Reshape painful past into honest lessons

For most Edmontonians, the name Oliver conjures images of a bustling elm-lined urban neighbourhood. But for protesters who gathered last weekend, the name evokes the dark side of the man who lent his name to the community.

Few Edmontonians know much about Frank Oliver; he established the city’s first newspaper and served as an MLA and MP, helping create Banff National Park and championing Edmonton as Alberta’s capital. He was honoured for those achievements. But Oliver also has a troubling legacy that includes using his newspaper to pressure Indigenous Peoples to surrender their reserve land. He drafted an immigration policy banning black people. He railed against Ukrainians, Chinese and Japanese, comparing them to “pigs” and “millstones . . . hung around our necks.”

While reflective of the era, those views are shockingly racist and intolerant today. It’s no wonder Oliver was targeted at the rally protesting the violence in Charlottesville, Va., where white supremacists and neoNazis gathered to purportedly protest the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

The discussion around scrubbing certain Canadian figures from landmarks is receiving renewed attention from the controversy surrounding Confederate monuments.

To liken Oliver to icons of the Old South is an imperfect equivalence. Some memorials honouring Confederates were erected long after the Civil War to support segregationist Jim Crow laws and oppose the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s.

Canadians who chose to honour Oliver — and others such as Nellie McClung, John A. Macdonald and Bishop Vital Grandin — were almost certainly celebrating their positive contributions in good faith.

In the U.S., reconciling modern sensibilities with history now takes the form of moving or removing statues. In Canada, a more constructive solution would turn our monuments into teaching moments that tell an honest and critical history.

It’s already been done in one instance in Edmonton. A mural of Grandin in his namesake LRT station offended Indigenous groups because of its benevolent portrayal of residential schools. A Grandin Mural Working Group brought together Indigenous People, academics, city officials and Alberta francophones. They “reconciled” the mural by adding new murals on either side that told a more complete story satisfactory to francophone and Aboriginal communities.

That’s the example we should look toward in dealing with our history. Our past is something we must keep reflecting on. — Postmedia News