Juno News - May 27, 2024


Canadians SPEAK OUT against Trudeau’s latest attack on John A. Macdonald

Topics
decolonized Bellevue House propaganda
Mentioned
John A. Macdonald Don Jr. Harrison Faulkner Justin Trudeau Pierre Elliott Kingstonites Hamilton
More human caused fires in Alberta Liberal MP pushing Trudeau to recognize ＂Palestinian state＂

Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

170.12

Word count

1,990

Sentence count

151

Harmful content

Toxicity

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Bellevue House in Kingston, Ontario is supposed to be a monument to Sir John A. Macdonald, the founder of Canada, but it's actually a shrine to anti-Canadian propaganda. And it's not hard to see why.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 You think that it's important for Canada to protect our history and to not erase our history?
00:00:05.000 Every inch of history is important to our kids and to the future.
00:00:10.480 It's important for every country to protect their history because you don't want to lose that.
00:00:15.840 I feel like we have to remember history and learn from it.
00:00:18.860 I think it's like people trying to make white people feel guilty.
00:00:30.000 Harrison Faulkner reporting from Kingston, Ontario.
00:00:34.400 I'm standing outside Bellevue House, the National Historic Site,
00:00:38.120 which is supposed to be a monument to Sir John A. Macdonald, the founder of our country.
00:00:43.380 The problem is, just like every other Macdonald monument across our country,
00:00:47.760 this really isn't much of a monument, much of a shrine to Macdonald.
00:00:51.860 It has been reopened after six years of being closed for repairs.
00:00:56.560 And of course, it went from being a legitimate monument of Macdonald
00:00:59.280 to now being full of anti-Canadian propaganda.
00:01:03.520 The tour of Bellevue House starts behind me in the Visitor's Centre.
00:01:07.640 And what's very strange about the Visitor's Centre is that it's not really a story of Macdonald,
00:01:12.600 but it's more a story of Canada starting at Macdonald.
00:01:16.020 The facts, if you will, are in white text, the actual story,
00:01:20.120 and then underneath it in purple text seems to be the reinterpretation of history.
00:01:25.020 That's the Justin Trudeau-approved version of Canadian history,
00:01:28.180 which really just says everyone was a racist, everyone was an evil coloniser,
00:01:32.300 and the formation of Canada is itself illegitimate,
00:01:36.360 because it was all built on racism and colonialism.
00:01:39.160 It goes from the Visitor's Centre, then to, of course, Bellevue House.
00:01:43.720 Before I go any further, I have to say,
00:01:45.100 the tour guides that we had for Bellevue House were remarkably unbiased.
00:01:50.440 They actually seemed to want to tell the truth about Macdonald.
00:01:53.680 Of course, they had to read off part of a script about how bad John A. Macdonald is
00:01:57.320 and how evil Victorian Canada was.
00:02:00.400 But the rest of the tour was remarkably unbiased.
00:02:03.980 The tour guides were fine.
00:02:06.440 What you saw inside Bellevue House, however, was not.
00:02:10.560 Welcome to the new and improved, decolonised Bellevue House.
00:02:14.820 Before you get to the house, you'll first see this sign with unattributed quotes about Sir John A. Macdonald.
00:02:22.260 No surprise that the first quote you'll see is, 0.89
00:02:26.000 He was a monster.
00:02:27.540 It seems that the most generous quote from an unknown source they could find was, 0.96
00:02:31.640 We wouldn't have Canada without him.
00:02:34.000 The anti-Canadian propaganda begins immediately when you walk through the front door of Bellevue House.
00:02:39.860 The tour begins with this sign, reminding you that you are invited into discussions and moments of personal reflection
00:02:48.060 about how Canada's future can be more inclusive.
00:02:52.140 As you will see, this isn't your typical museum.
00:02:55.840 In the basement of the house, you will see a lexicon for the time,
00:03:00.240 which includes words like genocide, imperialism, racism, and colonialism.
00:03:05.120 On the main floor, when you walk into John A. Macdonald's kitchen,
00:03:09.360 you can't help but notice this giant red sign telling you how the, quote,
00:03:14.280 European occupation, unquote, caused significant harm to indigenous diets.
00:03:21.360 Remember, this is all John A. Macdonald's fault, which really means it's all your fault.
00:03:26.320 When you walk up to the second floor of Bellevue House,
00:03:29.080 well, that's when the decolonization really begins.
00:03:32.180 Inside Bellevue House, John Jr., John A. Macdonald's youngest son,
00:03:38.160 died at just one year old due to infant death syndrome.
00:03:42.400 When you walk inside of John Jr.'s bedroom,
00:03:45.120 well, that's when you're greeted with one of the most disgraceful things inside of this house.
00:03:49.160 They've turned John Jr.'s bedroom into a memorial for residential school children,
