Politicians, censors and Miss Grundy

By GERRY WARNER
Cranbrook Daily Townsman
Oct. 5, 2007
So what happens when art appreciation and political correctness collide?
In the British Columbia legislature, at least, political correctness wins everytime. Consequently the famous murals by art historian George Southwell are coming down, a great victory for the purveyors of sanitized history in the province and arbitrators of what the delicate eyes of B.C. residents are allowed to see.
No siree! We must not trouble the gray matter between our ears thinking about such things as Labour, Justice, Enterprise and Courage, the titles of Southwell's epic murals celebrating our province's colourful history. We'll let that impressive group of politicians and art experts sitting in the legislature determine what we think on those frivolous topics.
And those comely, bear-breasted aboriginal maidens hauling those logs to build Fort Victoria? Shocking and appalling! Where has that kind of filth been displayed before? The National Gallery? The Louvre? The Metropolitan Museum of Art? How do they get away with it? We can't have that sort of thing in B.C.
And history. Who needs that kind of bunkum? Fort Victoria was built by the Tooth Fairy. Aboriginal people didn't lend a hand to the struggling settlers. The very thought of it is so demeaning and offensive. And while we're at it, let's clean up a few other things too.
Capt. Vancouver? He had a drinking habit you know. We can't name our largest city after him. Why don't we call it "Gassy" after John "Gassy Jack" Deighton,the city's first saloon keeper. And Capt. Cook. Didn't you know that he and his crew spread venereal disease from the B.C. coast to Hawaii. We can't mention him anymore. Then there was the Komagata Maru incident when all those different-looking Sikh people were not allowed to get off their boat in Vancouver. We never treated people like that. Did we?
The Vancouver Post Office riot in the Dirty 30's when the cops busted all those workers' heads. Not true! And the internment of the Japanese. That's just war propaganda. And the way we treated the Chinese, the Italians, the Germans, the Doukhobors, the aboriginal people. It was all sweetness and light, I tell you.
Isn't rewriting history fun? Just ask our politicians.

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