Seeing liberal usage of the word “Nazi” thrown around in online discourse used to cause me to roll my eyes. My understanding at the time was that it was a hyperbolic charge undermining the fatal effects of Nazism. I felt invoking the word cheapened it with each use when there were more specific insults one could levy. Understandings evolve.
The mistake I made was thinking Nazism was an artifact delegated to the past and not one contributing to echoes and repeating patterns. As I further researched far-right groups (first as a curiosity for a sociology assignment, then more seriously) I realized these groups were really borrowing from a playbook Nazis popularized.
Nazism and Nazis never went away.
Groomer/Predator/Pedo
One of the most common epithets you see hurled online towards anyone daring to stand up for 2SLGBTQIA+ rights. Search my handle on Twitter and include any of the above three; you’ll be flooded with results. It’s in vogue now but the Nazis used the exact same phrasing to pass stigmatizing laws against the LGBT community of Germany at the time. These arguments would spread in the US following the Second World War. Coincidentally, so would Nazis.
Banning and Burning Books
Of course, if you’ve watched Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, you’ve seen re-enactments of Nazis burning books. We’ve seen many examples of hate influencer accounts on Twitter gang up and pounce on elementary teachers here in Ontario for simply having queer friendly books in their classroom. If a teacher even mentions, or someone leaks a photo of their classroom, that they have a book about a child transitioning, these transphobic influencer accounts unleash torrents of abuse.
If you guessed I was going to link this behaviour to Nazis in the 1930s you’re catching on. 90 years ago, a revolutionary clinic was raided and the wealth of information it contained was razed. This attempt to erase people from history leads to the misinformed thinking that trans kids pop out from the ground and haven’t always been with us.
Antisemitism
Most know that Nazis are antisemitic. The problem is that most can’t identify antisemitism in discourse spread by the far-right today. There are a bunch of tropes they use casually. A shadowy cabal of powerful people controlling world politics? Yeah, that garbage has been with us for a while. Mentions of The Great Reset or those including the World Economic Forum (usually shortened to ‘WEF’)? It’s the same kind of garbage.
Once your eye is trained to notice these things, you’ll find that a lot of these transphobes also peddle in antisemitic conspiracy theories. The signs are all there but unless you are taught these things, chances are you won’t seek them out on their own. But when people of a certain political strip are hellbent to prevent that from happening, it’s because they want history to repeat itself.
Cracking Down on Rainbow Clubs and GSAs
There is a strong parallel between this sudden vitriolic increase in wanting to shut down rainbow clubs/GSAs in schools and gay associations in Germany as the Nazis rose to power. In Ottawa, we’ve seen protests at schools with rainbow clubs trying to shut them down or largescale walkouts for Pride activities as benign as raising a flag.
The Nazis weren’t happy with LGBT+ people congregating and having associations, either. In fact, they went out of their way to dismantle them with brute force.
Conservative parties in Canada are tripping over themselves to tap into queer and transphobia by outing students. This haste to either keep kids in the closet or have them go through a bureaucratic process to identify them should sound familiar to anyone who knows the history of the pink triangle.
Learn to Take a Joke/They’re Just Trolls
A common retort whenever a hate influencer gets called on their violence is that they weren’t actually being serious. They were just joking when they made that threat on a live stream. Those of us taking note need to lighten up.
But if you know how violent white supremacists have always gotten their message it out, it’s through allegedly “edgy” humour. Hitler did the same thing decades before taking power. Go on any journalist’s account when she’s documenting far-right violence. Read the creepy comments not as jokes but as threats. The goal is always to intimidate and silence. A pattern emerges for whom these comments are directed towards.
How Can They Be Homophobic/Transphobic/______ When They Associate with ________?
I was going to use the variable x instead of blanks in the above heading but then remembered Twitter has been renamed and it might throw people off.
But I digress.
One of the laziest ways for the far-right to try and escape criticism is to prop up a model member from a minority group they usually persecute. Can they really be anti-Black if they have this Black person espousing their views? Can they really be homophobic if they have this lesbian agreeing with their points on their podcast?
This is playing out in the current anti-trans panic with people claiming to be gay or lesbian fighting against the word “queer” or openly questioning the inclusion of transgender folks in the larger 2SLGBTQIA+ community. We’ve seen examples of the far-right in Canada finding a trans person they can parade around and claim their violence isn’t really all that violent. Or a queer school board trustee candidate, surrounded by open homophobes, who campaigns against the human rights of 2SLGBTQIA+ students.
