Re: “Statue debate shows that more voices are being heard,” comment, Aug. 15.
It haunts me still — almost seven decades later. I remember clearly the authoritarian treatment the young Indigenous children received at St. Ann’s School near Duncan, now Providence Farm, while I was a young student there — a continuation of a long official line of limited understanding and blinkered thinking.
First Nations’ art was mocked and cultural eradication was on the agenda.
It is so very appropriate — and regrettably so late — that there be continuing and ongoing visible action toward reconciliation. Any confusion surrounding the removal of Sir John A. Macdonald’s statue from city hall can be clarified immediately by reading Lynne Marks’ fine commentary. A professor of Canadian history at the University of Victoria, she details some of the first prime minister’s deeply shocking actions taken during his tenure concerning both First Nations people and Chinese immigrants.
Our behaviour in the past has been an ongoing embarrassment. It is our past leaders who are responsible — not our city council.
We elected the current councillors to represent us, and I suspect and hope that their decision to move the statue represents the will of the majority. Good for them to have the courage to do the right thing.
Jan Jeffers
Victoria
