Mayor Mike Savage says both he and the Nova Scotia Assembly of Mi’kmaq Chiefs are against a protest planned to topple the statue of Edward Cornwallis.
“If Mi’kmaq activists and their supporters take down the Cornwallis statue before we are given an opportunity to cooperatively forge a better way forward, we will set back progress that is already being made,” Savage writes in a press release.
Although the Assembly of Chiefs hasn’t issued its own statement, the mayor’s office says it reached out to the group and the provincial department of Aboriginal Affairs because of a Facebook event planned for this weekend.
Created by a grassroots group of Indigenous women, the protest is inviting people of all races and nationalities to gather this Saturday at noon in Cornwallis Park in hopes of bringing down the bronze statue of Halifax’s controversial founder.
Organizer Suzanne Patles says the statue’s continued presence in Halifax’s south end perpetuates hatred towards Indigenous people.
“To have a symbolic structure that has committed genocidal atrocities, it begs the question: What is Halifax looking to represent?” she asks. “How can we reconcile with a government structure that refuses to acknowledge this man committed genocide against our people?”
Savage disagrees with that assessment.
“I am committed to furthering our relationship with the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia, as is our council, which is why we adopted a Statement of Reconciliation,” the mayor states. “I believe it is crucial for all citizens of HRM that we have a new relationship, and as mayor I will be an advocate for these issues. It matters deeply to me.”
The J. Massey Rhind sculpture of Edward Cornwallis was unveiled in 1931. Over the past few decades it’s transformed from an unimportant bit of civic ornamentation into a lightning rod of political controversy. The M’ikmaq have called it a revisionist celebration of Halifax’s colonial founding that ignores the violence committed against Indigenous peoples. They’ve been joined by local historians and even premier Stephen McNeil in arguing the statue should be removed.
Halifax Regional Council recently voted to assemble a panel of experts to review and recommend changes on how HRM commemorates Cornwallis—including whether the statue should be taken down. The motion was inspired by an impassioned performance about the genocide of the Mi’kmaq people that poet laureate Rebecca Thomas gave at City Hall. But Thomas says she has mixed feelings about this weekend’s planned protest.
“I feel like it’s going to be damaged and the city is going to have to pay to fix it,” she says, adding that she’s nervous the general public will use the event to dismiss Indigenous people as “trouble-making deviants,” regardless of the number of non-Native participants involved.
“I would also add that it’s not enjoyable constantly being at odds with systemic powers. It’s not fun having Canadians regard us with deep prejudices, and as much as I want that statue gone, I’m afraid of the cost empathy for our struggles associated with this method of removal.”
There are also the legal costs. In his press release, Savage says HRM and police “will not stand in the way of legitimate public protest, nor will we condone violent action in the place of real dialogue.”
But Patles isn’t inexperienced in standing up to police. She’s organized blockades and political events before, and was one of two Mi’kmaw protestors put on an RCMP “threat” list for her role in the Elsipogtog demonstrations in 2013. Patles was arrested and charged with mischief after laying tobacco and praying in the middle of a highway. Those charges were later dropped.
“We’re asserting our autonomy and our sovereignty in our inherent territory,” she says.
Despite that, Halifax police spokesperson Dianne Penfound writes in a terse, emailed statement that the cops will be watching.
“We are aware of this planned protest. Halifax Regional Police has the appropriate resources and will respond accordingly.”
Patles says this weekend’s event was created in response to the Proud Boys incident that occurred on Canada Day.
Members of the alt-right online chauvinist frat disrupted an Indigenous event that was being held at Cornwallis Park on July 1. Five costumed Proud Boys, all members of the Canadian Armed Forces, showed up during a symbolic ceremony by Chief Grizzly Mamma to question the event, praise Cornwallis and dispute Indigenous rights. The group eventually left to drink at a nearby bar and post glib social media updates boasting of how they had “short-dicked” Halifax’s “gender-fluid communists.”
This weekend’s protest is necessary, according to Patles, because sitting around and waiting isn’t working. There have already been decades of dialogue, she says, and still Indigenous people are ignored and attacked.
“We’re at a point right now where we can’t wait; where these white supremacist groups are perpetuating hate crimes against Indigenous groups,” she says.
The Proud Boys have since been suspended from duty and are under military investigation. Their actions and words have been lambasted by Armed Forces chief general Jonathan Vance and Defence minister Harjit Sajjan, amongst others.