In Summary
When you encounter someone who regularly espouses any of the above views, treat them as you would a Nazi. Don’t debate them. They aren’t interested in having their mind changed. They want to waste your time and at the very least harm your mental health. Don’t uncritically boost their garbage to your audience.
You don’t need to play any respectability politics game with them. Respectable people don’t parrot Nazi talking points. Take note of when the account was created. Check who follows them. Check who they follow. Block as many of them as you can to protect yourself from the next online swarm (guess who else attacked others through mobs?).
Every once in a while, I will remind my friends when we are out and about that we have access to different discounts and rewards programs.
What they have to offer changes frequently, so it’s worth checking out prior to any big purchases.
Keep in mind that I am an OCT with ETFO, so if you belong to a different licensing body or union, then accessibility to the following rewards programs may be limited. I’m also based in Ottawa, so may be unaware of discounts offered in your region. I’ll update this post if I uncover more or if people send them my way.
In recent months those of us in Ottawa have seen emboldened far-right groups converge on anti-2SLGBTQ+ hatred. I’ve tracked these movements since I moved here and I’ve seen them shift from disparate anti-immigrant, antisemitic, and Islamophobic talking points and focus on trans and queer bashing. These groups would organize rallies around Parliament and pull in the various guest speakers like Kevin J. Johnston or Faith Goldy. These grifters would come to Ottawa chasing clout whenever these rallies would amass downtown.
When the 2022 Ontario provincial election rolled around, Ottawa had its share of far-right endorsed candidates nominated to run for the Ottawa-Carleton School Board trustee positions. Ashley McCallum (then running as Ashley Darling) was endorsed by the Campaign Life Coalition and appeared to be quite chummy around blatantly transphobic trustees and trustee candidates from around the country. The 2022 election also had Chanel Pfahl and Shannon Boschy run, with all three ultimately losing their races. Boschy and Pfahl have since pivoted in attempts to keep themselves relevant and will often appear on podcasts or streams with far-right influencers.
Boschy and Pfahl have both been involved in action around matters involving inclusive representation at the OCDSB. They’ve been at protests at the school board’s office and Boschy has spoken as a delegate. They are both active on Twitter and are followed by cruel and hateful bigots, all too happy to descend upon anyone signal boosted. Dog piles and swarming generally happen to anyone caught in the crosshairs.
At the protest in March 2023, outside the OCDSB’s main office, there was a teenager in tow. This teen has made a name for himself for touring the province, and country, getting arrested but then having a crowd-funding link conveniently available online. In his entourage were many of Ottawa’s regular shouting-into-their-cameras live streamers (Chris Dacey is often at these events) who were able to use the protest to generate content to monetize.
GiveSendGo fundraiser set up to cover “costs”.
These kinds of stunts aren’t uncommon when you document the trajectory of these movements. One moment they’re calling on unrestricted hate speech as freedom warriors and the next they’re banning books from schools. It’s incredibly important people see these agitators for what they are and ultimately reject the grift.
Of course, these teens aren’t operating in a vacuum and are part of the same network of far-right actors who frequent Canada’s blockade protest scene. Knowing that these Save Canada bigots are at the same events as documented Neo-Nazis should not come as any surprise, as rampant white supremacy and white nationalism are key tenets to many of these ideologies. It is particularly worrisome that this kind of violence is being normalized in 2023. Queer and trans students should not have to worry for their wellbeing when these groups choose to bring their violence to public schools.
Which brings me to June 9th. June 9th is slated to be a gathering for many of these actors in Ottawa. It’s aiming to be a rejection of so-called “wokeism” these bigots believe is infecting schools and “indoctrinating” kids. Of course, this means a rejection of 2SLGBTQ+ equity initiatives. Unfortunately, this means schools will be made a target. Trans and queer students and staff will be at the epicentre of this violence and at the time of writing this there are zero safeguards being put into action by those who have the ability to do so.
Shannon Boschy appears to have created a website for the event. Chanel Pfahl claims to be going. The Save Canada teens will be there according to graphics they are distributing. Chris Elston (an individual who often comes to Ottawa with his sandwich boards) seems to be planning on attending too. Elston was at the Freedom Convoy occupation with Boschy and Pfahl and has protested at children’s hospitals who get bomb threats from transphobic hate mobs. If it seems like a heavy coalescence of hatred descending on Ottawa schools on June 9th, you’re not far off.
