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Your Stories, Our Histories

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Consultation has concluded


The engagement phase in the Your Stories, Our Histories project has now concluded. Thank you for taking the time to provide input into an updated cultural heritage strategy for Kingston. Staff are reviewing all input received and will report back to Council in the winter of 2020. You can learn more about next steps here https://www.cityofkingston.ca/city-hall/projects-construction/your-stories


Kingston, as a community, has evolved and changed over time. Help us shape the exhibits, programs, and spaces that the City of Kingston creates for residents and visitors by getting involved in Your Stories, Our Histories. Your feedback may be used to identify a list of themes, issues and topics that could be used to develop future programming that includes exhibits, events and educational offerings on-site at Kingston City Hall as well as across other City-owned sites.

As a subset of the Your Stories, Our Histories project the City also invited residents to offer their perspectives on Sir John A. Macdonald and how his history and legacy can be positioned within a broader understanding of local history. This consultation is now complete. Learn more about the actions arising from this consultation at https://www.cityofkingston.ca/explore/culture-history/history/sir-john-a

We are listening! Here is how to get involved:

In person:

  • Come chat with us! We will be in the community at special events throughout the spring and summer. Take a look at the key dates, then plan to stop by and visit with us.
  • Attend a workshop that dives into themes and ideas that matter. Sign up to express your interest and availability - we will contact you once we have finalized the dates and locations of these workshops.
  • Visit the Sir John A Macdonald room in Kingston's City Hall and leave a comment card.

Online:

  • Offer your input below. Share your story, thoughts and ideas on how we can make Kingston's history more inclusive.


The engagement phase in the Your Stories, Our Histories project has now concluded. Thank you for taking the time to provide input into an updated cultural heritage strategy for Kingston. Staff are reviewing all input received and will report back to Council in the winter of 2020. You can learn more about next steps here https://www.cityofkingston.ca/city-hall/projects-construction/your-stories


Kingston, as a community, has evolved and changed over time. Help us shape the exhibits, programs, and spaces that the City of Kingston creates for residents and visitors by getting involved in Your Stories, Our Histories. Your feedback may be used to identify a list of themes, issues and topics that could be used to develop future programming that includes exhibits, events and educational offerings on-site at Kingston City Hall as well as across other City-owned sites.

As a subset of the Your Stories, Our Histories project the City also invited residents to offer their perspectives on Sir John A. Macdonald and how his history and legacy can be positioned within a broader understanding of local history. This consultation is now complete. Learn more about the actions arising from this consultation at https://www.cityofkingston.ca/explore/culture-history/history/sir-john-a

We are listening! Here is how to get involved:

In person:

  • Come chat with us! We will be in the community at special events throughout the spring and summer. Take a look at the key dates, then plan to stop by and visit with us.
  • Attend a workshop that dives into themes and ideas that matter. Sign up to express your interest and availability - we will contact you once we have finalized the dates and locations of these workshops.
  • Visit the Sir John A Macdonald room in Kingston's City Hall and leave a comment card.

Online:

  • Offer your input below. Share your story, thoughts and ideas on how we can make Kingston's history more inclusive.

Tell your story

As we start this conversation, we need your help to ensure your stories help our histories to be as inclusive as possible.  Please share your stories that may be less well known but are important to capture.  If you don't have a story you can also share your thoughts and ideas about local history so we can capture a diversity of themes, issues and ideas that are worth exploring. 

Please remember that this is a safe space for you to share your thoughts, feelings and opinions.  By sharing, you are helping to foster a community conversation. We ask that if you are inclined to use strong language that you do so in a responsible, respectful manner. Words are powerful, so please choose them wisely. 

Thank you for participating.  Your feedback will form part of the City of Kingston's larger 'Your Stories, Our Histories' public engagement project.  Want to keep talking?  Want to get involved?  We encourage your continued participation in this conversation by signing up for the Your Stories, Our Histories e-mail list.

CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.
  • Share Raise another statue to the people he oppressed on Facebook Share Raise another statue to the people he oppressed on Twitter Share Raise another statue to the people he oppressed on Linkedin Email Raise another statue to the people he oppressed link

    Raise another statue to the people he oppressed

    by Richard, over 5 years ago

    We can't whitewash history, but we can tell it accurately. Macdonald was the first Prime Minister of this country that's a fact that can't be changed. However, he should not be glorified for it. In fact we should erect another statue beside his in City Park in honour of the victims of his genocidal policies and his murder of Louis Riel. We should also be careful not to whitewash out the fact he was an alcoholic who abandoned his wife to care for a disabled child and took a mistress in a local tavern. In other words, this was not... Continue reading

  • Share Commemorate More Than SJAM on Facebook Share Commemorate More Than SJAM on Twitter Share Commemorate More Than SJAM on Linkedin Email Commemorate More Than SJAM link

    Commemorate More Than SJAM

    by mkatz, over 5 years ago

    Most of these discussions have been focused on whether or not they would like the statues of Sir John A. MacDonald to stay in Kingston, but have offered little other alternatives. I hope that I discuss both well.

    The removal of SJAM statues are not erasing history. Statues are a representation of who and what a particular society values. While anti-indigenous rhetoric was widespread in SJAM's time and he cannot be single-handedly blamed for this long-held discrimination, he actively participated in and encouraged the starving of indigenous people to force them onto reserves alongside other atrocities.


    SJAM's entire legacy is... Continue reading

  • Share Use the statue to teach John A. MacDonald's Entire legacy on Facebook Share Use the statue to teach John A. MacDonald's Entire legacy on Twitter Share Use the statue to teach John A. MacDonald's Entire legacy on Linkedin Email Use the statue to teach John A. MacDonald's Entire legacy link

    Use the statue to teach John A. MacDonald's Entire legacy

    by Borthwick89, over 5 years ago

    I have long waited for Residential Schools and the effects that are still felt today to be in the news, now I feel the focus has been quite blurred by people's focus on John A. MacDonald. I feel that making people more educated about John A MacDonald's Entire legacy is important to understand how much our first Prime Minister hurt All of Canada and his main goal was power. He started working on dividing our Nation before he was Prime Minister by being a key paticipant in a protest for Canada to move towards Confederacy faster and wanting Canada to... Continue reading

  • Share Preserve our history on Facebook Share Preserve our history on Twitter Share Preserve our history on Linkedin Email Preserve our history link

    Preserve our history

    by Jomarie, over 5 years ago

    I would never agree with the way the original natives were treated, not only here, but throughout Canada and USA. There were many atrocities in our history. I have an Irish background. My ancestors died by the hundreds in Kingston, “Skeleton Park” was their burial site. 

    History is our past, not the present day. Nowadays, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is trying to rectify some of the indignities of the past to Indigenous people. 

    There were many, many good accomplishments in Sir John A McDonalds time. We, as Canadians should be very proud of those deeds. It was a different time... Continue reading

  • Share Sir John A. MacDonald on Facebook Share Sir John A. MacDonald on Twitter Share Sir John A. MacDonald on Linkedin Email Sir John A. MacDonald link

    Sir John A. MacDonald

    by Paul Price, over 5 years ago

    As a lifelong resident of this city and a taxpayer I DO NOT want the statue of Sir John A. MacDonald removed or any other part of this mans legacy removed. What happened in regard to residential schools was unfortunate and tragic by anyones standards but this individual did not single handedly contribute to the outcome. The Catholic church has to bear some responsibility and yet I hear of no pressure being brought to bear there. How long and to what extent are we having to pay for the mistakes of the past? It just seems to be never ending.

  • Share Warts and all on Facebook Share Warts and all on Twitter Share Warts and all on Linkedin Email Warts and all link

    Warts and all

    by John Suart, over 5 years ago

    I think we should keep our streets and statues of Sir John A. Macdonald, but add to them.

    The problem with history is that most people think it is solid like a statue. Yes, the dates, names and places are the same, but our intrepretation changes as we change. When Sir John was alive Canadians glossed over how First Nations lost their lands. Now, we know that was unfair. When the Second World War happened, we forgot in our victory that we sent Japanese Canadians to internment camps and that we turned Jewish refugees from Germany away before the war... Continue reading

  • Share DRD on Facebook Share DRD on Twitter Share DRD on Linkedin Email DRD link

    DRD

    by Kingstonres19, over 5 years ago

    here’s what I think: I think it’s our duty as a community that wants to reflect and grow and foster compassion to question Kingston’s legacy. Just because we honoured generals and prime ministers previously when the most honourable thing was securing survival for members of the British settler colonies, doesn’t mean we have to honour them now. Consider the more distant acts of atrocity, as in Europe, conquest and war and slaughter was common, but we do not see the names of the generals that slaughtered Carthage on street signs. Canada and America are new and do not have the... Continue reading