We offered an opinion in this newspaper in June that we are now rethinking.
Nine months ago, we suggested the John A. Macdonald bench statue at the entrance to Victoria Row in Charlottetown should remain where it is with modifications.
Macdonald was Canada’s first prime minister and the driving force behind Confederation, hosting a historical meeting on the topic in Charlottetown in 1864. P.E.I. and its capital city have made much of the link to this moment in history — pinning tourism campaigns on the concept; naming structures like our bridge and arts centre after Confederation. In 2014, we hosted summer long celebrations and popularized the word “sesquicentennial” (150th anniversary, for those of you who missed the party).
Macdonald, though, was also the leading architect behind a much more shameful part of Canada’s history. The residential school system rounded up Indigenous children for generations, forcing them away from their families to attend institutions where they were bullied, abused and even killed. That is a stain on the country that should never be forgotten or repeated.
This is why we suggested in June that leaving the statue where it is but adding a plaque outlining Macdonald’s racist thinking was better than taking down the sculpture and sweeping the more painful part of our history under the rug.
We still feel that way; however, the city’s inaction on the issue has us re-evaluating that recommendation.
On June 25, 2020, Charlottetown city council committed to talk with Indigenous leaders about what it could do to modify the statue in a way that would address the atrocities committed by the historic figure.
Chief Darlene Bernard of Lennox Island First Nation and Chief Junior Gould of Abegweit First Nation have since told us they made five specific recommendations to council.
At this date, none has been enacted.
Meanwhile, the statue has become a lightning rod for social justice and petty vandalism.
Several times since June, the figure has been doused with everything from paint to seafood chowder. Once someone even decapitated the bronze sculpture. Every time this happens, city crews are dispatched costing taxpayers thousands of dollars to clean up the mess. We say enough is enough.
This mf a CHOWDER HEAD pic.twitter.com/yOrEahejPD
— BRENT (@theshitmanfart) March 8, 2021
The statue was first installed in 2009. The city got along fine without it up until then. In recent years, it has done more harm than good.
Now the best course of action is for city council to remove the statue from the bench, take it inside away from vandals and have a real discussion about what needs to happen before it can be returned – either there or to another location.
If council and our First Nations leaders cannot find a reasonable solution, then leave the bench at Queen and Richmond open for more welcome asses.
