Return to donor

Path forward will not include Sir John A. sculpture

Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, is leaving town. After a very difficult few years of discussions and disagreements, it felt like there were almost as many differing and conflicting comments and opinions and perspectives as there are residents in Prince Edward County when it comes to the Sir John A. Macdonald Holding Court statue that lived outside the Armoury in Picton, then the library for a short time. After several bouts of vandalism, the sculpture was put into safe storage in 2019. A 2015 initiative, the sculpture was a bicentennial project to mark 200 years since Macdonald’s birth and was supposed to be part of the Armoury forecourt for the next 99 years.

The municipality felt the best place to rehouse the statue was a museum, notably Macaulay Church, yet after extensive consultations with residents, community groups and stakeholder engagement, staff’s recommendation was to offer to return the sculpture to the artist and the Macdonald project. Agree or disagree on the fate of the sculpture, or indeed Macdonald’s role in our local history, and where the sculpture should or shouldn’t live out the rest of its days, Sir John A. will not be gracing Macaulay Church or any other public domain in the County.

Almost 40 participants tuned into the virtual Special Committee of the Whole meeting last Wednesday, one devoted entirely to the Sir John A. Macdonald Holding Court sculpture issue where Council voted to return the sculpture to the donor. The meeting saw three deputations, including by David Warrick of the Macdonald project, and David MacKinnon, along with two presentations by Callie Hill of Tsi Tyónnheht Onkwawén:na, and Reilly Goldsmith of the Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund, as well as two comments from the audience.

The meeting brought three amendments to the original motion, with one failing to carry and another failing to receiver a seconder. What Council voted on (with Councillor Brad Nieman the sole opposer) was to have the sculpture formally returned to the donor, at the request of the donor and the Macdonald project. Council also agreed to approve the “A Path Forward” agreement with Tsi Tyónnheht Onkwawén:na Language and Cultural Centre and the Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund so that work may begin on the creation of a permanent exhibit at Macaulay Church.

David Warrick, Chair of the Macdonald project, said he was not interested in being part of the proposed exhibit with two other groups and asked for the sculpture back. “Council has a moral and legal responsibility to continue the project as it was originally conceived,” said Warrick. He said the proposal to move the bronze portrait of the 19-year-old John A. Macdonald winning his first court case in Picton in 1834 to an exhibit at the Macaulay museum was not defined. “Twenty prime ministers administered the residential schools under the Indian Act after Confederation; Macdonald did not invent industrial schools or residential schools,” he added.

David MacKinnon was also in support of the wishes of the artist. “The problems we have had about the Macdonald statue are related to much larger issues and have an impact on all of us,” said MacKinnon. “The extraordinary accusations of cultural genocide, callousness and others levelled at Macdonald have such currency in academia are not really a part of normal debate and those accusations are not factual.” He said discussions should be based on what Macdonald did, not what people have subsequently said about him. “Macdonald did many things that were of great value to First Nations people; he believed in aboriginal education and established 185 day schools and 20 residential schools. At all of those, attendance at his lifetime was voluntary, he had nothing to do with the disastrous policy of forced separation of children from their families,” MacKinnon said.

In comments from the audience, Shannon Helm and Paul Allen urged Council to pass staff`s recommendation to return the sculpture. “The statue’s donors, and some spinoffs, have persistently denied Macdonald’s part in Canada’s genocide against First Nations,” said Allen. “The remarks tonight again display the habitual disregard for his historical truth and their disinterest in genuine reconciliation.”

Caillie Hill is Turtle Clan of the Mohawk Nation who resides in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and works with the Tsi Tyónnheht Onkwawén:na Language and Cultural Centre (TTO), a registered charity. She said the relationships between the TTO, the Chanie Wenjack Fund and County Museums has been successfully evolving over the past year. “When TTO was approached by County Museums to consider a collaborative relationship through The Path Forward project, it was recognized as an opportunity to assist our neighbours in Prince Edward County to share a fuller story than the one the public had focused on,” said Hill. “It`s an opportunity to engage in conversation and to show reconciliation in action in our own backyards.”

Reilly Goldsmith with the Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund noted, “By creating an exhibit like this that provides a full picture of these stories, and of these pieces, are extremely important to our identity as people in Canada. It also provides an opportunity to show how an entire community, an entire County, has come together in reconciliation and to provide that opportunity to educate and to move that dial forward.”

Councillor Brad Nieman, who noted he identifies as status Indian as well as Canadian, said he could not support the amended motion to have the statue returned to the donor. “I’m a firm believer that you have got to remember where you came from. How do you remember the history and everything that is being talked about now as part of the history that makes Canada,” said Nieman. “If you are trying to repress history, you are trying to take something and push it into the corner; if you distort history, people don’t get all the facts.” Councillor Kate MacNaughton said she didn`t necessarily want to return the statue yet. “I think it could have a place in the future depending on where the curatorial work goes,” she said.

Councillor John Hirsch asked what the municipality should be doing in terms of public exhibits in a museum in terms of reconciliation. “If we are going to mount something in the museum in the absence of the Sir John A. Macdonald sculpture, it takes the reckoning about Macdonald out of the conversation and leaves us to deal more fully with the overall truth and reconciliation conversation,” said Hirsch. He said museums are not about speculation. “They are about history and the facts around that history.” Councillor Janice Maynard said she had always hoped that through this very difficult process, some kind of compromise or path forward would be reached. “One that would allow us to really look at the truth, all the truths, and there are truths on both sides and a recognition of that, and that we would then find our way to reconciliation.”

The April 27 Special Committee of the Whole meeting is available for viewing on the County’s YouTube channel (bit/.ly/LiveStreamPEC), with associated documentation available as part of the agenda package found on the County’s website (pecounty.on.ca).