In the absence of institutional leadership, what can the community do? Thankfully, community members are not waiting for systems, which are supposedly in place to protect us, to leap into action. Different community groups are putting together plans to combat this rally of hatred. I wrote a brief Twitter thread on what individuals can do but will expand upon it here.
Bring flags and signs. A sea of signs and flags in support of the 2SLGBTQ+ community will mean the world to those of us who are expected to deal with this hatred on a daily basis. They are also very effective in blocking the cameras of the far-right agitators always show up in force with video gear.
If you want to prevent yourself from getting doxed and receiving death threats (or simply want to be safe) consider wearing a mask. These people like to identify their “adversaries” so they can harass them online and in person. You are likely going to have your picture taken by them.
Bring loud Bluetooth speakers. Have a playlist you can bop along to. This can help maintain morale. It can also drown out the hateful rhetoric from the ones who bring their megaphones (someone always does). As an added bonus, if you fill it with highly copyrighted music from litigious studios, you can mess with their videos and livestreams. They won’t be able to host their streams or later upload videos if their audio is full of copyrighted music.
Be on the lookout for fake progressives who are seeking to increase their clout by being confrontational. There will be plenty of people looking to cash in with their own followings and filming things. Be wary of these supposed “allies”.
There is safety in numbers. Go with your friends. Try not to get separated or surrounded by the bigots.
Be careful with the pushing and pulling that inevitably happen at these things. The far-right agitators will be looking for any excuse to grift off physicality. They can use it to call for donations. They can use it to threaten you with a court case if they pretend to get hurt and have you captured on camera.
Don’t get into shouting matches with them. Don’t give them content to monetize. They aren’t there to have their minds change or engage in good faith discussions. It’s a recruitment opportunity for them.
This kind of activism can take its toll on your mental health. Standing around unleashed hatred for hours on end isn’t ideal. There is zero shame in ducking out to protect your wellbeing.
I am hoping bigger players show up as well. City councillors, MPs, and MPPs, should be all over this if they truly believed in basic human rights. Labour unions should be at the forefront at this kind of action, and the fact that they currently have nothing in place belies a lack of historical knowledge or a complete lack of 2SLGBTQ+ representation.
The rhetoric that is already over social media and on their websites can only be classified as hate speech which should, in theory, fast-track action on this. With it happening in Pride Month, politicians who usually march in Ottawa’s Capital Pride parade should be collaborating to prevent this violence at Ottawa’s schools. An awful lot of people are completely dropping the ball here.
I created quick “Protect Trans Youth” template in Photoshop, converted it to a PDF, with a transparent background. The word “youth” appears invisible in the below preview as it is white. Feel free to download it and use it on shirts, buttons, or anywhere else, should you be so inclined.
I decided I would throw my hat into the ring for non-released executive position in my union’s upcoming AGM. I’m aiming to be a member-at-large, allowing me to float around and gain experience by tapping into different areas. Colleagues and friends at different schools have long pushed me to seek a position within the union. I only just recently became a permanent teacher, so I was never able to properly engage with ETFO as a full-fledged member.
I proactively keep my finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the union and the board. I attend or watch council meetings. I keep colleagues and friends up to date with the latest developments when they have questions. When community actions take place (protests or counter protests) I engage when possible. I’ve been at more than my fair share of protests in Ottawa, and I think it’s important for unions to be engaging in this kind of work to build solidarity.
Ontario has seen an accelerating erosion of labour rights in recent months. Labour seems to be perpetually behind with an ever-widening gap. Our provincial government has succeeded in allowing corruption and cronyism to chip away at our public institutions replacing them with privatized options. I am very much an anti-status quo candidate and seek to be as progressive as possible. As my Twitter feed makes abundantly clear, I am staunchly left wing and passionately believe that is a critical component for anyone seeking to be a part of a labour union. Centrism and reductive “bothsidesism” have not succeeded in making any sort of headway against the obstacles at the heart of our current system.
The 2020s have bolstered attacks on educators, and those of us in Ottawa haven’t been spared. Regressive policies and far-right action have put crosshairs on any teacher seeking to be inclusive or have equity as a focal point of their pedagogy. School boards are regularly being interrupted by bad faith actors and a number of us regularly receive death threats for being openly queer or supporting queer and trans students. In a rapidly changing landscape, our union needs to be nimble and just as responsive. Teachers who are doing anti-racist work or making sure 2SLGBTQ+ students have safe spaces deserve to know their union has their backs.
I am not going to pretend to be an expert in every area of the union. I am certainly not going to pretend to have an answer to every problem, but I do believe candidates who can move the needle are what is needed to deal with the challenges facing us in 2023.
