Council votes to remove Cornwallis statue temporarily
Posted Jan 30, 2018 07:41:00 PM.
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HALIFAX – Regional Council has voted to temporarily remove the statue of Edward Cornwallis until a further decision is made on how the Halifax founder is commemorated throughout HRM.
The 12-4 vote came after about 90 minutes of debate during council’s regular meeting Tuesday after a motion was added to the agenda in response to the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs pulling out of the process.
The approval means the statue will now be housed in storage temporarily at a cost of about $25,000 while HRM continues its review of how it commemorates Cornwallis.
Council also voted to continue to engage with the assembly of chiefs on the issue and gave a deadline of six months for the group to re-engage before moving forward without them.
While the motion was ultimately approved, some councillors disagreed with having the statue removed, including Councillor David Hendsbee, who said he was concerned about “erasing history.”
Hendsbee suggested moving the statue outright to somewhere else in the city, like along with waterfront or on Citadel Hill, and for the province to take some responsibility on the issue.
“We should not be hiding our history,” Hendsbee said. “We should not be putting the statue away…I'm not in favour of it.”
Hammonds Plains–St. Margarets Councillor Matt Whitman also voted against the removal of the statue, arguing a process was already put in place to how to deal with that.
Whitman said he didn’t want council “to cave in to pressure by someone not playing by the rules.”
“We were well down the road of success until things got railroaded,” Whitman said. “This motion is about giving into pressure and not sticking to what we nearly unanimously agreed upon.”
Most councillors were for removing the statue, including Councillor Bill Karsten, who had previously been against such an idea.
He said the discussion was not necessarily about “dwelling on the past,” but building positive relationships in the future with the Indigenous community.
Deputy Mayor Waye Mason added the issues against removing the statue are small and it would get rid of an “irritant” to allow for “meaningful dialogue” moving forward.
With an upcoming protest scheduled for Sunday, public safety is cited as an immediate concern within the staff report as the “stated aim of protestors is to bring down the Cornwallis statue.”
Councillor Tim Outhit was concerned a precedent was being set that if one were to threaten violence that they’re issue moves to the top of the council agenda, something the mayor disputed to reporters after the debate.
“This is not about the threat of violence to me, this is not about being blackmailed, this is not about putting our back against the wall, this is about saying how do we make a process work that we need to make work,” Savage said.
He added he felt removing the statue was the right thing to do but was glad the discussion was a spirited and mostly thoughtful one from councillors.
“We get paid to make decisions that are difficult and that’s what politics are all about,” Savage said. “I don’t discredit those who disagree with me.”
Morley Googoo, Regional Chief for the Assembly of First Nations, was in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting and was happy with the way the two sides are moving forward.
“I think the main thing people need to look at is the commitment to reconciliation,” Googoo said, adding sometimes difficult decisions are going to be had as progress is made.
“I think there’s a huge opportunity here for the city of Halifax to show other municipalities across the country how to have new relationships with Indigenous people,” Googoo said.
Googoo was confident in the process of the committee moving forward now that the statue was set to be removed.
He also brushed off criticism from some councillors that a planned rally on Sunday was threatening violence and said sometimes people are passionate in their beliefs.
Cornwallis issued a bounty on Mi'kmaq scalps as governor of Nova Scotia and amid pressure last spring, council voted to form an expert panel on how to deal with the use of his name.
Googoo wouldn’t comment on the reason the chiefs withdrew support from that review process, but it was reportedly a personnel issue with the makeup of the panel. The mayor also would not comment.
In a statement released Tuesday evening, Chief Terrance Paul, co-chair of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs, applauded the decision from council and said he hoped for meaningful dialogue in the future.
“Today we heard the voices of leaders who genuinely want to make efforts for reconciliation with the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia,” his statement read.
“We are pleased with today’s decision and hope that this will re-open doors for real Nation-to-Nation discussions and for next steps to continue right away,” Paul continued.
“Important conversations have just begun.”
The mayor said it’s unclear when the statue itself will come down as that will be up to city staff.
Organizer of Sunday’s planned protest, Suzanne Patles, says the rally will go ahead as planned to ‘celebrate the milestone and keep pressure on’ for further discussions.
