EDITORIAL – Proud Boys’ interruption of protest was a dumbass move
John Edward Cornwallis. (Image: Wikipedia)
An Armchair Mayor editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
HERE WE go again with another controversy over statues.
On Canada Day, five off-duty members of the armed forces walked up to a gathering of activists and Indigenous protesters at a statue of Edward Cornwallis in Halifax and spent roughly eight and a half minutes debating colonialization with several of those in attendance.
Carrying a Red Ensign, the interlopers exchanged some mildly heated rhetoric with the Mi’kmaq protesters, who were displaying an upside-down Maple Leaf. The men identified themselves as members of the Proud Boys, an ultra-right organization.
mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca
ArmchairMayor.ca 
While it is important to remember the past, what is done cannot be undone, and tearing down a statue because you don’t like what it represents, or expunging historical events from the history books does not make them un-happen. They happened alright, and while we need to remember them, reflect on them, and pledge not to let them happen again, we also need to move on. And that goes for everybody on both sides of the debate. Many apologies for past injustices have been made. How many more are expected? Will there ever be enough? For some folks, probably not, as some refuse to let go of the past, and some wish to use it as a reason for everything that is wrong with their lives. Some, though, make a conscious decision to rise above their past circumstances, and make a difference. These are the people we should aspire to model ourselves after. A quote I read the other day hit home. “To forgive is to set a prisoner free, and discover that the prisoner was you- Lewis B. Smedes”.
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With people like the “Proud Boys” around the past is still very much the present and injustice, in one form or another, is just around the corner.
Considering these goons were from the military is even more troubling.
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