Scapegoating?

I oppose removing the Holding Court statue of Macdonald. The motive for removing it is laudable in the sense that people do not want to honour a prime minister whose government mistreated Aboriginal people. However, removing Macdonald's statue is too simplistic a solution because it does not address the problem that Canadian society in general was quite racist and supportive of racist policies in his time. Macdonald was not unique in that regard and removing his statue seems to be a form of scapegoating. In fact, the situation might have been worse for Aboriginals if others were in power instead of Macdonald.

For example:

- During the debates about providing food for western Aboriginals in the federal budget, the official opposition critic, David Mills, did not ask that the amount of money be more generous. Instead, he argued against providing food to Aboriginals who did not want to become farmers on the grounds that doing so would frustrate the law of "the survival of the fittest."

- It is true that the federal government's involvement in residential schools began during Macdonald's time as prime minister. However, succeeding governments of both major parties did not react in horror to what his government had begun but, instead, continued to build on the system of residential schools for many decades. Mandatory attendance at those schools came after Macdonald's death.

- While Macdonald was able to convince Parliament to grant voting rights to Aboriginals in Eastern Canada in 1885, Parliament refused to support his proposal to grant the vote to Western Aboriginals. In fact, within a few years of Macdonald's death, the Laurier government stripped the right to vote from Aboriginals altogether and it was not until 1960 that Aboriginals were granted the right to vote federally.

if we remove Macdonald's statue because of what happened to Aborginals in Western Canada, we would be in danger of avoiding the fact that almost all of our elected officials and the general public were guilty in their views and treatment of Aboriginals. We do not encourage reconciliation when we scapegoat one person but ignore the wider problem in society.

instead of removing the statue, there may be merit in adding an additional plaque on the statue which indicates that Macdonald's government did enact policies towards Aboriginals which reflected the racist views of his times.