Making Friendly with Victoria & the Lion Part 2: Truth, Reconciliation and the Canadian Way
Original Kitchener, Ontario, Canada November 25 2022
Making Friendly …. Part 1 proposes that we’d all be better off if we found ways “to reconcile the ongoing presence of the statue of Queen Victoria and the Lion, right there where she has stood for 111 years, with all that we aspire to be, individually and collectively, for the next 111 years.”
By “we” I mean citizens and residents of Kitchener, Waterloo-Wellington counties, Ontario and Canada at large, especially anyone and everyone who cares about heritage, peace, justice, civic vitality and/or sustainable prosperity.
The word “friendly” in the title of this series of musings (the plan is to publish up to five more by Groundhog Day/Candlemas 2023) comes from the Online Etymological Dictionary listing for reconcile (v.): << directly from Latin reconciliare … from re- "again" + conciliare "make friendly.” >>
Basically, reconciliation defined this way means making peace. My thoughts on the subject began with truth and reconciliation as a concept, as applied in the current Canadian context but also in South Africa during the transition from apartheid going on 30 years ago, when the first Black-led government of this former British colony made history by choosing to pursue forgiveness rather than prosecution, and reparation instead of retaliation.
Before I go any farther, I want to make it clear that I’m using these terms in my own way, and primarily in relation to the matter at hand: i.e. the “culture war” patterns of conflict over the Queen Victoria monument in my city, Kitchener, with reference to what happened to the “Prime Ministers Path” project in Wilmot, and before that, at Wilfrid Laurier University.
I am not talking here about the findings and recommendations outlined in the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission charged with examining the legacy of the residential school system in Canada. This report is finished, and I’m in favour of implementation of every one of its 94 “Calls to Action” immediately, as written.
What I want to talk about here is reconciliation as peace, not as a cessation of hostilities or a negotiated settlement, but as real peace, total peace, meaning a resolution of tensions or differences to the satisfaction and benefit of all concerned. This is the kind of peace that is portrayed on the original seal of Waterloo County, with the lion dwelling with the lamb.* I realize that this is a seemingly impossible, miraculous kind of peace, but given all the challenges we face as 2022 fades into 2023, isn’t a miracle precisely what we need right now?
The abolitionists I spent years studying and writing about as a graduate student — the Boston Brahmin supporters of William Lloyd Garrison — called for a total and immediate abolition of slavery. They were radical in their views, ready to tear up the U.S. Constitution as “a covenant with death and an agreement with hell,” yet they always believed that deliverance could only come through peaceful means. Their pacifism, however, did not mean neutrality or non-resistance. An oft-repeated phrase in their rhetoric was Jeremiah’s denunciation of false prophets who went around “saying ‘peace, peace’ when there is no peace.”
I’m not saying “peace, peace” when we’re far from achieving resolution on so many fronts, especially the great historical wrongs that are woven into the fabric of North American culture and society. I’m not “making friendly” with British or any other kind of imperialism, nor am I trying to mitigate Empress Victoria’s role in all the horrors that happened throughout her long reign. I’m also not dismissing those for whom the statue has become offensive and hurtful.
To fully reconcile Victoria’s ongoing presence in effigy with 21st-century realities, we will need to consider the matter from all perspectives, and try to come to an understanding that is as close to universal as possible. That is the only purpose here: broadening understanding, and reaching agreement, not triumph for the conservationist cause. And I realize that reaching full agreement is a difficult, if not impossible objective.
I am, nevertheless, close to certain that it would be beneficial for all concerned if we found a way to make peace with the pubic presence of Cavaliere Raffaele Zaccaquini's sculpture of Queen Victoria and the Lion -- so certain that I think I could almost prove it. I’m confident that I can provide at least a credible version of truth to support my assertion, in much the same way (but nowhere near as eloquently) as Thomas Jefferson did when he was charged with explaining to the world why it was time for a Declaration of Independence, separating English settlement on this side of the Atlantic Ocean from original England: “We hold these truths to be self-evident … .”
I’m quoting Jefferson at this point in part to help explain how, along with my “total peace” definition of reconciliation, I’m also using the word “truth” in my own peculiar way. The pursuit of truth -- the whole truth, and nothing but the truth — in the historical context does not involve replacing one narrative with another purported to be the real truth, nor is it a kind of liberation process that dethrones an outmoded configuration with a new, corrected storyline. Approaching truth means getting a better sense of the breadth and complexity of it all.
History is everything that ever happened, in relation to everything else that ever happened -- a near infinity multiplied by a near infinity. The whole truth is unfathomable; no human mind can comprehend it. We’ll never know the whole story, or what was in the hearts and minds of historical personages when they said what they said, and did what they did or failed to do. Because of this multifarious and ineffable nature of the whole truth, it is possible to tell the story of human-made entities such as Canada, Ontario, Quebec, Canada, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, the United States, the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee in Grand River Country or the Mississaugas of the Credit, and how they all relate to one another, in many different ways, always honestly and credibly, without descending into deliberate deception or evil intent.
The problem is that an error or a lie almost always has grains of truth within it, or at least semblances of truth. That’s one of the reasons people so readily yield to fanaticism, and why we are so easily taken in by liars and charlatans. Equally if not more problematic is the fact that no truth related to what human beings have done, are doing, can do or should do is the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That’s part of the reason why we are so prone to intolerance, partisanship, exclusivity, enmity and strife.
