Past imperfect, permanent stains
Re: Everything is offensive from Laurier to Dief. Aug. 29
I think it is foolish to remove all reminders of blemishes in the character of notable people without taking into consideration of how many atoned and made a complete reversal over what they had done in the past.
I think of Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, who before his being confirmed was at one time a member of the Ku Klux Klan when he was a senator in Alabama which caused concerned of the African Americans as to how he would arrive at decisions and yet he was their great ally on civil rights in cases like the 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education. Chief Justice Earl Warren, when he was governor of California, sent Japanese- Americans to internment camps during the Second World War but was a leader on the court of the rights of all Americans in bringing about the Miranda rights in that all citizens are to be read their rights by enforcement officers and to be provided with an attorney when charged with an alleged crime. John Clubine, Toronto Methinks the author did not go far enough in the modern era.
To wit: Pierre Trudeau, who was totally responsible for passage of legislation that removed equal opportunity for Canadian citizens in government jobs and promotion simply because of their skin colour and their sex (white males). The Trudeau propaganda ministry would call it Equity but common sense would call it pure racism.
His passage of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms against the advice and concerns of other world leaders is coming back to haunt us.
Putting the citizen above the state now results in $ 10.5 million going to a former terrorist and no doubt Senator Duffy will walk away with $ 8 million using this same tactic.
And yet we still glorify this person, naming just about any landmark in his name.
Only in Canada — go figure.