Unwelcome

While I reside in Quinte West, I spend a great deal of time in the County visiting friends and patronizing the local businesses. If I were to move, I'd gladly move to Picton as it's one of the most welcoming and genuinely friendly small towns I've ever encountered.

However, the Sir John A. MacDonald statue takes away from the welcoming nature of the community. Statues don't educate, they celebrate, and to have a statue of a man who committed so much harm to Indigenous people planted squarely in the centre of downtown at best celebrates the good deeds of our first Prime Minister and whitewashes the suffering he had a direct hand in. At worst, it sends a message that the lives of those Indigenous individuals and families who suffered, died, and lost their ways of life simply don't matter.

The fact that there was controversy when the statue was first discussed and commissioned should have given pause, this working group should have happened back then. We can no longer (and never should have, to begin with) rally around our historical heroes and treat the history of BIPOC and other marginalized communities as secondary. The harm is not over, it's still happening. Racism is active every day in our community whether we wish to acknowledge it or not, and it should not be shrugged off. If the County wishes to be a welcoming community where everyone matters, it cannot continue to shine up the bloody legacy of the man who happened to be Canada's first prime minister.

By all means, put the statue in a museum. Create an exhibit around it that offers context and education. Macaulay Heritage Park has done an excellent job of showing the history of all residents of PEC and not ignoring the harms of past and present. History is in no danger of being forgotten. As well, Picton has proven itself able to move into the necessary future by welcoming the LGBTQ+ community in a visible way, BIPOC individuals and families deserve the same. Removing the statue from Main Street is the first step.