We’re in the middle of a reckoning here in Canada, 200 years in the making.
After news broke last week that the remains of 215 beautiful indigenous children had been found underneath a residential school in Kamloops, BC, Canadians are reacting and they are pissed.

The beheading of Egerton Ryerson:#Ryerson #XUniversity #215children pic.twitter.com/FxPutFBkaE

— Caryma Sa’d – Lawyer (@CarymaRules) June 7, 2021

I don’t know of another tragedy that’s brought so many Canadians together. Schools across the country are flying flags at half-mast in honor of the 215 forgotten school children. Federal and provincial buildings and catholic churches were flooded with kids’ shoes as people placed them on the steps of buildings to remind them of their abuse.

Egerton Ryerson’s head at the feet of an Indian Residential School survivor. #XUniversity #215children pic.twitter.com/bNiCTQFPMj

— Caryma Sa’d – Lawyer (@CarymaRules) June 7, 2021

Oh, and we’re ripping down statues of colonial oppressors specifically, the Egerton Ryerson Statue at Ryerson University.
You might not be a fan of mob action, but my friend Caryma snapped a photo of a survivor of indigenous residential schools standing over the head of the man responsible for allowing the Catholic Church to murder and rape indigenous kids at will.
Egerton was pals with Sir John A MacDonald and was instrumental in the ‘reeducation of savages’, personally penning the plans and policies which led to 200 years of genocide of Canada’s First Nations people.

When I saw this picture of an older woman who’d spent years being abused in Canadian residential schools I was filled with emotions.  I couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking after surviving a lifelong nightmare with the head of the architect of misery her misery at her feet.  I wonder if it’s over for her and if this will help her heal.  I wonder what memories come flooding back as people around her wake up to the horrific reality she and so many were forced to live.

I wonder what this all means to her and I’m grateful for her at this moment.

If we have statues of men who’ve enabled the genocide of indigenous people, they need to come down.  It doesn’t matter who they are and it’s not about erasing history.  It’s about creating an accountable history and correcting the record.

Every bronze replica of a colonial racist we pull down creates history, a new history we don’t have to hide from or pretend didn’t exist.  We erect statues of people and times we’re proud of, not racists who paved the way for the ‘white man’, and the more we know the more justified these people are in their actions.

Plus, they’re just fucking statues of dead people.  Who gives a shit.

DB