ICYMI: Why defacing the Terry Fox statue touched a nerve with so many Canadians
This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site.One of the first things that happened when the so-called “freedom convoy” arrived in Ottawa was that anti-vaccine mandate protesters defaced a statue of Terry Fox near Parliament Hill. The statue was draped in Canadian flags and had a sign that read “Mandate Freedom” wedged under its arm.
But Canadians vehemently defending a statue is surprising. I have been interested in statue removals since 2018, when Halifax officials responded to a white supremacy demonstration by removing a contentious statue of the city’s founder, Edward Cornwallis. Now, my PhD studies at Dalhousie University focus on understanding why we have such complicated, controversial relationships with statues. During this time, there have been far more statues condemned than endorsed.
Last summer, over 1,000 bodies of Indigenous children were found in unmarked graves at former Indian Residential Schools across Canada. Graves of this nature have been found dating back to the 1990s and confirmed what Indigenous people have known for decades. This argument does not hold much water for researchers of commemoration and heritage. More often than not, statues do a pretty poor job of interpreting and educating about the past. That’s because statues are not history; they are heritage. History is the analytical observation of the past. Heritage is the emotional, somewhat nostalgic desire to represent the past in the present.
In the age of social media and cancel culture, the argument goes, anything can cause outrage. We are walking on eggshells to ensure we do not say anything to offend. Furthermore, we should not evaluate people of the past by modern standards: they were only acting in accordance with the period. So, while John A. Macdonald may have done some bad things to Indigenous Peoples, if we take down his statue, it will open the door to any statue being torn down for the slightest offence.
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