Statues should be removed

Dear Editor: Re: Victoria mulls future of Sir John A. Macdonald statue

The controversy over the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald offers an excellent opportunity to educate the uninitiated or ill-informed about his role in the atrocities that, to this day, reverberate as a result of the residential schools and attempted genocide of Indigenous peoples.

Without question, the statue should be removed from its place of honour to be installed where it can be described, in full, the damage caused by this heinous movement and will, according to futurists, continue for another seven generations of Indigenous peoples. Further, the teachers’ union’s request, that Macdonald’s name should be replaced on schools that now bear it, must be respected.

As a child living in Ladysmith during the 1930s and early 1940s, I was aware, even then, of the mistreatment of the First Nations people living in the area. During the 1980s, I had the great good fortune of teaching young people from 14 nations, during the inaugural year of Northern Native Broadcasting which is now successfully carried throughout the North and territories.

The experience was my profound introduction into the culture that deserves the respect, admiration and justice of every Canadian. And every Canadian needs to be aware of the damage done by the country’s first prime minister in his attempt to “take the Indian out of the child.”

Moving statues to an appropriate place and renaming schools does not remove our history, it corrects a long-standing injustice. Dianne Pearce Victoria