With Twitter continuing to implode, it might be wise to look for other opportunities on different socials. It is incredibly hard to rebuild online communities once they migrate to other apps. With that in mind, here’s where you can currently find “me”:
I’ll continue using Twitter for the foreseeable future. It remains useful on desktop when you have this extension running. Unfortunately, the app experience is getting worse as there’s no way to counter Musk’s destructive tweaking of the platform.
When the majority of my mutuals pick a clear winner from the above I’ll abandon Twitter. Whether or not this happens before Musk sells it or completely grinds it into dust remains unknown. With education unions gearing up for possible strike actions in Ontario I hope this disruption won’t affect our ability to be nimble and network with each other.
At the end of the last week, Twitter suspended my account for a response I sent to an intentionally transphobic reply to me. With such an explosive opening statement I wouldn’t be surprised if you thought my jailable offence was for something spicy. No doubt you are champing at the bit waiting for me to divulge all the juicy details (if your eyes haven’t already scanned below).
Unfortunately, the infraction is a bit of a letdown. The statement that instantly resulted in a 12-hour suspension after pressing send was:
If you’re scratching your head at how such a statement could result in a suspension, Twitter instantly provided its reasoning:
Specifically for: Violating our rules against promoting or encouraging suicide or self-harm. You may not promote or encourage suicide or self-harm. When we receive reports that a person is threatening suicide or self-harm, we may take a number of steps to assist them, such as reaching out to that person and providing resources such as contact information for our mental health partners.
Twitter
It happened instantly after sending the tweet so I could only guess that it was an automatic action taken by the system, and that someone decided to code “go jump into a lake” as “self-harm”. I am not sure what dictionary they were using for that judgement call but it’s not one I’ve read.
I was bemused to be suspended for something so innocuous when my mentions are frequently clogged with Nazi imagery, libelous accusations, queer and transphobic comments, genocide denial, and the occasional death threat. Not once have I ever received a notification that a violent reply sent to me violated Twitter’s TOS. I’ve reported so many tweets over the years, and no matter how blatant the bigotry, they almost always escape suspension. This includes accounts whose handles are antisemitic or include a profile picture that is literal blackface.
The civility trap seems to apply to people on the receiving end of abuse and not enforced for the bucketload of obviously fake accounts doling out violent bigotry. All you need to do is search Twitter for my handle and a few choice slurs to see your results quickly fill up.
At some point, over a decade ago, social media became my chief news outlet. Twitter was great for this as I would see stories pushed onto my feed I wouldn’t have otherwise seen. Alas, all good things must come to an end and Twitter is definitely coming to some sort of tumultuous end.
The guy who bought it regularly boosts violent people and engages in horrible behaviour in some kind of bid to remain relevant. People who were kicked off the platform are now being welcomed back so they can freely engage in the atrocities that got them kicked off in the first place.
I’ve seen a lot of the accounts I follow openly question how much longer they can remain on a compromised platform. Each social media enclave has its unique atmosphere, and the allure of Twitter meant it brought in many people under a social justice umbrella. Being able to microblog quick snippets to a wider audience was a fast way to get pertinent information out.
My first foray was to surround myself with other creatives at the time and treat it like an alternative Facebook. Eventually, I was drawn to the public commons aspect of the site. The Idle No More movement played a large part in this as I was able to get information from within the movement without the lens of established media washing away all nuances. Finding and following activists on the ground in Ferguson, and seeing real time abuses on Wet’suwet’en land by the RCMP
Conspiracy theorists always existed on the website, as well as racists, misogynists, homophobes, and every other sort of deplorable. Nascent hate movements like Gamergate and Comicsgate preyed on impressionable, often male, users and were an introduction of sorts to what we see all over the platform in 2023. They laid the groundwork for the massive swell of swarming by hate influencers. The bleating of “actually it’s about ethics in gaming journalism” ran as hollow then as “actually it’s about protecting kids from grooming” does today.
At this point there doesn’t seem to be a viable alternative to Twitter, which is why many of us continue to stick around, despite the abuse. The constant firing of important company staff members seems to contribute to an untold number of glitches. I still use it to get important community updates I would otherwise miss if I only followed traditional news sources. However, the sense of “community” is quickly dissipating (my big conspiracy theory is that it’s intentional due to who bought it). Replies from friends don’t always show up as a notification, even though abusive replies will pop up without delay. Friends and many of the people I follow take frequent breaks from the app, for their mental health, as they experience nonstop abusive harassment and swarmings.
