Does 1919 strike fit Harper’s history?

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/05/2015 (3760 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Canadian Museum of History is not eliminating the story of the 1919 General Strike, one of the seminal moments in Canada’s past.

But when early reports suggested the famous labour uprising might be purged or downgraded from the national museum in Gatineau, Que., the uproar was immediate.

The museum says it is merely revamping a gallery devoted to Canadian stories. The labour movement in general and the 1919 strike in particular will both figure prominently in the new space.

That should have been enough to quash any further debate, but it didn’t. The Canadian Labour Congress complained it had not been consulted and it expressed concerns the labour movement might be downgraded when the renovations are completed in time for the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017.

Manitoba NDP MP Pat Martin went further, accusing the Harper government of trying “to sanitize Canadian history.” Mr. Martin added he believed the museum’s response to the controversy was mere “damage control.”

A museum official denied the allegations, but he was forced to concede “there is a very high level of cynicism and paranoia out there.”

The skepticism, of course, is aimed directly at Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has been accused of manipulating history for political purposes.

The allegation is not entirely fair. It’s true the prime minister has made promoting history a priority, but some of his efforts have been benign and even constructive. Among other things, he created a $12-million Canada History Fund to pay for awards to high school history students and teachers.

His government has given the history museum $25 million to renovate its galleries, while some $80 million is budgeted to celebrate Canada’s military past during the next five years.

The problem is the government has been overwhelmingly focused on military events, which it regards as the pivotal events in the development of Canadian identity and national self-awareness.

And so while Mr. Harper was beating his breast over the War of 1812, not a word was uttered over the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the Selkirk Settlers in Manitoba. Their arrival — Western Canada’s first European farmers — was a nation-building event. It was not, however, the kind of muscular history that appeals to Mr. Harper.

The Canadian History Association is concerned the prime minister is distorting history with his emphasis on world-changing events, such as the First and Second World Wars, as opposed to significant, if less dramatic, developments at home, including the history of women, aboriginal peoples and other minorities.

“What we can see with the Harper Conservatives is a pattern in which military and patriotic history is being valorized over social history and multicultural citizenship,” Yasmeen Abu-Laban, a professor of politics at the University of Alberta, told a conference on how Mr. Harper’s historical priorities will shape Canadian attitudes and institutions in the future.

Well, he has already reshaped the former Canadian Museum of Civilization, which was forced by the government to rebrand itself as a history museum with the goal of promoting the country’s past. Nothing horribly wrong about that, providing the content is based solely on expert advisers.

The museum says it is not influenced by politicians, but influence from high places has a way of trickling down into institutions funded by the federal government.

Ultimately, it will be up to the Canadian public and historians to ensure the museum includes our dark and uncomfortable stories, such as the 1919 General Strike, when the state and the courts co-operated with the business community to suppress a defenceless underclass.