The Hamilton police, media, and mayor are out for blood after the Indigenous Unity Rally brought down the John A. MacDonald statue in Gore Park on Aug. 14.
In July, Hamilton City Council voted against removing the statue and instead vowed to undertake a review of Hamilton’s landmarks to “honour the indigenous community and the City’s meaningful Reconciliation.” This inaction came as the number of unmarked graves found on residential school properties has continued to mount to many thousands of children, with a fraction of grounds searched. As prime minister, John A. Macdonald was a primary architect of the schools which had the stated goal of “killing the Indian in the child.” The deliberateness and success with which this genocide was carried out are now public knowledge.
On Aug. 14, protestors gathered at the Hamilton Indigenous Unity Rally to protest the council’s inaction. Jordan Carrier, an activist at the rally, said, “These commemorations of colonizers like John A. actually erase history. They celebrate the man that enacted genocide against Indigenous peoples and erases the violence, the blood, the death, and the trauma that we experience as Indigenous people… and gives the okay for violence to continue.”
Danielle, an Anishinaabe Kwe activist, said, “I think it’s also powerful to remember that they [Hamilton City Council] don’t actually care. They really don’t. And I think if they did, they would have made change by now… Everyone wants to talk about reconciliation, but no one wants to talk about the truth. Instead of believing in a government that doesn’t believe in us, let’s believe in ourselves.… We need to do this work, City Council will not do it for us.” Amidst cheers from the crowd, the statue came tumbling down.
While the City Council decided to “review” at length whether to remove a statue celebrating a genocidal prime minister, the state and capitalist media at once began hounding, slandering, and prosecuting those seeking justice.
The same day that the statue was torn down, the Hamilton Police released a statement asking for information on activists to be reported to Crime Stoppers or the department. The next day, they singled out four protestors as “suspects”, asking the public for identifying information. Soon after, the Toronto Sun published an article, which described the rally as a chaotic criminal enterprise. On Aug. 18, the police charged Miguel Martin Avila-Valarde with mischief over $5,000 and have stated a plan to lay more charges.
Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger demonized the protestors and whitewashed John A. Macdonald’s history. Eisenberger told CHCH Radio, “This kind of unjustified action is not at all helpful and certainly truth and reconciliation is not about destruction or recrimination or vengeance.” This illustrates the sham of reconciliation, which does not meaningfully challenge the ongoing oppression of Indigenous people, and in practice lets the ruling class off the hook with mere words. This trick is nothing new; even John A. Macdonald in his day spoke of Canada’s regretful “history”, saying of Indigenous people in an 1880 letter that “We must remember that they are the original owners of the soil, of which they have been dispossessed by the covetousness or ambition of our ancestors.”
The rally at Gore Park comes on the heels of similar actions aimed at taking down statues of prominent political figures who oversaw and carried out the oppression, subjugation, and genocide of Indigenous people. In early June, the Egerton Ryerson statue at Ryerson University in Toronto was torn down in a mass action, and the head donated to the now victorious 1492 Land Back Lane reclamation near Caledonia. Prior to Canada Day, there were widespread calls to cancel the July 1 holiday. On Canada Day itself, the Queen Victoria statue in Winnipeg was covered in red paint and torn down. Other statues of Queen Victoria in B.C. and Ontario were similarly redecorated. These actions are indicative of the crisis in world society, in the context of a capitalist system which can provide no future. Young and working class people are increasingly reaching revolutionary conclusions, and in Canada, the outrage against Indigenous oppression is a flash point.
What sort of state is it that calls removing statues venerating genocidal leaders a crime? It’s a state that has oppressed and continues to oppress Indigenous people to deadly effect, and now senses the ground shifting under its feet. The Canadian ruling class and their state have no choice but to whitewash its past and current crimes. This means delay, inaction, and empty promises in an effort to defend that history. As soon as ordinary people take action, the ruling class mobilizes a witch hunt aimed at intimidating those who might follow a good example. They are afraid that the movement will not stop at removing symbols of Canada’s colonial history, and will aim to topple capitalism itself with its inherent oppression and exploitation.
The Unity Rally at Gore Park was well named. In the face of slander and threats, the movement must respond with even broader unity. Working class organizations must mobilize a public campaign for all charges to be dropped immediately. Weakness invites aggression, and the actions of past months are just the beginning of what can be achieved when working-class people rely on our own strength.
