Canada's blacks are the Indians.

Dear Friends: Just as the United States is coming to terms with its Confederate past (you know, those guys who thought slavery was o.k.) so too is Canada starting to acknowledge some "not so pleasant" facts about our history.

There is a 'movement' down south of the border to 'move' Confederate statues from public squares to the back of dingy warehouses because of the negative connotations they evoke. Meanwhile, up here north of the border we finally recognize the injustices, and dare I say it, the genocide perpetrated on Native North Americans by the Canadian government.

While the Confederate statues gave legitimacy to slavery in the States, here in Canada there is a growing movement to treat Sir John A MacDonald as a racist since he was one of the architects of the residential school system for natives, and the main target of the truth and reconciliation programs.

The City of Victoria is going to remove a statue of John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, outside of Victoria City Hall.
Victoria city council will be asked to endorse the decision to have the statue removed on Aug. 11 and have a plaque installed in its place.
 In collaboration between the city and First Nations, the decision was made to have the plaque read: “In 2017, the City of Victoria began a journey of Truth and Reconciliation with the Lekwungen peoples, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, on whose territories the city stands.

“The members of the City Family – part of the City’s Witness Reconciliation Program – have determined that to show progress on the path of reconciliation the City should remove the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald from the front doors of City Hall, while the City, the Nations and the wider community grapple with Macdonald’s complex history as both the first Prime Minister of Canada and a leader of violence against Indigenous Peoples.

“The statue is being stored safely in a city facility. We will keep the public informed as the Witness Reconciliation Program unfolds, and as we find a way to recontextualize Macdonald in an appropriate way. For more information please visit www.victoria.ca/reconciliation.”

In a letter on her campaign website, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps wrote that in addition to being the first prime minister of Canada, Macdonald was also a “key architect” of the Indian Residential School system which has produced a cognitive dissonance among certain segments of Canadian society.
 
The mayor says this move is all about reconciliation, but Kylie Stanton reports not everyone is supporting the move. 

The way I see it anyway!