There was a push to get people on Mastadon and that fizzled. TikTok is fairly labour intensive by comparison. Instagram, being owned by Meta, has many of Facebook’s problems (being awash with ads and finding it difficult to see your friends’ posts in order). Maybe we need to bring back RSS feeds, cut out the “micro” part of micro-blogging and have everyone go back to using blogs. At least then we would limit Twitter-style pile ons and produce content that benefits us, rather than providing advertisement space for an immature billionaire.
The author on the streets of Ottawa (February 2021). I drew a different sign for each day of picketing.
Education unions went on strike with votes taking place in 2019 and picketing happening over much of the province in 2020, up until the COVID pandemic shuttered the province. Ford, and his education minister, Stephen Lecce, were in full combat mode. Cuts were felt across the entire education system, with the system straining to keep up with the needs of its students. The status quo was maintained when the strike was over.
Section 33 was first invoked in the 1980s. Ontario, under Doug Ford, first flirted with using the Notwithstanding Clause in 2018 after it came into power. Ford wanted to settle some old scores and tamper with Toronto’s city council. Ultimately it wasn’t use. In 2019, Quebec used it (they were the first to invoke it in the 80s) to prevent religious symbols from being worn in public by public servants. This change in Quebec’s laws directly impacted hijabi teachers, and jobs were lost as a result. Boldened by Quebec’s success, the Ford government used it to increase individual political campaign donations in 2021.
Coming off another majority, but failing to get most Ontarians to vote, Ford is once more facing the ire of education workers and educators. Inflation has caused housing, food, and everything else to skyrocket in price. Guess what didn’t move up with inflation? Salaries in education. Workers are facing less support in schools, thanks to endless austerity cuts, despite the province posting a surplus. They are increasingly expected to live in poverty and make use of foodbanks.
Do all these links paint a vivid enough picture yet? They should and it is bleak.
What can you do? Pressure your PC MPPs. Join a picketing location near you. Donate grocery gift cards to those protesting. Push your unions and non-PC MPPs to aim for a general strike. We can stop these attacks by working together.
Students in Gangneung prepare to shoot a news segment for their English camp.
When I taught in Daegu and Gangneung, I would encourage the students to create multimedia content. It was a way for the students to use their language abilities in an unorthodox way and pick up a practical skill. More often than not, this looked like video creation. In Daegu, I was learning the ropes when it came to making videos. Video editing for the purposes of maintaining a YouTube channel was in its infancy back then (in fact, I started on the now defunct Google Video service). There was a lot of learning on the fly, but the students and I mostly filmed short comedic skits.
By the time I moved to Gangneung in 2010, YouTube had picked up momentum. Vlogging had taken over blogging and creating your own YouTube channel was all the rage. My students (the Ontario equivalent of grades 7, 8, and 9) joined me in various initiatives. I ran after-school English clubs, as well as seasonal camps, which were free for the students to attend. As long as the students used English, I was completely free to determine the content of these extra curriculars. They soon became multimedia creation sessions with video shooting and editing being the primary focus.
It was genuinely cool. The students were pumped to learn how to create videos, from the scripting process to basic direction and even postproduction. It became a big enough thing that the school eventually made me the videographer for important events. I’d film the festivals and host them on my YouTube channels so parents could watch. They had me go on different field trips so I could make a video of the excursion. They’d use the videos for committee meetings and meet-the-teachers nights at the start of the school year.
When I returned to Canada, I wanted to create a similar project. I wanted to create a cadre of student reporters that would essentially be a self-contained news team. Unlike Korea, it can be very difficult starting off as a new teacher in Ontario. It takes forever to become permanent, which often means you are switching schools too frequently to start a project like this.
Three years ago, I managed to get a video club off the ground at the elementary school I did most of my substitute teaching at (called supply teaching here). The students and I learned how to shoot short videos and edit them. We managed to create content for a school concert while the different acts got organized in the background. It proved successful but then the pandemic struck, and I switched schools the following September.
The pandemic is still very much a reality; however, I am back at the same school. Once we were able to create clubs again, I wasted no time in setting up my latest project. The students who had joined my previous video editing club several years back wanted to know if I would be starting it up again. I would, but with an expanded focus.
This time it would be a press corps. It’s currently open to grade 7 and 8 students and they’ve been busy. One of our tasks is to create content for the school’s website which hadn’t been updated in a very long time. Student reporters are now setting up interviews with staff and different classes. They are shooting and editing videos. They are drafting interview questions and learning how to direct a video shoot. They are observing events and writing articles. They are creating graphics to use as banners and inserts. It has been really cool!
