Editorially speaking...
Hope’s 1916 CNR station house has a reprieve.
For weeks, I’ve been telling you of the public campaign to save this historic structure from demolition. The latest word, as of June 3, is that the provincial government has issued another stop work order. But it’s just a reprieve while the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure which owns the land on which the station house is situated, and the District of Hope Council try to find a permanent solution to the heritage structure’s fate.
At least those who’ve laboured so hard to save it “can take a breath and enjoy the fact that we now have this amazing support for our Station House's heritage significance”.
I wish them well!
Among HMS Forward’s many duties in B.C. waters in the 1860s was keeping the peace, sometimes by bombarding First Nations villages. Seen as necessary at the time, this harsh practice is drawing increased retrospective criticism as part of the ongoing reconciliation process. —Wikipedia photo.
I don’t want to dwell on the fact but, for several weeks now, the news has been filled with headline stories about the discovery of 215 suspected graves of children at the Kamloops Residential School. Aside from the renewed grief of those families with a personal connection to the school, the ripples keep widening with a growing sense of outrage and condemnation of the institutions (government and church) and the individuals involved.
More prominent pioneers, politicians and bureaucrats of the 1890s through the 1970s are being disgraced across Canada, names of some public institutions and streets are being scrubbed, statues are coming down (or being defaced) and going into indefinite (probably permanent) storage.
All of which goes to prove yet again that history really isn’t about the long ago but about the present. Our history is now and tomorrow! We must stay informed and learn if we have any hope of doing better as Canadians in the future.
I should end my rant right there but I’m increasingly concerned by the fact that there’s a growing and disturbing trend towards not just ‘political correctness’ but, alarmingly, historical revision to the point of overkill as a result of our belated awareness of First Nations grievances and our attempts at reconciliation.
A recent post on Facebook listed a lengthy series of Royal Navy ‘police’ actions against B.C. First Nations in the 1800s. Incidents and dates of naval bombardments of villages were recited at length. But not a word of why the colonial and provincial authorities of the day thought it necessary keep the peace with cannon.
It sounded as though the Royal Navy revelled in acts of murder and carnage. Only the ugly “G” was missing although implied.
Common sense should tell us this simply wasn’t so. The long overdue and justified resentment many of us now have for much of our history as it really was as opposed to how it has been presented to us in schools and in books doesn’t justify the tarring of all of our pioneers as racially biased colonial exploiters who were bent upon destroying First Nations people.
It’s time to take a deep breath and proceed calmly and deliberately upon facts. Yes, let our pioneers stand on their own records. But posthumous lynchings of reputations isn’t the way forward.
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