Time for a change

I think this statue represents the end of an era - or at least, I hope it does. Statues celebrate a person - they don't teach history. And in this case, the statue celebrates the life's work of a vicious racist who sought the extermination of Indigenous people people across Turtle Island. That this genocide was to further the cause of creating a whitewashed, colonial country on stolen land does nothing to justify his actions, and if anything further condemns the colonial nature of Canada's history.

We owe it to Indigenous survivors of state-sponsored genocide to honour their pain, not the people who caused it. Reconciliation starts here.

I think an important thought experiment regarding this issue would be the idea of some Germanophiles fundraising for a statue of Hitler, to be erected in a public square. How would this make survivors of holocaust feel? The violence here is no different - only the skin colour of the victims and the wide spread acceptance of the actions by everyday Canadians is different.

As a member of this community, to me this statue celebrates the very worst parts of Canadian history, and perpetuates real harm against the Indigenous people living across Turtle Island who deserve so much better.