I was able to preload a lot of these skills with the students, because for many of them I’ve been teaching Drama using filmmaking as the hook. They’ve learned how to create scripts for short videos, how to shoot a video on a Chromebook using blocking strategies, and they gotten used to some basic editing. They’ve been able to bring those skills into staff interviews and it has paid off.
It’s still in the early stages and we are learning as we go but here are some of the logistics:
-We currently meet in person once a week. During this time, we pitch story ideas, go over any progress or updates, and collaborate to create the next pieces.
-I have set up a Google Classroom to use as reservoir for updates for when we need to communicate something to each other. Each piece we are working on is an assignment that links to the shared drive.
-I set up a shared Google Drive between all the students. That way they can dump all the files into the appropriate folders. They all have access through their school email addresses.
-I created a YouTube channel for our video content. Originally, I was just going to keep the uploads to Google Drive and change the privacy settings, but playback was an issue. Nearly any device can access YouTube so that solved the issues I was having.
-I created a Google Site that can serve as a public archive for our pieces. Eventually things will be bumped off the school’s website and I didn’t want the students to lose all their hard work. Anything we post to the website is mirrored on the Google Site. It’s also a good way to share pieces with those who need to vet stuff before it goes live on the school’s website.
-The students have agreed to a code of ethics I drafted. This includes using technology appropriately.
-The students are learning by making mistakes. I’m keeping a pretty tight grip on things but eventually the students will gradually take over most aspects of the press corps and assume responsibility. The grade 7 students from this year can then become the leaders for next year (hopefully I am at the same school).
While the students are picking up all these new skills, my hope is that they find them useful going forward in their lives. Media literacy is a big stickler for me during this age of misinformation and disinformation. Getting students interested in journalism and reporting will hopefully set them up for success in decoding much of what is being consumed online. Getting a foot in the door when it comes to photography and videography before entering high school can also have its advantages. Having their writing published can also spark growth in different rewarding creative venues. Ultimately, though, it’s a way to rebuild connections between different parts of the school community that have been sequestered during the pandemic.
The prevailing opinion by those who were aghast by the activists’ actions was that the act was an attempt to erase history. Much like opinions made on similar incidents in the United States, these people believe that statues such as Macdonald’s help retain history. By tearing them down, they argue, activists are trying to erase the past. It’s a ridiculous assertion.
As a certified teacher in Ontario (through K-12) and one who has specialized certifications in teaching History from the Intermediate to Senior grades (7-12) allow me to dispel this myth.
There are many public places that have Macdonald’s name emblazoned across them. From schools, to parkways, to pubs, all have leaned into the brand that is Macdonald. Yet, if you were to quiz anyone who frequents such places on Macdonald’s actual policies you’d like to get a lot of blank stares. After reading this entry, try it for yourself.
Today, The Globe and Mail, published an opinion piece by another Canadian History teacher, J.D.M. Stewart. In it, he states:
Critics of Macdonald act as though his regrettable actions against Indigenous peoples in the West were happening now. But his policies, which we rightly chafe against today, took place primarily in the 1880s. “Quite unlike Canadians of today,” wrote the late Richard Gwyn in his two-volume biography of one of this country’s greatest prime ministers, “nineteenth-century Canadians felt no guilt about their country’s treatment of Indians.”
It is quite common for (white) Canadian historians to leave out contemporary opposition to Macdondald’s policy, as if everyone during that time were as racist as he. At this point History becomes less of an educational subject and more of a topic of propaganda, in that it glorifies mythological figures. Opposition within the House of Commons did indeed exist in the 19th century when it came to Macdonald.
Dr. Timothy Stanley, of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Education, wrote thusly:
Members of Parliament appeared to have been shocked by Macdonald’s final justification for Chinese disenfranchisement. Several members of the House, Matthew Hamilton Gault, Louis Henry Davies and Arthur Hill Gillmor challenged Macdonald’s amendment on the grounds that the Chinese were “industrious people” who had “voted in the last election” or who had “as good a right [to] be allowed to vote as any other British subject of foreign extraction” (Commons Debates, 1885, vol. xviii, p. 1585)
When History teachers write that Macdonald was a product of his time, and voiced the prevailing attitudes of the time, they often overlook (either by ignorance- no excuse for a History teacher- or by choice) of those negatively impacted by Macdonald’s policies.
