Confederation’s legacies

LETTERS

Re: Students wrong — Canada is not oppressive, Michael Smith, July 10; and Student in ‘ white fragility’ backlash, Oct. 21

July 1 reminds me of so much more than just contemporary Canada’s goodness.

Confederation wasn’t about freeing anyone from oppression. It was about defence, schools, tariffs, central Canadian political deadlock, and especially, about railway finance.

It certainly wasn’t about freeing British North Americans from imperial control. Even after 1867, laws in the Dominion of Canada could be unilaterally overturned by Britain, through the imperial power of disallowance. More than once before the Statute of Westminster in 1931, the Brits traded away Canadian interests for imperial benefit. What could we do but complain?

All of this is long ago and old and, apparently, not that well-known. Real discussions of the event that we marked on July 1 and the full spectrum of its legacies have played a rather small role in the Canada 150 celebrations this year.

But Indigenous people in Western Canada have pointed out, correctly, that one of the reasons for Confederation was to organize the takeover of their land (that “western expansion” for which railways were built.)

Today, we have to deal with the cruel legacies of that takeover. Old people and Canadian historians know that anniversaries inevitably bring up mixed memories. So let’s not simply speak of freedom from oppression, sought and accomplished.