Columnists
Let the bells ring out, let the banners fly
When I was a little kid, our Grade three teacher asked our class if we knew what “the elephant in the room” meant. Who knows why she asked? I didn’t. For sure, a classroom full of eight-year-old students didn’t know. Miss Cruise urged us to think about it. I remember sticking my hand up and saying something along the line of “I don’t know what it means, but wouldn’t the room be crowded and smelly if an elephant was in it?” Who knows, maybe I wanted a laugh, but I think I felt sorry she’d asked a question and we sat there like lumps of clay. I know I felt like it was a good way to handle an embarrassing situation, make light of it. I don’t remember how she reacted to my answer. Many years later I realized I wasn’t too far off when I found out what the expression meant.
These days there are so many elephants and so many rooms. One of the elephants in the room is Canada’s penchant for J.A. Mac- Donald statues in public spaces. Let me start by pointing out I’m not a big fan of statues honouring anyone, especially “famous people”. I don’t believe in “Walks of Fame” or “Walls of Fame” or “Halls of Fame”. I am a fan of honouring the unsung heroes of world, just skip the bronze and the brass. The thing is, I’m kinda happy Canadians are waking up to how obscene it is to spend so much money on a monument to an individual like JAM. Especially an individual who wouldn’t have accomplished anything without a whole lot of help from everyday people. John A. was a man of the times. He did a lot of things. Some of what he did was good. Some of what he did wasn’t good. We were taught he was the “Father of Confederation” and instrumental in laying the foundation for the country. I always figured it was a bit of a stretch, considering the fact there were thousands of people living here long before John A. stepped off the boat and long before Confederation. The First Peoples had their own territories, and their own laws, and their own way to regulate, and their own form of government. All of which worked for them. Canadian Confederation happened on the backs of all of those people who were a “country” already. It doesn’t hurt me one bit to see the removal of statues, honouring people, (men, mostly) who made Canada what it is today.
And I don’t think we’re forgetting the socalled contributions made by people like John A., by removing the statues. The statue isn’t the history of a person or a place. To me, most statues honouring “heroes” are a waste of money and say more about the people who want them funded and unveiled. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with all statues. I’ve seen some impressive statues in my travels. I just don’t understand some statues. And, while I’m on the topic of memorials to people of apparent strength, intelligence and courage, where are all of the statues to the quarter of a million native children who were removed from their homes to have the savagery beaten out of them and the gospel beaten into them? Where are the statues to the real human history of this “country”? We need more displays like the Chinese Railroad Workers Monument in Toronto. Think about the people who worked, physically, so hard to bring peace, love and prosperity to Canada who didn’t do it through exploitation, murder, degradation and underhandedness. Let’s find out who those people are and honour them for their forward-thinking, their sweat and tears, their generosity and kindness, by paying it forward without the hoopla, the smarminess, the exclusivity and the flag-waving.
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