This article implies that advocates of name changes are white washing history. But the article white washes history. It says the people who put up Sir JAM statue didn't think of him as an Indian-hating imperialist. Contemporary reports say they did. 1 https://twitter.com/DMacpGaz/status/1296849349062819844

Those quotes are from the day the statue was unveiled. Thanking MacDonald for beating back the 'savages', calling him an 'imperialist'. That's what they were celebrating. Critics of these statues, and the builders of the statues agree - they celebrate imperialism and racism. 2

The people who don't get history are the modern day defenders of old statues - who want to retcon a 21st century appreciation of them onto the builders. But you can't put your values on them. Take them for what they were intended to be - open celebrations of imperialism. 3

One other thing - the writer says that we shouldn't change these historical honourifics, it's whitewashing history. Quebec has 2 lakes named after Chairman Mao. One was given that name in 2003. Really, we don't want to change that? You sure? 4