Pathetic journalism

Vincent J. Curtis

21 June 21

RE: City’s indigenous community wants Macdonald statue removed.  Hamilton Spectator 21 June 21.

One of the most pathetic tropes of journalism is to begin a story with a pathetic anecdote and then segue into an equally pathetic generalization.  That’s how the story at reference proceeds.

An Indian who travels into downtown Hamilton is triggered by the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald.  Sometime in the 1950s or maybe 60’s, this person’s mother was forced to go to a residential school, and was alleged raped by an Indian agent.  The faults for these are laid at the foot of Macdonald, who died seventy years earlier.  It is as if no one in the intervening decades was responsible for their own actions; it’s all Macdonald’s fault.

We are further invited to believe on the basis of the opinions of two other people that it is the settled opinion of the entire aboriginal community of Hamilton that Macdonald’s statue be removed.  I’ll bet if you polled the entire city, the majority of people would want it to remain.  It’s not just the opinions of aboriginals living in Hamilton who have a say in this.

Moreover, aboriginals have no standing in this matter.  They are First Nations, not Canadian.  Macdonald is Canada’s hero, not theirs, though grudgingly he should be considering what he saved them from.  

Trying to please aboriginals is a mug’s game.  They aren’t sincerely interested in reconciliation because under no circumstances will they join mainstream Canadian society.  They are only interested in the white man’s money, and any humiliation along the way they can inflict is a bonus.

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