Canada Post has issued a postage stamp commemorating an event that took place 250 years ago that sends out all the wrong signals. It's confrontational and racist. Read the truth about the story behind the stamp Canada wants you to buy. Seems Canada Post want you to remember how supposedly wicked the British were to a small group of French loyalist so very very very long ago.
by
Dr. Jean Pierre St. Moire
On August 15th 2005, Canada Post issued a 50 cent stamp commemorating an event that took place over 250 years ago. The event was the forced evacuation of a small group of French loyalists, who called themselves Acadians, from a small area of Nova Scotia. It involved about 700 people and took place in September 1755, 42 years after Britain had taken control of Canada from the French, which was ratified in 1713 at the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht. Not all the French loyalists in Nova Scotia were evacuated, and those who remained, the vast majority, were allowed rights of religion and language, which the French in Canada still have today. This however was not good enough for the small group of Acadians who had had a free hand in living their own way upto then, and wanted to remain independent of Britain.
The men and boys, 418 of them, were called to a meeting and told they can keep their personal effects, money, and other household goods, but would forfeit their land and buildings. This group remained 'under guard' in the building for several days until escorted onto sea going vessels with their wives and daughters, and were taken to the British colonies on the eastern seaboard of what is now the United States. It is hard for Canadian historians to understand why this happened, and as I have stated in my lectures, when you are talking about history that goes back 250 years you are talking about another world, another society, and a much different way of life to ours. This seems hard to grasp by even the most well read of historians.
Their forced evacuation was because they would not tow the political and religion lines set down by Britain. Sort of like todays settlers in Canada refusing to obey Canadian laws. Canada, at that time, was still very much French, and to have these uncooperative French loyalists right in the middle of a British colony didn't seem like a good idea. Tow the line or you're out - they were told - for 42 years. Mostly they did tow the line but with that 'we were here first' attitude and we'll live our life our way. All of 42 years this attitude was tolerated by the British. The British didn't just arrive one day and declare - hop it.
Nova Scotia saw a great influx of British settlers between 1749 and 1755, to the point the French loyalists were now receding into a small pocket on the island. France offered no help, having had enough of war in the Americas, but did offer them refuge on Cape Breton and the tiny islands of Ile-Royale and Ile Saint-Jean, all part of the then new Canadian land mass. They refused any help from any source, wanting only to remain in Nova Scotia and do things their way, as French Acadians. That was not going to happen.
Without a gun being fired or any person being shackled or forcibly dragged on board the ships the Acadians left their homes in Nova Scotia, after having established themselves as part of that original French colony a hundred years before. It was a sign of the times. America was about to erupt into the war of independence and British loyalists in their thousands would flee north to Canada to join the already established, and for the most part, happy British colonists.
Why Canada Post has to dig up this issue now (it was originally commemorated by a stamp in 1930 without much notice in those then trying times) and suggest, once again, (and this is really getting tiring) that the 'wicked British' forced humble people out of their humble homes 250 years ago, is hard to accept. Back then, when the world was a much different place, it wasn't such a big deal. What really makes this whole issue annoying and very angering to Canadians and British alike is that now it's a big deal, and no one at Canada Post seems to understand how real history evolves. It all smacks of anti-British racism, something Canada has been nursing for many many years now.
You now have the facts. See them in the light of true history as it was played out then. And ask yourself this - why didn't Canada Post issue a stamp in HONOUR of these Acadians, not about 'deportation' but about how a small group of people would rather live in the British colonies on the eastern seaboard than in the British colony of Nova Scotia. A stamp of honour surely, about pride, about guts. No need to go the usual Canadian underdog route, where so much time is spent in pity for the poor downtrodden. These Acadians are to be admired for their principles and courage - and Canada should not attack the British for their order of deportation 250 years ago! You missed the whole point Canada Post. Get off your 'wicked British' soapbox and put your history in order.
If you wish to make comment on this article please write in the first instant to Britmail@aol.com subject Oh Canada. Dr.St.Moire is currently on a field trip in northern Alberta.
Email (in part) from Roger LaMont, Montreal: 'If Canada Post wants to bring a few skeletons out of the cupboard how about a stamp commemorating the East Indians the Canadian government would not let disembark in Vancouver - because they were East Indians. That wasn't 250 years ago - that was in 1948. When they were finally granted landed immigration status a few years later they were not allowed to vote, to own a house, or a business. What would they put on that stamp?' September 7th 2005.
Email (in part) from Jan Berger, Petrias Landing, Louisiana: "I just wish to point out that the Acadian deportation from Nova Scotia to the British colonies in the southern eastern coast in 1755 was about their religious stand, more so than any other reason. Britain would not tolerate their unusual catholic-linked beliefs and actually suggested they'd be better off with 'their own kind' in the French dominated Louisiana area of the colonies. Persecution it was not. It was helping them to take their beliefs where they were best suited." September 11th 2005.
