Listen to the people of Hamilton, remove the statue

City council voted 12-3 to keep Sir John A. Macdonald statue pending monument review

Has city council lost the plot, again?

Issue after issue challenges council decision-making.

I have to add my voice to the chorus of Hamiltonians who have spoken out in favour of the removal of the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald from Gore Park. It’s what the people of Hamilton, those who cared to comment anyway, want done. And council thumbed their nose at them in a 12-3 vote to keep the statue pending the current monument review.

For those just tuning in, the plot is: Hamilton city council strives to represent the needs of their constituents while engaging in ethical and compassionate decision-making, contributing to solid civic leadership and a sense of shared community by all citizens. A.k.a.: the best place to raise a child and age successfully. Somehow, council lost the script. They stepped outside of the plot and are now ad-libbing their lines. It’s shaping up to be quite the gong show.

Councillors have demonstrated, yet again, that their preferred mode of operation is to do the opposite of what the people of Hamilton would want them to do. Of course, the most blatant example of that was Sewergate, when the city erupted en masse at city councillors’ attempt to hide spill information from Hamiltonians. But I argue it began in the summer of 2019 with Mayor Fred and his deafness to the needs of the city’s own LGBTQ advisory committee and the subsequent violence at that year’s Pride event at Gage Park. It was exacerbated by the yellow-vest protests in the forecourt of city hall and the inability of a majority of councillors to take these protests seriously as a form of hate speech and respond collectively and powerfully as one voice to say: Hate has no home in Hamilton.

The recent decision by city council to defer the decision about the Sir John A. Macdonald statue until the completion of the monument’s review process is another one of those examples.

Despite more than a thousand letters in support of removal and the vocal activism of local “keyboard cowards” (to paraphrase the words of Coun. Judi Partridge), council put off making a decision until due process is followed and the review is completed. This is how systemic discrimination occurs for those who don’t get it. People use the system and its processes to hold back or otherwise thwart progress or sidestep inclusive principles. What more information is going to be gained by waiting for the monument review process to run its course? Do we know who Macdonald was? Do we know what he did with intent to the Indigenous people of Canada? Do we support those policies today? Can we hear the voices of the multitude calling for a correction? What is the problem?

If councillors don’t have a handle on this issue now, what information could possibly change their minds? More support from the community? I believe this is the largest number of correspondence received yet on an issue — all in favour of removal.

How could councillors call themselves aware and educated to the issues of truth and reconciliation and still vote to defer decisionmaking? I wrote on this issue last year around this time. This is not new news. How do they not have their own opinion about the statue and whether it stays or goes? Or are they hiding their own support of Macdonald behind the review process and don’t have the courage themselves to say so publicly? Who’s the coward now?

Why not pick this low-hanging fruit and admit that Macdonald’s values are not ours, that his words of Indigenous condemnation are not ours, that his policies to assimilate the Indigenous people failed miserably, and remove his statue. Put it in storage until after the review if the thought is the outcome is going to be different.

But if I were a gambler, I’d take bets that statue is coming down. Eventually.

Council votes to defer decisions a lot. They go in camera a lot. They use the services of consultants a lot. I take these as signs of a council unable to find itself, divided against itself by those who would see progress advance in Hamilton and those who have their backs up and like it just the way it is.

It’s troubling that some councillors seem to automatically take the opposite position to those advanced by “keyboard cowards.” I don’t know if this is out of a need to be the one with the “right idea” first, but it’s sad to witness councillors condemn citizens for their active involvement in the decisionmaking process.

This council has lost the plot. We need a new cast of characters, a fresh director and a solid recommitment to plot. Elect better in 2022.