Remember the victims of Britain’s monarchy and empire

 

What is the federal government asking us to commemorate when it declares next Monday a holiday to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s death?

Monarchy? Empire? Colonialism? Class rule? Genetic determination?

Unquestioned reverence for the British monarchy is a slap in the face to indigenous peoples and denial of Canada’s role in crimes against humanity committed by the British Empire.

Prior to confederation, British forces conquered today’s Nova Scotia through terror, putting the heads of Mi’kmaq soldiers on spikes and offering bounties to kill women and children. Founder of the Halifax fort, Lieutenant General Edward Cornwallis led the charge and by the mid-1760s the Mi’kmaq had been largely wiped out in Nova Scotia (as were the Beothuk in Newfoundland later).

After British forces conquered Quebec General Jeffery Amherst’s forces gave indigenous chiefs in the Great Lakes region blankets and a handkerchief from a smallpox hospital. Commander of British forces in North America, Amherst wrote: “You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets as well as to try every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable race.”  (more...)

Remember the victims of Britain’s monarchy and empire