Cabinet yesterday named a Québec rapper to the federal Historic Sites and Monuments Board. Aly Ndiaye, a self-described “history enthusiast,” criticized scholars for their treatment of racism in Canada, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“Mr. Ndiaye brings passion and creativity to the Board as well as a unique perspective,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, minister responsible for the agency, said in a statement. “He joins a group of skilled individuals.” Other members of the Board include three professors and a former education minister..“Mr. Ndiaye is one of the pioneers of Québec’s hip-hop movement,” cabinet said in a statement. The Board since 1919 has commemorated historic figures, events and structures..“It was only in rap music that I recognized my experience as an African American, American in the continental sense,” Ndiaye said in a 2021 interview with United Nations Television. “That’s where I saw my experience translated and that’s how rap music allowed me to contribute to the cultural fabric in Québec.”.“We had slavery here,” said Ndiaye. “It was domestic slavery. We had segregation here, we had racism here.”.No Canadian Parliament legalized slavery. Colonial authorities from the 1834 passage of Britain’s Act For The Abolition Of Slavery welcomed runaway US slaves in Canada. No Father of Confederation was a slaveholder..Ndiaye in his UN interview acknowledged “there weren’t many enslaved people here” but added: “Nonetheless there was slavery here under French and British rule starting in 1629. People in Québec City, Montréal, Trois-Rivières, in Gaspésie, had Indigenous, African and Afro-descendant slaves.”.“We didn’t have plantations so most of the slaves were in households,” Ndiaye said in a separate 2021 interview with the CBC. “If you look at our history, it’s a racist history. We need to come to terms with that.”.Cabinet in a 2019 report ordered the Historic Sites and Monuments Board to address “colonialism, patriarchy and racism” in its work and revise or reconsider previous designations if necessary. “In Canadian history, colonialism, patriarchy and racism are examples of ideologies and structures that have profound legacies,” said the report Framework For History And Commemoration: National Historic Sites System Plan 2019. “There is a need to be cognizant of, and to confront, these legacies.”.“The Framework will guide the way history is shaped at Parks Canada places for years to come,” cabinet said in a statement at the time. “Designations from earlier periods will need to be reviewed.”.“Nothing can be immune from review,” the Monuments Board wrote in a document Careful Review Of Existing Designations. ”Every designation can be re-evaluated.”.Current Board members include Dr. Richard Alway, former president of University of St. Michael’s College; Dr. Joseph Anderson of Mount Royal University; Professor Emeritus Timothy Christian of the University of Alberta; Parks Canada historian Diane Payment; Bernard Thériault, former New Brunswick Minister of Education; Sarah Jerome, former Northwest Territories Language Commissioner; and Professor Emeritus Dr. William Wiser of the University of Saskatchewan.