00:03:54.240 including this out-of-context quote from Macdonald,
00:03:56.980 all designed to make you think that he was the worst person in this country's history.
00:04:01.500 You then get to enter Macdonald's bedroom,
00:04:04.880 where there is a giant flat-screen television above John A.'s bed,
00:04:09.100 playing videos about natives on repeat.
00:04:11.780 Interesting. I didn't know flat-screen televisions were around in the 1850s.
00:04:15.680 How historically accurate?
00:04:17.400 The problem is, over the past few years,
00:04:19.820 nearly every monument to Macdonald has been erased, starting here in Kingston.
00:04:23.320 The Kingston City Council voted to remove John A. Macdonald's statue a few years ago.
00:04:27.520 That was followed by similar actions in Charlottetown,
00:04:30.480 who also voted to remove John A. Macdonald's statue.
00:04:32.860 Again, followed by actions we've seen in Montreal,
00:04:36.160 where his statue was violently torn down by a group of BLM activists.
00:04:40.100 Since then, Montreal has decided that actually they won't put Macdonald's statue
00:04:43.180 back in its place where it belongs.
00:04:45.480 They'll just leave the pedestal there so that everyone can see the crime that was committed
00:04:48.240 and not replaced.
00:04:49.840 Regina, they voted to remove their John A. Macdonald's statue.
00:04:53.240 The City of Victoria, they also voted to remove John A. Macdonald's statue.
00:04:56.620 In Hamilton, they voted to remove John A. Macdonald's statue.
00:05:00.320 Queen's Faculty of Law here in Kingston,
00:05:03.400 well, they took John A. Macdonald's name off their Faculty of Law building.
00:05:06.200 Basically, every single monument to John A. Macdonald under Justin Trudeau's leadership
00:05:09.600 has been erased.
00:05:11.240 And if it hasn't been erased, it has been footnoted and qualified
00:05:14.680 with things that, frankly, he wasn't that responsible for.
00:05:18.360 Did anyone really expect anything different to come from the Bellevue House monument?
00:05:21.660 It only opened just last week after six years of being closed
00:05:25.300 At the opening ceremony of Bellevue House just last week,
00:05:28.440 we were reminded by one of the historians who was involved with putting up the new plaques
00:05:32.980 and the new statements reminding us all how evil John A. was
00:05:35.620 that Canada is steeped in racism and colonialism.
00:05:39.840 Canada, like the United States, was steeped in racism, colonialism,
00:05:44.280 white supremacy and other legacies of enslavement.
00:05:47.040 We're now here, however, to ask local Kingstonians what they think of John A. Macdonald.
00:05:53.200 Should John A. Macdonald be celebrated or should we continue this process
00:05:57.200 of demonizing the greatest Canadian, the man responsible for our country?
00:06:01.300 Let's see what they have to say.
00:06:02.320 I feel like we have to remember history and learn from it
00:06:12.400 instead of just tearing it all down.
00:06:15.180 Do you think that Canada has a history that we should be proud of
00:06:18.360 and not just be constantly feeling, you know, apologizing and feeling bad for?
00:06:22.320 I think we have to learn from history.
00:06:23.820 Do you think that using today's standards, moral standards,
00:06:29.080 to judge leaders in the past, say in the 1850s, 1860s,
00:06:33.960 do you think that's a good way to approach history?
00:06:36.880 I mean, I feel like society was very different back then
00:06:40.060 in the way that we had different rules and different norms
00:06:42.980 as to how society used to conduct.
00:06:45.060 But again, the new norms that we have brought about,
00:06:47.780 they are much more suited to our way of life in the current milieu.
00:06:51.660 So I feel like while we should not really vilify previous figures,
00:06:56.480 we should also not glorify them and maybe keep it at like a middle point
00:07:00.040 where we are not really glorifying them or vilifying them.
00:07:03.160 Or maybe if you want to take an optimistic look,
00:07:05.340 we could maybe just look at the achievements that they have made
00:07:07.380 rather than look at them through a personal lens.
00:07:10.440 I feel like, say, some of the monuments that have came down
00:07:12.760 or them trying to maybe, if they're going to change some street names,
00:07:16.680 I think we should hold on to our history
00:07:18.820 and we know what happened in the past
00:07:21.840 and we acknowledge some of the bad things that happened in the past,
00:07:24.820 but we should still have our past
00:07:27.700 and history's important to our kids and to the future.
00:07:33.080 You think that it's important for Canada to protect our history
00:07:36.080 and to not erase our history?
00:07:37.460 For sure.
00:07:38.180 Every inch of it.
00:07:39.620 I think it's like people trying to make white people feel guilty.
00:07:45.700 You think the attacks on McDonald have gone too far?