Stewart, in The Globe and Mail piece, argues:
It is ahistorical to take Macdonald out of his times and thrust our causes and our fights for justice onto him. “Macdonald has been unfairly abused for being a man of the 19th century,” University of Toronto historian Robert Bothwell told Maclean’s magazine in 2016. “He had moral failings, and was sometimes indifferent to or negligent of serious problems. He did not have our sensibilities, and had many of the characteristics of his period that at the time passed without comment because they were so widely held.”
So widely held by whom? The majority of white Canadians? Why are their voices championed over Chinese immigrants? Why do Historians, and my fellow History teachers, continue to erase the experiences of Indigenous peoples who assuredly did not want to be ethnically cleansed from the land to make way for white settlers? Sure, many (white) power holders at that time did not want fair and equitable treatment of racialized people, a sentiment echoed today 150+ years later. Why is it by their views we cannot judge Macdonald? We have no problem saying Hitler was a monster for what he did, even if many white, straight, able bodied and cis Germans at the time had no problems with him. When it comes to other countries’ history, we examine how these leaders impacted the lives of victims and survivors, and yet we suspend that analysis when it comes to our own.
Critics will say that we cannot levy charges of genocide against Macdonald because such vocabulary didn’t exist at the time. The word “murder” certainly did and I fail to see how it cannot be used against a man who willfully starved people to clear the land. Macdonald himself was quite capable of recognizing murder, and making light of it.
A curious remark was once made by Sir John at the railway station at Hamilton, and whether it was a serious statement of his belief or an unappreciated stroke of humor is not known to this day. Some friends were talking of a murder that had occurred. When the case was tried there was doubt as to the prisoner’s guilt, when he remarked that in a case of murder it was better that an innocent man should be hanged than no man at all.
Anecdotal Life of Sir John Macdonald By E.B. Biggar 1881
Perhaps the white gatekeepers at the time didn’t view the deaths of Indigenous people as murder but we do know that Indigenous people at the time were very much against Macdonald’s murderous cruelty, as is evidenced by acts of resistance and rebellion. Erasure of such experiences have led to these perspectives not being taught in school and the general public being unaware of them (thereby propagating the mythological aspects of politicians like Macdonald rather than the historical reality).
Louis Riel, at his trial in 1885 stated:
When I came into the North West in July, the first of July 1884, I found the Indians suffering. I found the half-breeds eating the rotten pork of the Hudson Bay Company and getting sick and weak every day. Although a half breed, and having no pretension to help the whites, I also paid attention to them. I saw they were deprived of responsible government, I saw that they were deprived of their public liberties. I remembered that half-breed meant white and Indian, and while I paid attention to the suffering Indians and the half-breeds I remembered that the greatest part of my heart and blood was white and I have directed my attention to help the Indians, to help the half-breeds and to help the whites to the best of my ability. We have made petitions, I have made petitions with others to the Canadian Government asking to relieve the condition of this country. We have taken time; we have tried to unite all classes, even if I may speak, all parties. Those who have been in close communication with me know I have suffered, that I have waited for months to bring some of the people of the Saskatchewan to an understanding of certain important points in our petition to the Canadian Government and I have done my duty.
Statues, such as the one toppled in Montreal, do very little in educating the public, despite being on public land. Stewart argues these statues in Canada don’t function the same as Confederate statues in the US, as they aren’t meant to intimidate an oppressed segment of the population:
The real historical vandalism is not so much the destruction of public property, but in the singular and contemporary lens with which people are trying to judge actors from the past such as Macdonald. Unlike statues of Confederate “heroes” in the United States, which were raised in homage to the South’s support for slavery and to remind people of it, the statues of Macdonald were not put up in celebration of his genuine and ugly mistakes but for his larger legacy: his undeniable contribution to creating the Dominion of Canada.
This is a lazily-made argument as the creation of the Dominion of Canada was only possible by acts of genocide against Indigenous peoples. Most of these statues (if not all) are placed on stolen, unceded, territory, and as such are there to remind people of who holds power in this country and why. Celebrating the creation of “Canada” is in itself a reminder to Indigenous people what they have lost, and continue to lose. I’m not quite sure why History teachers, like Stewart, are incapable of recognizing this.
