Category: macdonald
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John A. Macdonald: Nation-builder, Nation-destroyer
On September 25, 2020, Sean Carleton, Assistant Professor in the Departments of History and Native Studies at the University of Manitoba, made a deputation to the Macdonald Working Group in Prince Edward County. Dr. Carleton spoke about Macdonald’s legacy as a nation-builder and a nation-destroyer, and about the difference between history and commemoration. With permission,…
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George Manuel recalls the Kamloops IRS of the 1920s
George Manuel, the future founder of the National Indian Brotherhood, carried three strong memories from his years at the Kamloops, British Columbia, residential school in the 1920s. These were: “hunger; speaking English; and being called a heathen because of my grandfather.” The memories of hunger dominated. He was hungry from his first day at the…
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Locating children who died in Indian Residential Schools
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s “Missing Children and Unmarked Burials Project” was a systematic effort to record and analyze the deaths at the schools within the regulatory context in which the schools were intended to operate. The findings and conclusions included: The Commission identified 3,200 deaths…
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“Christian Statesmanship”
The cover of the April 14, 1888 edition of the Toronto-based satirical magazine Grip displays “Christian Statesmanship” – a political cartoon of John A. Macdonald starving Indigenous People on the Prairies. The cartoon has been reproduced in many papers and books – including James Daschuk’s classic Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the…
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Protected: Sean Carlteton Deputation to the Macdonald Working Group, September 25, 2020
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
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Dishonouring Us All
Yesterday, The Times of Wellington, ON published my response to David Frum’s Letter to the Editor (The Times, September 16, 2020) regarding the legacy of John A. Macdonald. In my view, Mr. Frum stands in the way of Canadians finally accepting and beginning to reconcile ourselves to the awful truth that Canada committed genocide against…
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Tainted Monuments: Additional Reading
What to do with tainted monuments? This collection introduces the ethics of cultural heritage and shares recent philosophical answers to the question, including essays by two young Canadian scholars, Brenda Macdougall and Daniel Abrahams. The Ethics of Cultural Heritage, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2018) Is It Wrong to Topple Statues and Rename Schools?, Joanna Burch-Brown,…
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Clearing the Plains: Additional Reading
“Happy is the country that has no history,” a proverb states, as history more often than not recounts acts of violence and greed and dishonesty. Happiness is but a dream for Canada, according to James Daschuk, because the malice that has marked so much of human history happened here, too. In Clearing the Plains he…
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John A. Macdonald was the real architect of residential schools
Sean Carleton, Toronto Star, July 9, 2017 On June 21, National Aboriginal Day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the federal government will change the name of Langevin Block, the building across from Parliament Hill, to the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council. The building was named after Father of Confederation Sir Hector-Louis…
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Open statement to Council re: public consultation about Holding Court
It’s been a tough weekend for us in the County, so I hesitated to publish this open statement to Council re: the stalled public consultation on the statue of Macdonald Holding Court. I ended up thinking that Council needed to hear it was time to get on with it and stop procrastinating: Mayor Ferguson and…
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Membership has its privileges: The Macdonald Project in Prince Edward County
Introduction It’s only fair that supporters of Macdonald Holding Court have been seeking the most favourable terms for their side’s participation in Council’s review of their statue’s future in Prince Edward County. I’d say, they’re faring fairly well. David Warrick, who founded The Macdonald Project to promote and raise funds for the statute, has been…
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Macdonald’s Leading Apologist in Prince Edward County
Two days ago, David Warrick (The Macdonald Project) invited friends and acquaintances by email to sign his petition to “support the continued presence of the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald and plaque in front of the Picton Library.” I’m neither Warrick’s friend nor acquaintaince yet, so I didn’t learn of his invitation until someone…
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Upcoming Public Discussion re: Macdonald Holding Court on Picton Main Street
Prince Edward County’s municipal council (Council) has announced that the Prince Edward Heritage Advisory Committee (PEHAC) is expected to lead a public discussion about the Macdonald statue’s future in Picton. The Agenda Package for the PEHAC’s next meeting on July 2, 2020 includes Draft Terms of Reference and Membership of for a Heritage Advisory Committee…
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Sen. Murray Sinclair: Macdonald’s genocidal views
On November 16, 2016, Senator Murray Sinclair spoke about Indigenous perspectives on racism to the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Public Affairs. In this video recording of his address (beginning at 00:18:00), Senator Sinclair confronts Sir John A. Macdonald’s clearly genocidal views and their lasting damage on generations of Indigenous children and their families. Here’s…
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Time for Truth and Reconsideration in Prince Edward County
Canada Day 2020 marks the fifth anniversary of the unveiling of a bronze statue of John A. Macdonald Holding Court (MHC) on Picton Main Street. Supporters and critics of MHC disagree strongly about Macdonald’s legacy and what honouring him with public memorials says about us. After learning that there’s no evidence for the truth of…
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Presentations re: Macdonald Holding Court to PEC Council
On November 26, 2019, PEC Council received a deputation from Paul Allen and comments from four members of the audience requesting that the County defer the re-installation of the statue of Macdonald “Holding Court” on Picton Main Street until there’s been an opportunity for residents to learn of this pending change in our common space…