Panelists Discuss Cancel Culture and Canada's Racist History

Co-hosts Neil Clements, Matthew Martin (President of Black Lives Matter New Brunswick) and Dr. Timothy Christie introduce new co-host Tanya MacPherson to the season two premiere of NBWA: New Brunswickers Want Action on CHCO-TV. In light of the recent discovery of unmarked graves at former residential schools in Canada, the four co-hosts delve into the topic of Canada's racist history and current climate of cancel culture on the season two premiere.

"I think we can all agree that Canadians in general were appaulled by the recent discoveries of thousands of unmarked graves of children who were taken from their families and basically imprisoned in these schools," said Dr. Christie. "These schools were run by the Canadian government and different churches. Statues of Sir John A. MacDonald have been vandalised and some churches have been even burned down. There's a lot of debate going on right now on the topic of cancel culture and whether or not statues and monuments should be taken down, and whether or not these things should have a place in our society right now."

"We can't deny the things that happened, but our history is a general denial of the racist history of our country," said Clements.

"A lot of people were taught to revere Sir John A. MacDonald, for example," said Dr. Christie. "He was the first Prime Minister and was responsible for confederation, but a lot of people don't realize how racist he actually was. He holds a high status in our country even though we had a white Canada immigration policy. He had an impact on the development of residential school. People in the public are debating how we can take a statue down of our country's founding father, but they don't know the whole history."