before offering a sardonic suggestion. “In fact, it might be less controversial to avoid naming anything after anybody. At least until we find someone who will remain flawless for all time.”
Someone should pay more attention to the liberties and freedoms "good" Canadians lost to the Ottawa gov't under MacDonald. With each move toward Canada central gov't, Provinces and their peoples, functioning as Crown Colonies, Autonomous, and what not were steadily deprived of their rights. There is a very dark side of the MacDonald gov't for all Canadians to acknowledge. Not just towards the Native Canadians. May as well had a Soviet-lite Ottawa gov't Viva Louis Riel! How Did They Get That "Nice" Image? (Ottawa gov't PR planning) Moi r > g Viva Acadia liberte Acadians, a forgotten, abused people.
Evolution of Soviet-lite Ottawa Centralized Gov't. Got Rights? Less & less. What horror movie does this remind you of?
Wow! What an amazing image! Moi621.... do you personally think that P. M. Stephen Harper and President Bush may ever get the kind of credit that they deserve? http://www.politicalforum.com/index...respond-brilliantly-to-global-warming.513530/ Did President Bush respond brilliantly to Global Warming?
Here's more: http://www.torontosun.com/2017/07/12/fare-thee-well-edward-cornwallis-you-had-it-coming Fare thee well, Edward Cornwallis, you had it coming Bonokoski 2016 BY MARK BONOKOSKI, POSTMEDIA NETWORK FIRST POSTED: WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2017 04:33 PM EDT | UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2017 05:01 PM EDT Edward Cornwallis A statue of Edward Cornwallis stands in a Halifax park on Thursday, June 23, 2011. The story of Edward Cornwallis in Nova Scotia can be told two ways: The tale of a brave leader and his entourage of soldiers and settlers trying to survive in a new world, or the commander of a bloody and barbaric extermination campaign against Mi'kmaq inhabitants by British invaders. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan) Facebook group plans to 'peacefully remove' statue from Halifax park deemed offensive to Mi'kmaq Protesters celebrate as controversial Halifax founder statue is draped in tarp Liberals punted on 1st down with $10.5M Omar Khadr settlement Our forebears were often a nasty lot, although they were perhaps prodded by nasty times in their quest to colonize a land that was savage in both climate and hardship. Few had an easy go of it. Down Halifax way, however, a large bronze statue of Edward Cornwallis, the founder of Halifax, has provoked ferocious controversy among the Mi’kmaq First Nations and more broadly. Some want the statue of Cornwallis toppled, viewing it as a symbol of hate and bigotry. Cornwallis is credited with helping build the province. There’s also little doubt Cornwallis reflected the worst aspects of his time. France and England were fighting over Nova Scotia when in 1749, for example, Cornwallis offered a bounty for every Mi’kmaq scalp in an effort to end the indigenous uprising his colonization plans incited. One does not have to think too hard, however, about where Cornwallis got the idea of scalping. It had been practiced by Indigenous North Americans before Europeans arrived and was adopted by Europeans during the bloody conflicts between the French and English. At one point, French settlers offered bounties for the scalps of English soldiers. And apart from scalping, Cornwallis demonstrated a singular inclination for murder, terror and ruthless pacification. That said, if someone as peaceful as Mahatma Gandhi can have his statue razed, then Edward Cornwallis doesn’t stand a chance. Take a quick trip over to Africa and the University of Ghana, and sightseers will be told the statue to Gandhi disappeared from display two years ago, with him having been tarred by 21st century academics as not only a racist, but a “sexist, misogynist, casteist, supremacist and a patriarch.” And here you thought Gandhi was a peaceful, benign soul who famously wouldn’t hurt a fly. Now you know better. Back in Halifax, meanwhile, the statue of Cornwallis that some Mi’kmaq so badly want knocked off its stone pedestal has been gathering additional news as of late. On Canada Day, for example, a spiritual ceremony at the statue by Mi’kmaq activists was disrupted by a group of Canadian Armed Forces members who belong to some odd fraternity known as the Proud Boys, self-declared “Western Chauvinists.” Their actions got senior military brass promising to virtually run them out of the forces if the accusations were true. This seemed to appease everyone who was offended. Forgotten in the initial outrage of the Mi’kmaqs and counter-outrage of the Proud Boys is that our history is history. It is replete with horrors and atrocities and uncomfortable realities that we have great difficulty reconciling with today. One cannot judge history by today’s moral and ethical standards. Thankfully John A. Macdonald was nothing more than a relatively harmless drunk, otherwise progressive sensibilities would be in a real pickle. On Canada Day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to put new paint on the Langevin Block in Ottawa that houses his office and the office of the Privy Council. While Hector Langevin was one our Fathers of Confederation he was also one of the brains behind the residential school system that saw First Nations children yanked from their homes to be brainwashed and whitewashed. The goal, as often repeated, was to “kill the Indian in the child” in order to ease their assimilation into a new society. We all know how that worked out. So out comes the cement trowel and off comes Langevin’s name, a genuflection to the theory that out of sight is out of mind. It doesn’t change history, of course, but it does put lipstick to the pig and makes all and sundry feel better about themselves. So, fare thee well, Edward Cornwallis. You had it coming. Better 268 years late than never. markbonokosi@gmail.com