Jefferson’s declaration citing truths he deemed self-evident, echoed shortly afterwards in the slogans and declarations of the French Revolution, may seem, if not wholly beneficial, certainly a step forward for the human race. But he also set a dangerous precedent by claiming a particular set of truths as definitive, and grounds for insurrection and a call to arms. Just think of all the millions who have died and the billions who have suffered at the hand of leaders who, following this example, believed or claimed to be aligned with self-evident, scientific truth, and acted accordingly over the last 200 years or so.
Even if these claims to truth and the wars they justified or inspired were right for the time, the world is too fragile for this kind of upheaval at the present hour. The time is no longer right for fighting in the street or “kill the King”-style revolution. In fact, it is increasingly clear, through examples like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria and now Ukraine, that wars as traditionally conceived simply can longer be won. There is only destruction, and, if the damage is not total, survival. But that doesn’t mean we have to tolerate tyrants and dictators or settle for nothing more than compromise solutions. The times call for the kind of truth that inspires humility, and for reconciliation as real peace, total peace.
If I’m right, the fact that Canada evolved without a “decisive moment” of upheaval may give us certain advantages in meeting the needs of our time. Our country is as prosperous and as free as any modern liberal democratic state, and what stands out in the story of Canada is the fact everything we’ve been able to accomplish as a federated nation state was done relatively peaceably, without an abrupt, total break away from all that came before. That is the essence of Canadian exceptionalism.
The decision to remain loyal, not to separate, and not to rise up in arms led to what looked like defeat at the end of 18th century, but in the present hour, it makes sense to place ones trust in the hope that Canada’s time has finally come, even for people in Britain, Germany, France, Russia, China, Japan or the U.S. of A..
I can’t be a total pacifist, because I know that if it wasn’t for Canadian soldiers, fighting in my native land, my birth certificate would have had a swastika on it—if I’d have been born at all. I belong to the peace generation. We’re a living embodiment of the hopes and dreams made possible by the total defeat of Hitler’s Wehrmacht almost 78 years ago.
The United Kingdom and the United States of America played a role in liberating the Kingdom of the Netherlands too, of course, but the people of my homeland have a special affection for my adopted country, perhaps because Canada is not such an overwhelming power in the world. But we’re also a kind of hybrid state. Canadians fought “For King and Country” and for freedom as articulated in Jefferson’s Declaration. This capacity for balancing divergent concepts and storylines is part of the reason why I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to reconcile the ongoing presence of the monument commemorating Victoria’s long reign with all our current needs and future aspirations.
Canada is, and has always been, made up of elements of Jefferson’s continental, homogeneous, yeoman-led Empire of Liberty balanced with Victoria’s inter-continental, multi-ethnic, polyglot, caste- and class-ridden domain. It is true that, from the beginning of the move towards settler home rule in this country, the influence of England’s global maritime realm has been steadily yielding to the dominance of the landed empire we share the continent with. The United States has been the greatest power on earth for about a century now. That’s why the statue of Victoria and the Lion appears to be such an anachronism.
But given the current state of the Union, crippled by the culture wars, driven by fear, resentment and hate, a nation conceived in civil war that appears to be once again on the brink of internecine violence, it might be wise for Canadians to start questioning whether that trend towards absorption into the ways of the revolutionary republic is as inexorable as it has seemed. So far we’ve followed the prodigal states of Anglo America every step of the way: home rule, universal franchise, our own version of manifest destiny, trans-continental reach, annihilation of Indigenous cultures and nations, our very own flag, our very own constitution. The logical next step would be to become a presidential republic. When that’s accomplished, what justification will there be left for a separate existence?
What we need is a better balance, but there is no obvious alternative that could serve as a counterweight to U.S. dominance, certainly not the old bonds of empire that once served to differentiate who and what we are. When the Daughters of the Empire in Berlin, Ontario commissioned that memorial to their late Queen in the nineteen-oughts, a primary purpose was to distinguish Canada as what remained of British North America from the United States of America. Those ties to Victoria and her heirs remain a significant part of what defines us. But Britannia since the Brexit debacle is in almost as sorry a state as her trans-Atlantic offspring. We really don’t have any choice but to finally, after 155 years of home rule, start making our own way in the world of lands, peoples, cities, kingdoms, nations, sovereign states, unions and federations.
Making our way means deciding and shaping our future, rather than just accepting whatever comes along as natural and inevitable. And a pre-requisite for confident decision-making and resolute action is discovering who and what we are by considering our history, the trajectory of the path we’ve taken so far, and the prospects before us. One of the ways the statue of Victoria and the Lion can serve Canada in 2022-23 is as a reminder of how it all began, how we’ve evolved, and what distinguishes us, especially from the United States and its overwhelming power and influence.
* see The Lion and the Lamb, a Wonderful Civic Emblem, “musings” on the subject at hand first published through CultKW.com on November 15, 2020.
Very well written and I concur wholeheartedly. This recent phenomenon of removing statues and renaming institutions, place names, etc. borders on the fanatical. Reconciliation is not letting one point of view have its own way but finding peace for all sides of the argument. A tall order. I am, like many, appalled by the horrors inflicted by colonialism. On the other hand, our society has in the past (and in the present) inflicted terrible suffering on many from all backgrounds. Wiping away reminders of our past doesn't change the past. In fact, it hides it even further. Those who are currently vilified for the role in the horrors that occurred in Colonialism may deserve part of the blame, but, on the other hand, achieved positive things as well. Pitchforks and torches will not serve.