The statue of Edward Cornwallis is removed from its pedestal in Halifax on Wednesday, January 31, 2018 after city council voted to put the cast in storage until a more permanent decision can be made. Many have long called for the contentious statue’s removal because, as governor of Nova Scotia, Cornwallis issued a scalping proclamation in 1749, offering a cash bounty to anyone who killed a Mi’kmaw man, woman, or child. (Photograph by Darren Calabrese) Photograph by Darren Calabrese

The Edward Cornwallis statue is stuck in (top secret) limbo

Authorities in Halifax are keeping the monument’s location under wraps—purportedly for its own protection. For some, it might as well stay wherever it is.

By Lindsay Jones

February 21, 2018

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Workers secure the statue of Edward Cornwallis to a flatbed truck after the cast was removed from its pedestal in Halifax on Jan. 31 (Photograph by Darren Calabrese)

When a crane wrenched the bronze statue of Edward Cornwallis from its granite pedestal in Halifax on Jan. 31, the words I lost my talk/ the talk you took away rang through Mariah Joe’s mind as she shivered under a cold sun.

The passage was written by her late grandmother, prolific Mi’kmaq poet Rita Joe, in her famous poem I Lost My Talk, which describes the loss of language and identity, the experience of being silenced and ultimately heard after living through the residential school system.

“It feels like we’re finally being listened to,” said Joe, a 24-year-old Saint Mary’s University student from Membertou First Nation in Cape Breton, N.S. “There have been so few instances in Canadian history where they listened to us and did what would be the most healing for both communities, so I think this is amazing.It’s monumental.” Cornwallis was a British military officer who founded Halifax in 1749 and soon after infamously proclaimed bounties for the scalps of Mi’kmaq men, women and children in response to attacks on colonists. People have long called for the removal of tributes to him, with some historians calling his acts a form of genocide. The statue had stood for nearly 90 years in the south end Halifax square also named after Cornwallis. It was erected by the Canadian National Railway as a tourist attraction to celebrate the former governor of Nova Scotia. Its removal came just one day after Halifax Regional Council voted 12-4 to remove it following several clashes over the issue during the past year.

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