I live next to Cornwallis Park, and walk my dog through it daily on the way to the waterfront. One can’t help but notice the red paint splattered on the paving stones. Then again, since I heard about the atrocities Cornwallis committed—bounties on the scalps of Mi’kmaw children and the expulsion of the Acadians—it is disturbing to see him gazing over the Westin. He did it and got away with it. If he were alive, he would be on trial at the Hague. If Halifax really wanted to be in the spirit of the 21st century, we’d erect two other statues—one in commemoration of the Mi’kmaq and the other to the Acadians. Erected in a circle, all facing inwards—it would be a real tourist attraction as well as an acknowledgement of the uglier sides of Canadian history. I would rename the park Truth & Reconciliation Square. It works in South Africa, why not here? Or maybe, in spite of our hospitality to Syrian refugees and all the other good deeds that we perform, we are not prepared to swallow our pride. If Obama can go to Hiroshima, then we can do this. I’m not saying remove Cornwallis, I’m saying leave him and put him in his rightful place. —Christopher Slaby
This article appears in May 26 – Jun 1, 2016.
They were the enemy, we won, they lost. If we’re going to celebrate the losers, maybe we should tear down our WW2 monuments and erect statues of Adolf Hilter and Hideki Tojo as well?
Gett one of those Back to the Future cars and glue in some colourful bits and bobs. Park in front of the statue and loudly say: bleep-blop-boop while running a strobe light, pointed at your face. The next thing you know, you’ll be negotiating a peace process between Cornwallis and the Mi’kmaq. No scalps will be taken and the statue will become one of one of you!
Anymore talk of this and that’s a scalpin’!
This again. A little bit of history. for 14 years, combined raiding forces of Mi’kmaw and Acadians attacked Dartmouth settlement and killed/scalped the inhabitants. for only 2 years was the edict to collect on the scalps of mi’kmaw and their allies. In that time, there was a 20-1 ratio of scalpings committed BY the mi’kmaw and Acadians vs the British settlement. after 14 years the alliance between Acadia and mi’kmaw broke down because of the sheer number of reinforcements into the area. The sad reality, and contrary to the narrative that everyone seems to want to push, is that the scalping edict was ineffective and mostly (except for only one recorded case ) unable to be administered. (also the scalping that was done by the british, was after a raid where they suspected they killed 4 raiders but only found 1 body)
At the same time the French were trading with and providing weapons to the Mi’kmaw in exchange for murdering British settlers. History is never one sided, and at the end of the day he is the founder of what became the city we live in. This is just another excuse to be offended by the PC white guilt crowd.
And the Micmacs were paid a bounty from the French for British scouts. And BTW the Micmacs attacked first in 1750. It was called the Dartmouth Massacre. So I guess the Micmacs would have been on trial at The Hague too, along with the French.
“When exaggerated claims and omissions of facts occur in argument’s, those who have falsified their claims stand as fools.”
~ Mr. Meaty
The idea of building statues to recognize mi’kmaq and acadien people is a good one but there is a plethora of problems facing this city and the world that we can actually DO something about, can we fuck off with this Cornwallis bullshit already? I don’t experience white guilt — sorry not sorry.
SJWs gotta SJW
If we removed every historical piece of evidence of anything violent, controversial or unethical there wouldn’t be much history left.
It’s important to remember the wrongs people did to help remind us not to repeat them.
I say we hit the reset button. We get rid of all the things that offend the natives, then we rip up the treaties, cut the funding for reserves, end their student loan forgiveness, make them pay taxes (even if they live on reserve) and designate them all as Canadians first, natives second. They either want to be part of this country, or they don’t, but either way I’m getting pretty fucking sick and tired of having to apologize to people for something I’m not responsible for. This shit happened hundreds of years ago for fuck sakes, and both sides are responsible for what happened. There is no innocence on either side, get the fuck over it.
I wish I had the money to privately fund an even bigger statue, maybe 20 stories fucking high, with a light up, removable scalp!!!!!!!
Let’s send the statue to Gibraltar, Edward Cornwallis’ next port of call in real life back then. Maybe they could swap us some Barbary Apes, which if the legend is true, will happily inhabit the alleged tunnel between Georges Island and the Citadel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_maca…
Win-win! Unless of course HRM is full of macaquophobes. Come on Halifax! Prove to the world that we are NOT macaquophobes!
Anybody protesting the mural that recently went up in Mulgrave Park that honours a drug dealer who liked to assault women?
Didn’t think so.
Clearly.you are ignorant. 0