today, under the guise of 'learning from the residential school tragedy',
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney came out against so-called cancel culture. Responses seem to fall into the collective groupings; either as insensitive, dismissive, divisive, misinformed, etc., OR as politically astute, bold, accurate, needed to be said, etc..
given some of the immediate and developing backlash, will Kenney double-down or opt for a weasely-like backpedal? Whether one agrees with Kenney's view/statements, with his long scripted response, Kenney was obviously responding to a set-up "softball question" - perhaps the epitome of politicizing the immediate tragedy of the mass grave discovery within the broader residential schools concern!
{per Global News} in response to a reporter's question, Premier Kenney spoke at length about Canadian history, first launching into a spiel about Canada’s first PM John A. Macdonald:
Kenney noted he co-sponsored a bill in the House of Commons to recognize a day honouring the founding father, “without whom Canada would not exist.” “I think Canada is a great historical achievement. It is a country that people all around the world seek to join as new Canadians.”
“It is an imperfect country, but it is still a great country, just as John Macdonald was an imperfect man but was still a great leader. If we want to get into cancelling every figure in our history who took positions on issues at the time, that we now judge harshly and rightly in historical retrospective, but if that’s the new standard, then I think almost the entire founding leadership of our country gets cancelled.”
“If we go full force into cancel culture, then we’re cancelling most, if not all, of our history.”
“Instead, I think we should learn from our history. We should learn from our achievements, but also our failures.” He added, noting that Canada “is doing that,” noting former prime minister Stephen Harper’s residential school apology and more than $3 billion in compensation from the feds to survivors.
“It’s important to learn from the greatness, the audacity of vision and the generosity of spirit” of former Canadian leaders.” Kenney explained that it’s inappropriate to focus on one or two figures who operated in a “radically different time.”
“If we want to get into a debate about cancelling Canadian history, we need to understand that it means all of our history.”
“I think that that kind of destructive spirit is not really the spirit of reconciliation. The spirit of reconciliation is to learn from the wrongs of the past, to seek to remedy them while knowing our history and moving forward together.”