lapot | Leslyn Lewis, Cancel culture

https://www.leslynlewis.ca/cancel_culture

Cancel culture is ruining our understanding of the past and until someone is willing to stand up to it, we will see our history washed away in a tidal wave of “progressive” revisionism.

I plan on fighting back.

I was deeply disturbed by the vandalism of the statues of Sir. John A. Macdonald this past week.

I know that this nation that I love is not perfect, and I know that our heroes of the past had their failures. After all, our nation was built by real people.

As long as humans have tried to achieve great things, humans have also been failing. The best way to build a stronger and more united society is to build upon those who have gone before us while learning from their failures.

Washing away their mistakes simply means we will forget our history and will be doomed to repeat it.

Residential schools and other wrongs committed against Indigenous people were not the only failures in our nation's past. In the name of building a strong Canada, atrocities were committed against Chinese rail workers, Jewish refugees and Punjabi immigrants, along with many others.

We remember these things because we want to learn from our past. In Vancouver, a monument sits prominently to the Komagata Maru, the ship of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus who were denied entry to Canada under anti-Asian immigration laws.

We do not tear down this monument because not only does it remind us of the perseverance of those who continued to fight to make Canada their home and help us build this nation, but because we do not want to forget our past, successes and failures alike.

This is at the heart of what Cancel Culture is all about. It is more than simply attacking people on Twitter, or getting them taken off the air for an action from their past.

It is a deep-seated arrogance that claims ultimate virtue for simply being “with the times”. It completely ignores the idea of learning from our past, while pretending that we have no sins that we would want forgiven ourselves.

Many people have written to me over the last few months saying how excited they are to see me unleash fury on Justin Trudeau for wearing blackface.

I am sorry to disappoint them, but I have said multiple times that I forgave the Prime Minister, just as I expect him now to graciously forgive every Conservative who made a mistake in their past.

But I’ll put this on the record as well: The next time he brings up something said in the House of Commons 12 years ago, or has his Ministers attack a Conservative for something they tweeted when they were 13, I will be there to hold him to account for his actions.

I will not stand by for a minute while the Liberals dig up past mistakes and hold them over our heads. I have not backed down in the face of pressure during this campaign as I have never backed down to virtue signallers my whole life.

Let’s have real discussions in Canada. Let’s take an honest look at our past while being honest about our own virtues and failures.

We cannot keep the good of our nation if we throw it all away in an attempt to wash away the bad.

Let’s be honest.

Let’s keep being the greatest country in the world.

Let’s be the Canada that has drawn people from all over the world in search of freedom, peace and opportunity.

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