00:07:47.740 Like, you can't blame a guy that's the head of the country
00:07:49.460 for something that came down that was of the time that he was in.
00:07:54.060 A lot of people don't realize the natives at that time
00:07:56.520 were under a lot of poverty.
00:07:57.880 All good deeds do not go unpunished.
00:08:00.220 So I don't mean to be disrespectful to any Indigenous people or anything at all,
00:08:06.440 but we have to look at the times, the reasons.
00:08:09.300 If you were looking at it from today's point of view,
00:08:11.360 we're not looking at it from the point of view from our past.
00:08:15.000 I think it was Prime Minister Pierre Elliott-Trudeau that said,
00:08:18.660 and this was over, I think the Chinese being in the,
00:08:24.320 they were asking for compensation,
00:08:25.920 and he was going,
00:08:26.960 you cannot hold this government responsible
00:08:28.820 for something that happened 100 years ago,
00:08:32.480 even if it is wrong.
00:08:34.160 It's just that that time is gone,
00:08:36.580 and we can't make restitution to people that aren't here.
00:08:39.280 And do you think,
00:08:39.780 do you think Canadians should be prouder of their country
00:08:42.540 and more proud of where we come from?
00:08:44.860 I do.
00:08:45.620 I find that there's a lot of woke stuff going on
00:08:47.800 and a lot of mega stuff.
00:08:48.960 We've got to find the middle.
00:08:50.380 It's either you believe what I believe,
00:08:52.760 or I'm against you.
00:08:53.740 So you're either for me or against me,
00:08:55.180 and we've got to stop that.
00:08:56.360 Because I was liberal when I was growing up,
00:08:57.940 but now I find I'm more conservative.
00:09:00.680 But my views haven't changed.
00:09:02.140 I think it's important for every country
00:09:04.640 to protect their history
00:09:05.840 because you don't want to lose that for the next generation.
00:09:10.380 So it's important to share and to preserve that.
00:09:13.260 Do you think that it's important to recognize the positives
00:09:15.340 and not necessarily just the negatives?
00:09:17.700 Yeah, actually,
00:09:18.920 I think we have to balance this thing
00:09:21.500 because you have to preserve the good things
00:09:24.260 that one person do at their moment in the history.
00:09:29.440 But actually,
00:09:30.860 you have to recognize the bad things as well
00:09:32.940 because it's important for any kind of culture
00:09:35.680 to grow with that thing
00:09:37.540 and avoid to do the same things again over and over.
00:09:41.180 We've just heard from local Kingstonians or Kingstonites.
00:09:44.380 I'm not quite sure what the name is.
00:09:45.800 Maybe we've been giving them the wrong name this entire time.
00:09:47.680 But there has not been that much diversity of opinion on this issue.
00:09:51.920 Everyone we have spoken to
00:09:53.060 says that it's important to protect Canadian history.
00:09:57.040 It's important to protect John A. Macdonald,
00:09:59.760 his legacy, his monuments.
00:10:01.920 We can't just throw everything out
00:10:03.300 and constantly be apologizing for things
00:10:06.340 and constantly be feeling bad for ourselves.
00:10:08.980 And also,
00:10:10.080 we can't be applying the moral standards of today
00:10:12.940 to those in the past.
00:10:14.600 If these standards were applied 100 years from now,
00:10:17.240 all of us would be thrown to the trash heap of history.
00:10:21.200 Kingston is a truly beautiful city.
00:10:23.340 The history in this city,
00:10:25.200 the architecture,
00:10:26.280 it's beautiful.
00:10:27.520 There's so much old Canada here
00:10:30.060 that is worth preserving.
00:10:31.800 This city,
00:10:32.720 just like its most famous inhabitant,
00:10:35.860 John A. Macdonald,
00:10:37.120 deserved to be protected
00:10:38.160 and deserved to be celebrated.
00:10:40.440 John A. Macdonald's legacy
00:10:41.460 is not necessarily perfect,
00:10:43.260 but he is the reason why we have a Canada today.
00:10:46.920 He is the man that we can thank
00:10:48.060 for living in one of the greatest countries in the world.
00:10:50.860 So for the federal government
00:10:52.000 to do what they've done to Bellevue House,
00:10:55.020 to try to disregard
00:10:56.780 and really attack his legacy,
00:10:59.520 does a great disservice to our country.
00:11:01.960 Everyone here seems to think
00:11:03.800 that it's important to respect the legacy
00:11:05.360 of John A. Macdonald
00:11:06.200 while telling the truth,
00:11:07.460 and I couldn't agree more.
00:11:09.080 Signing out from Kingston,
00:11:10.660 Harrison Faulkner for True North.
00:11:12.140 We'll see you again soon.
00:11:13.600 Thank you.
00:11:14.700 Bye.
00:11:17.680 Bye.
00:11:17.780 Bye.
00:11:19.420 Bye.
00:11:22.580 Bye.
00:11:23.180 Bye.
00:11:23.560 Bye.
00:11:24.100 Bye.
00:11:26.660 Bye.
00:11:27.400 Bye.
00:11:27.800 Bye.
00:11:28.560 Bye.
00:11:33.820 Bye.
00:11:34.480 Bye.
00:11:35.940 Bye.
00:11:36.900 Bye.
00:11:37.860 Bye.
00:11:38.020 Bye.
00:11:40.280 Bye.
00:11:41.360 Bye.