(Ottawa) From the arrival of Jacques Cartier in Gaspé to the Battle of Quebec and the Great Peace of Montreal, the federal government has embarked on an operation to rewrite more than 200 historical plaques, including some 30 Quebec, in order to correct factual errors or review “colonial assumptions”, among other things.
“This designation will be subject to review. »
The designation appears on certain web pages of Parks Canada’s Directory of Designations of National Historic Significance, which lists plaques that the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada has installed at sites across the country.
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PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Plate of William Osler:
“William Osler was born in Bond Head (Upper Canada) and studied medicine at McGill, then in Europe. He began a distinguished career in teaching and clinical medicine at McGill (1874-1884) and later became the first Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University (1889) and Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford (1905). Through his numerous writings and his dynamism, he exerted a considerable influence on the philosophy and practice of medicine on both sides of the Atlantic. His essays reached a wide audience and made him one of the best-known medical figures of his time. » -
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Plaque of Jacques Cartier in Gaspé:
“On July 14, 1534, two ships commanded by Jacques Cartier, from Saint-Malo, took refuge in Gaspé Bay, where a group of Iroquois from Stadaconé (now Quebec) were fishing. Cartier established friendly relations with them there. On July 24, he erected a cross bearing the arms of François I on the shore of Gaspé.er. It is on this gesture that France will rely in her territorial claims in America. The next day Cartier set out again, taking with him the two sons of Chief Donnacona, who were to serve as his guides on his second trip to Canada. »
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Over the next three years, nearly 10% of these plaques cast in bronze or installed in the country on a panel, i.e. 208 out of 2192 – of which 35 are in Quebec – will be re-examined and rewritten under the leadership of the organization federal.
For what ?
“A review takes place for one of the following reasons: outdated wording or terms, lack of an important aspect of the story, factual errors, controversial beliefs and behaviors, or the acquisition of new knowledge,” it says at the bottom of the review. web pages of the events or characters targeted.
Among the plaques bolted to Quebec that are the subject of it are the arrival of Jacques Cartier in Gaspé, in 1534, the signing of the Great Peace of Montreal, in 1701, the Battle of Quebec, in 1755, as well as the site of the old Iroquoian village of Hochelaga, near McGill University.
There is also a commemorative plaque dedicated to Sir William Osler on the site of the Montreal establishment. Considered one of the fathers of modern medicine, he is said to have declared that Canada should be “a white man’s country”, according to an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Otherwise, elsewhere in the country find themselves in the crosshairs of figures such as the first Prime Minister of Canada John A. Macdonald, architect of the Indian residential schools, as well as many places having sheltered fur trading posts or having been the scene of battles.
Colonialism, the main target
The existence of this program has already been exposed by media outlets like the National Post, where a former vice-president of heritage conservation and commemoration for Parks Canada, Larry Ostola, set him down in flames and shouted at the wokism in an open letter published in November 2022.
The Canadian Press agency, however, recently obtained more details on its objectives.
The most common reason for rewriting: “colonial assumptions”, is written in documents obtained under the Access to Information Act. “It refers to a form of history where the progress of Western civilization is understood as inevitable”, it states in particular.
In the office of Minister Steven Guilbeault, who is responsible for Parks Canada, it is recalled that the process initiated under his predecessor, Catherine McKenna, is part of a call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“We are expanding our awareness and knowledge of history, building on what already existed, and updating our plaques based on this new knowledge,” a written statement said.
“For example, the fur trading posts are an important part of the history of Quebec. Yet previous assumptions about the history of Canada have excluded Indigenous peoples, which can no longer be accepted.
Necessary, but tricky
Historian Harold Bérubé, full professor at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences at the University of Sherbrooke, sees an “undeniable relevance” to the site.
There would be something a little absurd in saying that history and memory must be frozen. Both are called to change.
Historian Harold Bérubé, full professor at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences of the University of Sherbrooke
However, the exercise is not without its dangers: that of a “re-reading which would be done according to the needs of the State, where one would risk falling into a kind of propaganda, of smoothing out the past”, and that of “succumbing to a certain militant discourse which can sometimes go to the other extreme, that is to blacken the past excessively”, he noted.
Bloc Québécois MP Martin Champoux shares this reading: the project is “commendable”, even “necessary” because we “always discover new facts in history”, but we must be careful of the “danger of succumbing to the temptation to rewrite history.
Thus he expects Parks Canada to lend itself to it “with great rigor” and in an “apolitical” manner.
The Conservative Party, which these days criticizes the Trudeau government for wanting to erase history with its new version of the passport, declined to comment on the process. The New Democratic Party did not respond to our request.
The case of Jacques Cartier
The federal government does not provide details on what justifies the review of historic plaques. At present, the text of the plaque in memory of Jacques Cartier screwed on a cross in Gaspé makes a certain economy of colonial mentions.
This makes it an interesting scenario, says Professor Harold Bérubé.
“To say that he discovered what became New France, made the first contact with the Aboriginals, is not entirely false, but that is not the whole story. A part of it is missing, that it opened the door to the occupation of the territory of these Aboriginals, to their marginalization, ”he illustrated.