It’s time to reconsider our memorials

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/06/2023 (866 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Since protesters yanked them down from their pedestals two years ago, questions have swirled as to what might happen to statues of Queens Victoria and Elizabeth if and when they are returned to their high places at the Manitoba legislature grounds.

Well, wonder no more. Put back in place on Friday, the statue to Elizabeth had already been defaced again by Saturday, with “colonizer” and “killer” sprayed across the monument to the recently deceased monarch.

No doubt, many in Winnipeg who hold a fondness for the country’s European ties, and particularly those to the British monarchy and its much-liked former queen, Elizabeth, will feel outrage at this fresh defacement.

But the fact there is such an instant, impassioned response against the statue’s return communicates a message which Canadians both inside and outside Manitoba should carefully listen to — and hear.

In 2023, Canada is in the midst of a long and emotionally fraught process of reconciliation between European settlers and Indigenous Peoples. The colonization of what is now Canada, and the acts perpetrated against Indigenous Peoples, are acts of conquest, not co-operation. Though Indigenous Peoples did eventually sign treaty agreements with the British Crown, those documents do not wipe away the widespread destruction wrought by British and French colonial powers.

Those wounds haven’t yet healed, because there is still so much for which to account. Damage done by residential schools is still fresh, with the last having closed only a few decades ago. Prejudice against Indigenous Peoples is still alive and well, driving a host of socio-economic problems, from wealth inequality to health outcomes, which disproportionately affect Indigenous people.

The British monarch, whoever wears the crown, rests at the top of a system which has plundered and defiled Indigenous Peoples, and others, for generations across its once-sprawling empire. In the name of reconciliation, non-Indigenous Canadians are called upon to recognize those things that can be done to heal old wounds and prevent fresh insults.

The British monarch is still Canada’s head of state. As such, recognition of that monarch — portraits in classrooms and government buildings, likenesses on currency — will remain a fact of life in Canada. It should be a simple matter, then, to at least extend the courtesy of not casting in bronze, for display in the public square, the images of those who have sat atop Canada’s colonial institutions.

Canadians’ devotion to the monarchy is in general on the wane — a slim majority told Ipsos pollsters last year that the country should take Elizabeth’s death as a chance to sever ties. Given this, it seems logical to stop insisting on immortalizing the heads of a monarchy only a minority of Canadians feel a strong connection to.

It’s time for a rethink on what we choose to memorialize. It does not suffice to erect monuments to those who did well by some, and badly by others. If the legislature grounds are to be for all Manitobans, then no one should have to walk beneath the looming figure of one who presided over a system that forced people off their lands, stole children from families and funnelled those children into residential schools.

Three times now, statues to colonial rulers have been heaved from their pedestals on the legislature grounds.

Three times should be more than enough for the province to say “message received” and recognize it’s time to grapple with, and not glorify, our country’s thorny history.