OLDS — Several town councillors say they sympathize with the frustration some people feel about statues of people who played key roles in residential schools or other forms of racism or colonialism.
But they say pulling down those statues is not the right way to fix the problem.
Coun. Mary Anne Overwater raised that concern during council’s July 12 meeting.
At her suggestion, and that of Coun. Mary Jane Harper, council voted to have administration bring the matter up at a future council meeting for discussion.
The idea is to lay the groundwork so town reps can raise the issue during this year’s annual Alberta Urban Municipalities Association conference, which takes place Nov. 17-19 in Edmonton.
Several statues of people connected to the creation of the residential school system, including Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, have been pulled off pedestals across the country in recent weeks and months.
Much of that anger was spurred by the discovery of more than 1,000 unmarked graves near former residential schools, believed to contain the remains of Indigenous children.
“I don’t know about the rest of council but I do think it’s inappropriate to be removing all these statues and all that because if you continue to remove all statues then you tend to forget as to what has happened in the past," Overwater said.
She said she’s listened to several Indigenous people who have the same opinion.
Overwater said she’s aware that some communities across the country didn’t celebrate Canada Day to show solidarity with and reconcile with Indigenous people.
"I’m just wondering, because some municipalities didn’t celebrate Canada Day and I find that quite insulting, as Canada is a very prosperous country and we accept all different nationalities here,” Overwater said, adding that making a presentation on the issue at the AUMA conference may be a way to “stop this silliness about what’s going on.”
Coun. Mary Jane Harper suggested having council debate the matter at a future council meeting first “so that we can provide further information for a good policy discussion on it.”
"I agree with Coun. Overwater that destroying our history does not make it right,” Harper said.
During a later interview with the Albertan, mayor Mike Muzychka said he agrees with Overwater and Harper.
“I think it’s a slippery slope when we try and delete our history,” Muzychka said.
“And I know that some people get offended by these statues and so forth, but at that same time, if we forget our history, we tend to repeat it. So I think it’s important to leave all the good, the bad and the ugly of our history, just so that we never, ever forget.”
