Josephine Mathias: Vandalism doesn’t save Black lives or promote reconciliation – National Post
It’s not that people care more about statues than they do lives, it’s that the vandalism is creating a counterproductive distraction from real efforts at political action
Last weekend a group of Black Lives Matter protesters decided to throw paint over the statues of Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, and Egerton Ryerson, the namesake of Ryerson University who’s considered to be a key figure in the development of the Canadian residential schools system for Indigenous assimilation.
According to Black Lives Matter (BLM) co-founder Rodney Diverlus, their aim was to make a point about “racism and police violence.” After facing some controversy over the vandalism, he argued that if people care about statues more than they care about lives, then they should “question their priorities.”
Diverlus should probably take his own advice. Throwing paint over monuments should not be our priority. Vandalism is not reconciliation and it certainly doesn’t make anyone feel safer.
