The Yanks in the States shouldn’t be the only ones rewriting history.

Via CBC:

Municipal crews draped a black cloth over a statue of Edward Cornwallis in a downtown Halifax park Saturday as protesters gathered with a plan to remove the statue.

After a city truck arrived, crews informed the gathering they would shroud the monument as a sign of good faith.

Cheers went up from the crowd as the monument disappeared under its new veil. Some demonstrators chanted and raised their fists in the air as others drummed and sang. Afterward, people joined hands and slowly circled the statue.

CBC News reporters on the scene estimated there were about 150 people at the gathering.

Cornwallis, a governor of Nova Scotia, was a military officer who founded Halifax for the British in 1749. The same year, he issued the so-called scalping proclamation, offering a cash bounty to anyone who killed a Mi’kmaq person.
Veil is temporary, says mayor

Halifax Mayor Mike Savage attended the demonstration.

He said the veil is a temporary measure and that it will be removed sometime after the demonstration, though he did not give details on the time frame.

“We said we’d leave it up for the [Aug. 7 Natal Day] ceremony,” he said. “I don’t know that there’s a rush to take it down, but it will come down.”

Organizers had hoped the plan to remove the statue would prompt the city to pledge to do so itself by Natal Day. But Savage said in a statement earlier this week that a process is already in place to discuss the issue and that the removal of the statue on Saturday could “set back progress.”

Halifax regional council voted 15-1 in April to establish a panel to make recommendations on how to grapple with municipal infrastructure named after Cornwallis.

Savage said on Saturday that the committee members, which will include Mi’kmaq people, will likely be in place by September. A timeline for recommendations and decisions will be determined by the committee, he said.

Savage stopped short of saying he wants the statue to come down, but he called it an “obvious impediment” to reconciliation.

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