In a recent article at The Epoch Times, “Erasing, Misrepresenting Canada’s History Erodes Foundations of Society,” a group of well meaning and harmless conservative historians are cited at length expressing concerns about the tearing down of statues, renaming of buildings and streets, and overemphasis on Canada’s “racist past” without an acknowledgement that this nation has been “constantly improving” away from its “racist past”. I don’t wish to speak slightingly of the historians interviewed for this article. They seem sincere in their angst about the obliteration of Canada’s past from the public sphere. But these historians speak from a defeatist standpoint and they readily accept the premises of the “progressive” Left. Their argument is essentially that Canada’s “historical trajectory” can’t be categorized as purely racist since this past eventually produced a non-racist Canada that welcomes millions of nonwhite immigrants. Canada is now a nation of “justice,” “prosperity,” and “equal rights for everyone”.
