History not lost with statue removal

LETTERS

In response to Gerty Heinen’s letter of Aug. 14, I cannot bite my tongue.

She says her ire was raised by the removal of the John A. Macdonald statue in Victoria. While she is more than entitled to hold such a narrow view of what Macdonald accomplished as our first prime minister, I suggest we have not lost any history at all with this removal and others to follow. In fact by removing them we will continue a debate about what our true history is as it pertains to Indigenous people which will include a dialogue about the full gamut of Macdonald’s political career (it is not pretty). So while Gerty’s ire was raised by the removal of one statue, I suggest that pales in comparison to how similar Macdonald statues that dot our country make indigenous people feel.

Gerty tries to draw a parallel between our indigenous people and immigrants who arrived in Canada in the 1990s who also had terrible things happen to them in their own countries. She says the difference however is that these immigrants rose above the indignities they suffered to make something of themselves once here in Canada. She misses one obvious point. The indignities and injustices suffered by our indigenous people happened on our soil and so if you are a Canadian you own it! We all own it!

Macdonald was instrumental in building Canada, which no person argues. After all, that’s what we were taught in school so it must be fact right?? Does anyone remember reading about Macdonald in school and being shocked and repulsed? Not likely and that’s because the curriculum we were fed was void of the hard truth. Maybe the writers of those textbooks were not up to speed on who he really was and his methods or maybe it is just easier to ignore how a Canadian government almost wiped out, with intention, our Indigenous people. Whatever the reason, better books have come along to inform us, at least those of us who want to know the full story. One of those books is “Clearing the Plains” by James Daschuk and should be read by every Canadian student, period! If you would like to gain an understanding of our history as it pertains to the treatment of indigenous people grab a copy. Be warned, you will be shocked and repulsed.

Barry Knapp

Coaldale