Letter to the editor
As a professional historian, I frequently encounter the belief that there is a single, absolute account about what happened in the past. Collect the ‘facts’ and one can explain the ‘history.’
Unfortunately, life as an historian is more complicated: in practice, the records used to study the past are incomplete; those that survive capture only a narrow perspective, and the way an historical source is interpreted depends on the question an historian is trying to answer. Ask a different question and a different ‘history’ will emerge. In other words, what we think of as ‘history’ is not a single, unchanging, overarching story, but a range of narratives that embrace a variety of perspectives. Our understanding of what happened in the past is constantly changing.
Which brings me to Arnold Malone’s January 16th column, “Let us not forget our historical heroes.” Malone argues that “well intentioned yet misguided people” seek to “expunge” early Canadian leaders, such as Sir John A. MacDonald, from history by removing their names from public places. In Malone’s history, MacDonald is the “main architect” of Confederation, whose vision led to the birth of a nation connected by a trans-continental railroad, and who, quoting intellectual property lawyer Greg Piasetzki, “saved more Indian lives than any other prime minister.” This interpretation of MacDonald as a heroic force of “overwhelming good” for the people of Canada is one that is probably familiar to many from grade school.
Ask a different question from the perspective of different Canadians, however, and a different history emerges. MacDonald’s vision for the new nation of Canada included the elimination of First Nations culture and the assimilation of Indigenous people into Canadian society. In the House of Commons in 1887, he stated his goal “to do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people in all respects with the inhabitants of the Dominion.”
This marginalization of Indigenous Peoples was central to the British North America Act (1867) which, according to Malone, “still provides the core content of our constitution.” It also placed the governance of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada, who had governed themselves for centuries, under the newly created federal government. The first Indian Act (1876) formalized this governance and includes the definition that “The term ‘person’ means an individual other than an Indian,” a statement with startling implications. MacDonald was not prime minister when the Indian Act was passed, but the legislation incorporated policies that he had previously seen passed into law, and that he would continue to promote and strengthen during his subsequent term as leader of the country (1878-1891).
MacDonald’s approach to Indigenous enfranchisement, lauded by Malone for its progressiveness, also aimed to assimilate Indigenous Peoples. Even before he became prime minister, MacDonald passed legislation in Upper Canada that allowed Indigenous men to vote, but this process, known as “enfranchisement,” also required men to relinquish their status as “Indians.” This permanently ended membership with their Nation for themselves and their descendants, and eliminated any treaty benefits this might entail. Few Indigenous men voluntarily chose enfranchisement, which led to the practice of “involuntary enfranchisement,” where any Indigenous man who acquired a degree, or became a clergyman, lawyer, or doctor had his status as an “Indian” taken away.
MacDonald later introduced the Electoral Franchise Act in 1885, which was intended to extend the federal vote to all Indigenous persons who met certain property qualifications. After the North-West Resistance this legislation was amended to entirely exclude people living in western Canada and British Columbia, as well as any Indigenous person living on a reserve elsewhere in Canada who didn’t own private land with a certain value of improvements. In short, the vote remained very limited.
Indigenous culture was an obstacle to the completion and operation of the CPR in western Canada, and in 1878 Prime Minister MacDonald made himself the superintendent general of Indian Affairs, placing him in direct oversight of the ministry. In order to ‘open’ the prairies for construction and future settlement, Indigenous Peoples had to be sequestered on reserves, and Canadian officials in the 1880s, overseen by MacDonald, withheld food from Indigenous Peoples until they moved onto reserves (see Clearing the Plains by historian James Daschuk). This policy, combined with the scarcity of bison, resulted in thousands of Plains Indigenous Peoples dying.
The residential school system, which MacDonald also implemented as a federal program, was another means to separate Indigenous children from their families and their culture. As the minister in charge, MacDonald was well aware of what was happening in these schools. He also introduced the pass system, intended to restrict movement of Indigenous Peoples, and criminalized potlatches. MacDonald’s vision of eradicating Indigenous culture shaped policies that continue to influence Canada today.
At its heart, history is the study of change over time. The way that history is understood changes according to the needs and perspectives of the people studying it. Malone needs and wants a hero, and it is certainly much easier to understand MacDonald and other early policy makers in Canada as ‘heroes’ than it is to try to comprehend the complex system of suffering and tragedy that their policies caused. A hero is someone who is admired for outstanding achievements or noble qualities: these men may have been (and still are) considered “amazing leaders” by some Canadians, but for others, the harms they caused make this designation impossible.
It takes far more than a letter to the editor to grapple with the extent of this legacy – indeed, historians have been trying to do so for decades. Rest assured, these names will never be ‘expunged’ or ‘erased’ from Canadian history. Ask a different question, and you’ll get a different answer. Let’s not forget that our understanding of history should be permitted to change.
Alex Weller, Invermere
