Signs of change: Parks Canada examines how we can address our past and future

OTTAWA—Access records reveal that Parks Canada is exploring changes in the way we view our history, as well as how to deal with future climate impacts. On Canada’s history, Parks Canada records show that the agency is quietly conducting a major review of our national historic sites and monuments. Up for examination are how events, people, and places connected to Canadian history are portrayed. Of the approximately 2,200 historic sites, the signage at 259 is being targeted for more modern write-ups. For instance, the signage at former fur trading posts is considered out of date and paternalistic, with the role that Indigenous Peoples played often ignored and excluded. More generally, the word “Indian” appears to be on the way out in all rewrites. Some sites commemorating politicians, officials, and trailblazers considered to be heroes and nation-builders were identified as needing updates. These include references made to Sir John A. Macdonald, Hector-Louis Langevin, Egerton Ryerson, and Duncan Campbell Scott, all of whom had a role in the residential school system. Writeups about Sir William Osler that do not mention his racist views have come under scrutiny, too. More generally, terms like “enslaved person” will be discontinued. The lack of Black and female representation at historic sites is also addressed in the reviews. Descriptive revisions of figures such as Dr. Helen MacMurchy and even Tommy Douglas are also suggested, given their controversial health views linked to the use of eugenics for “unfit” individuals. The official push for historic descriptive changeovers began in October 2017, when then-environment minister Catherine McKenna received a mandate letter to review historic site designations. McKenna’s officials held public consultations in 2019, and developed a framework for history and commemoration. They sought a narrative more in line with a broader worldview, instead of a colonial and racist perspective. The actual administrative and research work to update the colonial lens of Canada's historic sites was left to Parks Canada and the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, their consultant experts, and internal committees and boards. The minister responsible for signing off on major rewrites and even revocations of matters designated as commemorative will be current Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. It's more than coincidental, then, that there is currently a bill on historic sites management before Parliament. Bill C-23, Historic Places of Canada Act, is sponsored by Guilbeault. The bill seeks greater First Nations, Inuit, and Métis representation, better integration of sites with Indigenous history, and updates to heritage values and memory practices. Bill C-23, currently at second reading in the House, would give those administering historic sites a greater legal status, and grant the minister and authorities responsible the ability to enforce their actions. Meanwhile, another broad-sweeping review underway at Parks Canada is examining the effects of climate change on national parks. The records make clear that climate change poses serious problems. As a result, in the last few years Parks Canada has started assembling data about the effects of rising temperatures, increased precipitation, reduced snow, ice and frozen ground, sea levels and storm surges are having on the country's national parks. The records indicate climate change at national parks could cause the loss of archaeological objects and cultural resources due to wildfire, and will have a profound effect on species abundance and distribution. Without strategic and forward-looking adjustments, parks are very vulnerable to the impacts of a rapidly changing climate, the records state. The specifics are now being reviewed. National parks are normally seen as peaceful and pristine spots of beauty, unless one digs into their contaminated site histories and, at times, bungled remediations. Now, parks are becoming test sites for Canada’s readiness to check climate change. This poses a challenge to federal plans calling for conserving 25 per cent of our land and 25 per cent of our oceans by 2025, working toward 30 per cent of each by 2030. Both aforementioned Parks Canada reviews are not that widely known, but they are important steps in how Canada plans to tackle its past and future. Ken Rubin is an investigative researcher reachable via kenrubin.ca The Hill Times

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Signs of change: Parks Canada examines how we can address our past and future

The agency is grappling with twin challenges of how we contend with Canada's history, and how we will respond to the effects of climate change in the future.

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