‘It is what it is’

Dear Editor:

Throughout Canada we are undergoing a situation where the media and politicians have decided the views of Indigenous activists should be protected, with the public’s views being ignored.

Many examples exist, including the Queen Victoria monument removal from a public park in Kitchener, the removal of statues of Sir John A. Macdonald and other past Canadian prime ministers from public display in Wilmot Township, and the defacing and destruction of other historical figures throughout the country.

Residential schools went wrong in the implementation. Sir John and other politicians are not the villains; religious educators who operated the schools are.

Why do we cave to people who demand name changes and vandalize at night? Why do we capitulate to people who distort history for their own narrow agendas? Some of our colonial past is shameful, but much of it was magnificent. We were and are only human.

To categorize every view that is different from those of activists as hate is incorrect. It is a different view only – it is what it is.

Don Kruger, Fergus