Credit Where Credit is/was due or will the Cancel Culture prevail?

Even the expression: Politically Correct is no longer appropriate. Diversity is key to happiness. Racism is bad – yes I get that. But and there has to be a but…..is unfettered reconciliation the answer? In a climate that says we have to take Uncle Ben off rice boxes, Dr. Seuss off the shelf and Aunt Jemima from the syrup bottle, some ask how long can the US White House last?

Sports teams have changed their names and that list is long. The Edmonton Eskimos became the Edmonton Elks, The Cleveland Indians became the Cleveland Guardians and on it goes Can the Atlanta Braves be far behind?

In 2018 the City of Victoria removed a statue of Sir John A MacDonald from city hall. For those who don’t know, he was Canada’s first prime minister. Greatly disliked by some, considered a criminal by others this does not change the fact that he was one of our founding fathers and our first prime minister. Love him or hate him, Macdonald was responsible for completing the Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) that physically united Canada. In 1885 he incurred the wrath of the Metis population in Manitoba when he refused to commute Lois Riel’s death sentence for his part in the Northwest Rebellion; a sore point for those who demand reconciliation at any cost to this day.

In 2022 a statue of “Gassy Jack” Deighton was defaced and removed from Gastown in central Vancouver because he married a 12 year old native girl in 1870, 152 years ago.
This makes him a pedophile – by today’s standards, but not those of over a century and a half ago.

Ryerson University in Ontario has changed its name due to his (Ryerson’s) connection to the residential school issue. However existing graduation diplomas will still be valid. Surely they should also be rewritten?

These are just a few of the many rewrites that have or are occurring in Canada as we as a nation weep and moan about the real or perceived evil of past leaders without considering the context.

People are human and sometimes achieve greatness in spite of that. They were and are both great and small at the same time. Winston Churchill led the fight against facisism yet was considered by many to be a racist.

To name a few in the US’ past, Richard Cohen, an American writer of note has listed some of the following notables who have come into conflict with modern day revisionists.

Thomas Jefferson was a champion of religious freedom while at the same time, a slave owner; as was George Washington. Henry Ford created the automotive industry that we have today, paid his employees well and yet was an anti-Semite. Woodrow Wilson, America’s 28th president championed Women’s Rights, the 8 hour work day and helped create the League of Nations but also was a racist.

Removing statues from parks or names from schools and bridges will never change the history that these revisionists are upset about. Cohen said it best “Still we have an obligation to place historical figures in the context of their times and accord them what they, in some instances did not accord others: understanding.”

To paraphrase Cohen; people are never one thing or another. They are one thing and another.

Mike Davenport

April 26, 2022