Indigenous redress more than removing names

Recently, Ryerson University was renamed to Metro University. In Ottawa, the Langevin building which houses the Prime Minister's Office has been renamed “the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council.”

And in Saskatoon John A. Macdonald Road is about to get a makeover.

So what's all the fuss about? It seems that all three had a hand in the establishment of the residential school system and John A., in particular, practised a form of genocide in the clearing of the plains for settlement.

Now, I by no means condone these actions, but we need to look at the bigger picture. Today, in the clear light of the 21st century, people go apoplectic about the exploits of these individuals.

What is lost in the mists of time is that these individuals were leaders and they were supported by the society at large.

Egerton Ryerson was an educator from Upper Canada who was the father of the industrial schools, which were the forerunner of the boarding schools. Saskatchewan

had two industrial schools, one in Regina and the other in Battleford.

Ryerson recommended that the boys be trained to be farmers and the girls to be domestics. They would also study academic subjects, including math, history, writing, music, bookkeeping and agricultural chemistry. In fact, the education program was superior to the churchrun schools, which concentrated on religion.

Hector Louis Langevin was the minister of public works and an administrator in the Macdonald government. He was charged with the implementation of Ryerson's proposal for industrial schools. He recommended that the children be separated from their parents in order for the schools to be really effective.

He stated that if the children were left with their family they might learn to read and write, but in the end, they would still be savages. Whereas if they were separated from their parents, they could become civilized. He was rewarded with the naming of the Langevin Block, which houses the office of the prime minister and the Privy Council.

John A. Macdonald was another piece of work that was also a reflection of his time. When Confederation created the country of Canada it was largely Upper and Lower Canada and the

Maritimes.

The dream of the Fathers of Confederation was to establish a copy of the British Empire in Canada. Upper Canada, which later became Ontario, would be the hub and the West would be a colony that supplied raw materials to the industrial heartland.

As far as they were concerned, the West would be opened to settlement and the Indigenous people had no role except to shut up and assimilate.

Unbelievable though it sounds, the industrial schools that begat the church-run residential schools were the only institutions created to actually improve the lot of our people.

They imagined a world where we would reject our barbaric past and take our place on the bottom rungs of Canadian society.

Following the events of 1885, known in Canadian history as the Riel Rebellion and the Northwest Rebellion, eight warriors were hung in Battleford, which was the nation's largest public hanging. It was a show of force to show who was in charge.

Following the executions, John A. wrote to Edgar Dewdney, “The executions of the Indians ... ought to convince the Red Man that the White Man governs.”

So now the past has caught up with these guys and their monuments are crashing down. This amounts to throwing these individuals under the bus, or stagecoach in their case.

You can't take one person and blame him for the whole mess. All these men were a product of their time. They held leadership roles; some were elected by like-minded individuals.

Racism, white privilege and the doctrine of discovery are just a part of Canadian Confederation. John A. Macdonald was only the frontman. Following the signing of the treaties, they divided up the spoils and feasted like pigs at the trough.

The railways got land grants, The Hudson's Bay Company got both money and land. Canadian companies got rich on our resources, while we languished in poverty.

To single out a few individuals and condemn them is hypocritical and naive. Instead, Canadians need to re-examine their history and look at the big picture.

The whole relationship with the original people needs a do-over, not the sack cloth and ashes approach currently underway.