Pulling down statues is easy. Now comes the hard part: Acknowledging that the horrors of the past were the work, not of statues, nor even of the exalted leaders we see on our coins & dollar bills, but of our fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, aunts, uncles, etc...
People who scooped us up into their arms & kissed our cheeks. People of whom we have fond memories. People we maybe loved.

I'm someone with plenty of NWMP/RCMP & other law enforcement in the family. And millions of Canadians are in exactly the same spot...
And this doesn't just apply to Indigenous issues. When you read about, say, informal segregation, who do you think was responsible? Who do you think refused to serve black people in certain Ontario establishments in the '50s? C.D Howe? George Drew? No. Grandad. Grandma...
That knowledge hurts. It'll be interesting to see whether Canada has the guts to reckon with it, or whether it decides that the vicarious gratification offered by iconoclasm is sufficiently self-reflective

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More from @Dred_Tory

7 Jun
If recent events have done nothing else, they've shown that those who've been arguing that Canadians' ignorance of their history is a cultural disaster--long dismissed as tedious nerds who fetishise useless knowledge--might have a point...
I've never understood the view that Canadian history is boring. For one thing, much about Canadian history is perverse, and the perverse may be many things, but it is rarely boring.

Take Sir James Lougheed, former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed's grandfather, for instance...
As a senator, Lougheed was responsible for one of the most outrageously punitive laws targeting Indigenous peoples, making it effectively impossible for Métis to sue corrupt land speculators who swindled them out of their scrip, which he knew was endemic. cbc.ca/radio/unreserv…
Read 5 tweets
23 Feb
If you're like me, you're wondering if there's a more squalid species of bad-faith cynicism than moving a motion that you know the PM can't act on without putting Canadian lives at risk but that will help you score points precisely because you know the PM won't be reckless...
For bonus squalor, the CPC know that retaliation against the Michaels due to Trudeau's support of the motion would only increase perceptions of his weakness & anger at his inability to free them. So this pointless kabuki posturing is a win--win for them...
Virtue signalling in its purest form. Merely a vain, parochial dog & pony show meant to play to the peanut gallery with no reference to anything meaningful in the outside world. Amateur theatricals...
Read 8 tweets
23 Feb
I'm sure the two Michaels are lovely chaps & completely innocent of their alleged "crimes". I hope they come home soon. Here's a thing.

If you think a Canadian PM (or POTUS for that matter) has the power to snap his/her fingers & bring a citizen home from a foreign jail...
..., you're a moron. And I don't mean "moron" in the vernacular pejorative sense of "dull-witted", I mean you labour under a quantifiable, calculable & apparently colossal cognitive deficit. Here's the way the world works.

Nations exist in a friend/foe relation (cf. Schmitt)....
"Foe" doesn't need to mean "mortal threat" & "friend" doesn't need to mean "buddy". Friends are those within your community & foes are those without. Within Canada, Canadians have rights & mutual obligations. Outside Canada, nobody owes us jack shit....
Read 9 tweets
14 Nov 20
Thing about the United States is that it can't do conservatism because it was founded by liberals as a specifically liberal polity. That's why every attempt at US "conservatism" has been a colossal botch since literally 1780....
Americans are at their most vital, articulate, engaging, and interesting as liberals, because that's what they do. Liberalism is their core business. Saying "fuck you" to authority is in their DNA. It's their expertise. Conceding the legitimacy of authority is anathema to them...
That's why the US, despite being an empire, can't nation-build. Rome & Britain developed nations all over the world, because they had a profound respect & genius for law and government. Americans can't nation-build for shit because, deep down, they hate law and government...
Read 7 tweets

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