Macdonald was a strong proponent of creating an Aryan state and upholding other white supremacist ideals. As noted in Dr. Stanley’s quotes of Macdonald concerning Chinese immigrants:
…if they came in great numbers and settled on the Pacific coast they might control the vote of that whole Province, and they would send Chinese representatives to sit here, who would represent Chinese eccentricities, Chinese immorality, Asiatic principles altogether opposite to our wishes; and, in the even balance of parties, they might enforce those Asiatic principles, those immoralities … the eccentricities which are abhorrent to the Aryan race and Aryan principles, on this House. (1885, vol. xviii, p. 1588)
[…]
The truth is, that all natural history, all ethnology, shows that, while the crosses of the Aryan races are successful-while a mixture of all those races which are known or believed to spring from a common origin is more or less successful-they will amalgamate. If you look around the world you will see that the Aryan races will not wholesomely amalgamate with the Africans or the Asiatics. It is not to be desired that they should come; that we should have a mongrel race, that the Aryan character of the future of British America should be destroyed by a cross or crosses of that kind. (Commons Debates, 1885, vol. xviii, p. 1589)
It’s quite clear from Macdonald’s own words that he viewed himself as a white (or aryan) supremacist, and wanted Canada to be a country built upon those ideals. Is there currently a statue of his in a public place that teaches people these facts, or are the statues instead a glorification of someone wanting to create an Aryan state?
An important link that is also not taught by these statues is how Macdonald enthusiastically spoke in defence of the pro-slavery South in the US Civil War.
I believe we shall have at length an organization that will enable us to be a nation and protect ourselves as we should. Look at the gallant defence that is being made by the Southern Republic – at this moment they have not much more than four millions of men – not much exceeding our own numbers – yet what a brave fight they have made, notwithstanding the stern bravery of the New Englander, or the fierce elan of the Irishman. (Cheers.)
When the American Civil War broke out, Mr. Macdonald was of opinion that it would result in the formation of two nations. In a speech in 1861 he said : ” He agreed with every word of regret that had been expressed at the unhappy and lamentable state of things which they now witnessed in the States, for he remembered they were of the same blood as ourselves. He still looked hopefully to the future of the United States. He believed there was a vigor, a vitality in the Anglo-Saxon character and institutions of the States that would carry them through this great convulsion, as they had carried through our mother country in days of old. He hoped that if they were to be severed in two—as severed in two he believed they would be— two great, two noble, two free nations would exist in place of one.”
Anecdotal Life of Sir John Macdonald By E.B. Biggar 1881
Here Historians and History teachers have much less wiggle room. Macdonald champions and welcomes a sovereign state borne out of slavery. It is very telling who he expects to be free in this state (those of an Anglo-Saxon character). I’m sure there will be someone reading this ready to make an argument that the South really wasn’t fighting to protect slavery, but I’ll head that off by linking to the Confederate vice president, Alexander H. Stephens’ Cornerstone speech:
Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.
It is worth noting that Macdonald’s wife, Agnes Bernard, was the daughter of a slave and plantation-owner in Jamaica. Her father, Thomas James Bernard, ran a sugar plantation in Jamaica and owned 96 slaves. As slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire, he received special compensation, amounting to £1723 (approximately 30 times the annual salary of a skilled worker in those times).
Biographer, E.B. Biggar in 1881 noted:
While still a mere child, Miss Agnes Bernard lost her father, and—as about the same time the family property became seriously diminished in value by the introduction of free-trade, following upon the abolition of slavery—her mother decided to remove to England. ” At first the change of environment proved very unwelcome. The difference of atmosphere between Jamaica—where the lower classes were all attention and servility—and England— where even the servants had wills of their own and dared to show them—was not to be comprehended at once.” But the years, busy with books and acquiring accomplishments, slipped by, and England, despite her exclusiveness, became very dear. In the meantime, matters in Jamaica were going from bad to worse. The planters fell into the depths of ruin, and all who could get away from the ill-fated island with any remnants of their fortunes, hastened to do so.
Anecdotal Life of Sir John Macdonald By E.B. Biggar 1881
As has been made clear, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence against honouring Macdonald in the fashion many Canadians do. Historians and History teachers who purposefully sidestep all these historical footnotes should probably consider calling themselves something different. If you are going to make an argument that Macdonald was a product of his time, and we should restrain ourselves from criticising him with 21st century norms, you really need to ask yourself why you choose to to defend a white supremacist. There was ample criticism against Macdonald in the 19th century and he faced it in the press and in the House of Commons. Historians who choose to ignore this are making the choice to erase voices. Removing problematic statues recentres the conversation these Historians don’t want to have; they are less interested in preserving history than promoting national mythological narratives.
The Haligowan 
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