Time to overcome black and white thinking

After immigrating to Canada from Germany, a country that had to go through a painful review of its history for decades, I was struck by the often naive idealization of "heroes" such as Sir John A. or the military, the glorified fighters in the First World War and many others. It is of course true that some human beings sacrifice their health or even life to serve others, but even these people may have done this by ignoring the bigger picture. They may have fought for the Queen and killed indigineous people, would that make them then villains or are they still heroes?

Obviously, "good and bad or black and white categories don't help to understand and learn from history. And monuments , in my opinion, should not be there to promote uncritical adoration, but rather to depict episodes, events and people that shaped our history. When we look at monuments we can start a discussion; if they were removed, what would fill the vacuum? It might be totalitarian or authoritarian force ,  as has unfortunately happened in many other countries. A free democratic country should tolerate most of its monuments and create enough of them to honour and discuss as many perspectives as possible. That makes for a peaceful country.