World

Critic Says Trudeau ‘Whitewashing’ History By Renaming Building

David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
Font Size:

A Conservative critic says Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to rename a prominent government building in Ottawa is “whitewashing” history.

Former Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Paul Calandra is taking issue with Trudeau’s renaming of the Langevin Block to the Office of the Prime Minister & Privy Council.

Trudeau made the announcement Wednesday, dubbed National Aboriginal Day in Canada. Hector-Louis Langevin, for whom the building was originally named, was a father of Canadian Confederation but also a noted proponent of the Indian Residential School System, which has since been pilloried for its objective of assimilating natives into Canadian culture.

“Look, I’m obviously sympathetic to how our First Nations feel, but at the same time, I think we have to understand that Langevin is an incredibly important figure in Canadian history, he was a father of Confederation, a giant when it came to helping ensure that the French culture, language and customs remained intact in a unified Canada,” Calandra told CBC Thursday.

Calandra suggested we can’t judge history though the dominant opinions of the present day. “The last [Residential] school was closed in 1996. We were still taking children out of their homes through the ’60s and ’70s. So there is a lot more that we have to learn about this and there are a lot of people, who through the years, had a role to play in this. And I think that by trying to forget or whitewash from history the good and the bad of our history, we do a disservice,” he said.

“We certainly have to do a better job of understanding the positive things that Mr. Langevin brought about for Canada, but at the same time, we can reflect on the things that weren’t so right for Canada, when viewed through the prisms or the lenses of today. Look, I’m an Italian-Canadian. Are we supposed to forget about Mackenzie-King because he interned Italian-Canadians in the war? No. We learn from those mistakes,” Calandra maintains.

Calandra was asked if he could “see a time when perhaps [former prime minister John A.] Macdonald’s name will be challenged on plaques, buildings and our currency?”

“You raise an interesting point,” he said. “This brings up so many different discussions. Through what lens will we judge people and their contribution to this country? Forty years, 50 years from now, people might be looking back at some of the decisions we made today, and they might look pretty stupid.”

“The last school was closed in 1996. We were still taking children out of their homes through the ’60s and ’70s. So there is a lot more that we have to learn about this and there are a lot of people, who through the years, had a role to play in this. And I think that by trying to forget or whitewash from history the good and the bad of our history, we do a disservice.”

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel