Lorne Gunter: 'Half history is wrong': Park Canada plaques deemed problematic
Most Canadians wouldn’t support American historic sites that used the world “Negro,” or worse.
Article content
Since 2019, at the height of the Trudeau government’s woke, virtue-signalling remake of Canadian history, it has been official federal policy to portray our national history through the lenses of “colonialism, patriarchy and racism,” especially at Parks Canada sites.
This week, the online news site, Blacklock’s Reporter, exposed two examples of such revisionism. And the surprise is, Parks Canada is likely the good guys in one example.
Recommended Videos
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Lorne Gunter: 'Half history is wrong': Park Canada plaques deemed problematic Back to video
tap here to see other videos from our team.
In the six years since the Trudeau cabinet gave federal curators, archivists and historians the task of “correcting” Canadian history, Parks Canada committees and employees have examined nearly 2,200 commemorative plaques and displays across the country. Almost one-third have been deemed problematic. Two hundred have been declared out-and-out offensive and in need of immediate replacement or removal.
The biggest reason a display or inscription is red-flagged is “ignoring Indigenous contributions or using antiquated language, such as ‘Indian’ or ‘Eskimo.'”
That seems fair enough. Most Canadians wouldn’t support American historic sites that used the world “Negro,” or worse. If “Indigenous,” “First Nation” or “Inuit” are now considered more correct, old plaques should be changed to incorporate newer language.
Just be warned, the art of labelling is a moving target. Get ready every few decades to incorporate what are the acceptable words or names at the time.
The examples uncovered by Blacklock’s are telling.
The one in which the Historic Sites and Monuments Board gets it wrong has to do with the Northwest Mounted Police. Instead of being the heroes of Canada’s westward expansion, they are now to be portrayed in government documents and museums as paramilitary colonialists insensitive to Indigenous cultures.
Really!? Would the federal government rather Canada suffered the American Indian Wars in which European settlement was achieved with the brutal suppression of Indigenous peoples?
Because that is what the NWMP prevented. The original Mounties were formed in 1873 to prevent American annexation of the Prairie West, to control settler violence against First Nations (and vice versa) and to end the devastating impact the American whiskey trade was having on the Indigenous peoples of the Prairies.
It’s a testament to the even-handedness of the NWMP that, after the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana in 1876, the Sioux under Sitting Bull sought (and received) the protection of the Mounties for nearly four years until our federal government pressured them to return to the U.S.
Did the NWMP enforce discriminatory and oppressive laws before their disbandment in 1920. Undoubtedly. But wiping out historical recognition because it is one-sided does not correct the facts, it merely replaces them with another equally one-sided version.
Parks Canada’s new version of the NWMP is as incorrect — or more so — than the old version that ignores First Nations. Parks Canada’s new boss, Liberal Steven Guilbeault, seems as determined to use cultural extremism to do for Canada’s history what he did for our economy through environmental extremism.
Another historical “correction” being proposed by Parks Canada seems more reasonable, but is still being resisted by lobby groups and activists.
At the site of the “last spike” on the Canadian Pacific Railway, driven in 1885 between Revelstoke and Sicamous, B.C., the federal historic committee wants to add to the plaque commemorating the engineering achievement that united the country this wording: “Many workers died building the line including Chinese labourers who played a major role in the construction of the line…” That should be acceptable; it’s true.
But activists have threatened to protest any revision at the site that does not highlight “systemic” discrimination against non-Whites.
Using the Trudeau government’s 2019 policy as a guideline, federal archivists have removed or altered 7,000 pages from government websites, many having to do with historic figures, such as Sir. John A. Macdonald whose views now are deemed politically incorrect.
But half-history is wrong, even if it is meant to correct the faults of past historical telling.
Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.