Unsurprisingly, Saturday’s planned Cornwallis protest has already drawn the attention of the other Canadian Proud Boys.
“Anyone who is a patriot should show up there and protest this peacefully,” the group’s Facebook page advises.
“Fuckin’ sick to my stomach,” writes Proud Boy supporter and Edmonton-based carpenter Nick Dadey in response. “Just cuz he wanted white men to kill Indians cuz they were attacking?…What a joke!!!! He built that province.”
After burning and raping his way through the Scottish Highlands, Cornwallis arrived in North America in 1749 with instructions to establish a British settlement. The new town of Halifax was a violation of existing treaties with the local M’ikmaq people, and when diplomatic efforts to subvert the area’s Indigenous residents failed and violence broke out, Cornwallis issued a bounty for Mi’kmaw scalps in an effort to “distress and destroy the Indians” and drive them from the peninsula “decisively and forever.”
In poor health and with little support from England, Cornwallis left North America a few years later. Historians suggest he and his superiors in Britain considered his time in Halifax as a failure. The former military “hero” was cast off to become governor of Gibraltar, where he’d die several years later as a shadow of his former esteemed self.
Patles says the mayor and chiefs’ statement on Tuesday don’t change any plans. The protest is still on, and Savage is invited to come out and speak if he wants.
Elsewhere on Saturday afternoon, the Toronto-based Students in Support of Free Speech will host a “Rally for the Halifax Five” in Nathan Phillips Square.
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Daniel Paul on protest to topple Cornwallis statue: “If it goes, it goes”
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Update: Matt Whitman all-lives-matters Cornwallis panel
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This article appears in Jul 6-12, 2017.
I don’t necessarily agree with the protestors removing the statue – I’d rather it be removed in a way that wouldn’t play into racist “angry Indian” stereotypes, but I agree with their frustration that it is well past time to remove the statue of a man who supported and encouraged genocide, and how is this even a thing that is worth talking about! Maybe instead of removing the statue, they could weld a knife and bloody scalp into its hands – let’s put what this man represents out in the open and see if people keep hemming and hawing and “my heritage!”-ing then.
It’s funny how, with just five minutes of reading historical facts about Cornwallis, I am more educated on this issue than any of the ignorant protesters, whose false claims of Cornwallis’ “genocide” against Mikmaq are plainly inaccurate and foolish.
Here’s a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Cornwallis
Welcome to the Shit Show!
Make no mistake, these protesters are not acting on behalf of any Native groups (despite them, in fact). When this shit inevitably goes sideways please keep that in mind. They are setting out to incite violence and commit illegal destruction of property. If you or I were to do that, regardless of the reason, the outcome would be the same. The police have now given fair warning that anyone who tries to remove the statue without prior consent of city council will be arrested. These protesters know they won’t be able to remove this 1200 lb statue, they want the attention, the footage of police enforcing the law, so they can shout discrimination, oppression, victimhood, when the police invariably make good on their word; please keep that in mind as well. Sites like this one will be reinforcing that narrative.
This is a group of militant ANTIFA-esque leftist political radicals, no different from the Proud Boys save for the colour of their stripes, who have been emboldened by propaganda from ‘news’ sites like the coast and the actions of the Canadian Military. They now believe, probably correctly, that anyone who disagrees with them (peacefully/otherwise) should be labeled a racist, shamed relentlessly, and have their careers taken from them.
The view from the center is getting claustrophobic as the divide between extremist idiots shrinks daily.
This is the perfect time to bring these groups together to envision new public art that incorporates the Indigenous perspective. Reactive behaviour on the left will result in reactive behaviour on the right and visa versa. Who needs that?! Dialogue and revision: recognize the good and the bad from the past and forge a new way forward.
Why can’t this statue be left but additions added to the spot including information signs describing hopefully unbiased history (if there is such a thing) and revealing some of the negative aspects …. if the statue is removed, there will be nothing there to focus ideas of people wanting to point out the negative aspects of the past. The only reason some people are starting to hear about some of the negative aspects of this history is because this statue is there as a focal point. This is just an alternative and perhaps more useful concept than a group destroying a statue and thinking that’s a great victory.
some very reasoned comments. We and indigenous peoples have a historic oppurtunity to form a new future and meaningfully right past wrongs . This is some white activist inspired media circus and helps no-one