The Globe and Mail’s Misguided Idea on Preserving the Macdonald Monument at Queen’s Park
In its opinion dated June 5th, the Globe and Mail’s Editorial Board voiced its support for the uncrating of the monument of Sir John A. Macdonald at the southern tip of Queen’s Park. It is an idea the Canadian Institute for Historical Education (CIHE) supports, as do many Ontarians.
The Editorial Board also proposed that a monument to Indigenous victims also be erected near the Macdonald statue so as to serve as a visual reminder of Macdonald’s victims. On that suggestion, the CIHE parts way with the Globe and Mail because the premise is mistaken and because a wrong message would be conveyed.
The Globe and Mail is correct in lauding Macdonald’s impressive accomplishments. It acknowledges his leadership in building Confederation, in sponsoring the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway and in generating the settling of the Prairies. It recognizes that Macdonald extended the right to vote to Indigenous men—the very same rights as any other Canadian man. It could have extended its praise to underscore how Macdonald supported the right to worship freely, the right to express opinions, the right to fair justice and the right of living in dignity, whether one was male or female, French or English, Catholic of Protestant, Easterner or Westerner. To his eyes, Canadians—and that included Indigenous people—were all equal subjects of the Queen. We remain the same.
However, the Globe and Mail argues that the Macdonald statue should be pitted against a monument to Indigenous victims. Macdonald, it argues, was responsible for residential schools but should also be blamed for banning native ceremonies and supporting the executions of Indigenous leaders who resisted Canadian sovereignty.
Corrections are in order. First, it is not clear what executions are in question. Is the Globe and Mail referring to the seven men who were found guilty in 1885 of killing six settlers at Frog Lake? They were hanged because that was the punishment for murder. Their crimes were amply documented and, in all probability and by the standards of the day, their punishment was the correct consequence to their actions. Furthermore, Macdonald’s government did not ban all ceremonies. The law was clear—only the sections where property was given away or that caused bodily harm were banned.
Macdonald was chosen to be prime minister in 1867 and his party won the first election a few months later. Under his leadership, the Conservative Party then won re-election five times. This is an important point: Macdonald was not some illegitimate dictator. Canadians stood by him because they supported his positions. The monuments erected to his honour in Toronto, Hamilton, Kingston, and Montreal in 1894 were paid for by private citizens and their unveilings attracted tens of thousands of spectators. Macdonald was a hero in his time.
In death, he need not be held responsible, in the public eye, for the evils of the residential schools. Those schools existed before him, and lasted for over a hundred years after his death. He did create residential schools in the West during the 1880s, but attendance was entirely voluntary and open to girls and boys. The intentions were wholly noble—to give kids an advantage in learning the language, the culture and the basic skills needed to survive and thrive in the modern society they were destined to join.
Were there abuses? Very likely, but if crimes were committed, they were not done in his name. There is no doubt that the approach to illiteracy today would be very different. The Government of Canada officially apologized for the policies of the past almost twenty years ago and has paid compensation for the unfortunate errors and cruelties that were inflicted on innocent children.
To give prominence to the victims of residential schools is not appropriate. There were many victims in Victorian Canada—people who suffered the acts of commission and omission while Macdonald was at the helm of government. Women suffered terribly—there were no programs to help them cope with a rapidly changing society. Children were forced to work and denied school. Workers were killed on the job routinely. Chinese men died by the many hundreds in building the railway that brought wealth to Ontario. What about all the migrants to Canada who suffered prejudice and mistreatment as they did all they could to share the dream? All these groups surely deserve their own monument. Macdonald could do little, and did little, to support their cause, though he surely sympathized with them—after all, he eagerly wanted all of them to share the Canadian dream.
They all deserve to be remembered.
What also needs to be remembered is that Macdonald did the very best he could in helping Indigenous people. By rushing to seal the border separating Canada from the United States in the years following Confederation, he undeniably saved thousands of Cree, Anishinaabe and Blackfoot from certain annihilation at the hands of the US army. By providing hospitality to the American Indians who came to Canada to find food and protection, he saved hundreds more. When six thousand people died of smallpox in Montreal in 1885, few (if any) Indigenous people perished because Macdonald’s government had seen to it that they were inoculated against the dreaded epidemic. Under his governments, expenditures for “Indian Affairs” far outpaced all other government priorities, except for money spent on infrastructure.
Macdonald saved Indigenous lives, but he did not brag about it. Instead, he let his actions speak: to build, against all odds, a country that would aspire to be fair to all its citizens. His programs did not always succeed, that’s clearly evident, but his intentions were noble and were recognized as such by the population he served.
There is no doubt that Queen’s Park should feature a monument to the Indigenous people of the province, and there is equally no doubt that it should be the Indigenous people who should choose the way in which they should be depicted.
We at the CIHE are confident in thinking that they will choose an uplifting monument that will symbolize their courage and resilience in overcoming grave difficulties over the past centuries. It should be a symbol of dignity and friendship, a true reflection of their sentiments and ambitions.
Macdonald stands alone at the tip of Queen’s Park, his statue depicting a man making an argument for a better Canada—and daring us to excel in his cause. There is no need for his gestures to be qualified by another monument that forces a pecking order of victims.