An analysis of dozens of studies involving almost 100,000 participants found that exposure to short-form videos (SFVs) like those on TikTok and Instagram is contributing to a host of mental health conditions.

The work, published by the American Psychological Association, said the effects included poorer cognition (attention, inhibitory control, language, memory, etc.) and a decline in many mental health indices.

“These findings were consistent across youth and adult samples and across different SFV platforms,” the researchers wrote

in their study

, titled: “Feeds, feelings, and focus: A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the cognitive and mental health correlates of short-form video use.”

The researchers noted that while initially geared toward entertainment, SFVs are increasingly being used in education, political campaigns, advertising and consumerism. “Yet their design, characterized by endless scrolling interfaces, has raised concerns about addiction and negative health implications.”

On the topic of cognition skills, the researchers found that “repeated exposure to highly stimulating, fast-paced content may contribute to habituation, in which users become desensitized to slower, more effortful cognitive tasks such as reading, problem solving, or deep learning.”

They added: “This process may gradually reduce cognitive endurance and weaken the brain’s ability to sustain attention on a single task.”

In the area of mental health, they noted that SFV use has been associated with increased symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress and loneliness.

“The highly engaging, algorithm-driven nature of SFV platforms is thought to encourage excessive use by stimulating the brain’s dopaminergic reward system, which may reinforce habitual engagement through instant gratification and unpredictable content rewards,” they wrote.

“This habitual engagement may be associated with heightened stress and anxiety, as some users report difficulties disengaging and regulating their emotions in offline settings,” they continued.

“Additionally, the immersive and infinite-scrolling nature of SFVs has been linked to increased social isolation by replacing real-world interactions with passive digital engagement, exacerbating feelings of loneliness.” This, in turn, has been correlated with lower life satisfaction.

Sleep quality was also seen to be affected, perhaps due to the blue light emitted by electronic devices. This was further linked to changes in mood.

The researchers were surprised by one finding, however. “Unexpectedly, our meta-analysis found no association between SFV engagement and body esteem or self-esteem, which contrasts with prior reviews,” they wrote.

They suggested that some previous studies linking social media use and self-esteem were too simple in their questions, and that while others found a negative impact, they were balanced by separate studies that noted a positive effect on users.

“The inconsistency across studies suggests that the association between SFV use and body/self-esteem may be highly dependent on individual differences and exposure to different types of SFV content,” they wrote, suggesting further research was needed to “disentangle these factors.”

Overall, they wrote, “these findings highlight the importance of understanding the broader health implications of SFV use, given its pervasive role in daily life and potential to impact health, behavior, and well-being.”

They added: “As SFV platforms continue to evolve and expand across educational, commercial, and social contexts, understanding the health correlates of SFV engagement remains an important focus for digital health research, particularly for guiding balanced approaches to media use and informing future public health recommendations.”

• More questions than answers after Trump announces TikTok deal with China
• TikTok collected sensitive data on Canadian children, broke privacy laws: report

Mosab Hassan Yousef is a rare voice to emerge from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: a man whose journey took him from the dark pit of Hamas, to an outspoken critic and bestselling author.

Born in Ramallah in 1978, Yousef is the eldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the founding leaders of Hamas, the terror group that rose to dominate Gaza. Growing up steeped in Jihadist ideology, he was expected to inherit his father’s legacy — until a crisis of conscience set him on a radically different course.

His transformation began in the late 1990s, after witnessing the brutality inflicted by his own peers on suspected “collaborators.” Disillusioned, he accepted an unlikely recruitment by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, agreeing to act as an informant under the code name “The Green Prince.” Over the next decade, he worked undercover to sabotage terror plots and, by his own accounts, helped save hundreds of lives — including fellow Palestinians, as much as Israelis. All this transpired while his father remained a leading Hamas figure — that ultimately forced Yousef into exile and estrangement.

His story exploded onto the world stage with the publication of his bestselling memoir, Son of Hamas, in 2010. More recently, he expanded his story, in From Hamas to America, chronicling his years as an American citizen, reflecting on the cost and complexity of his choices, which include a conversion to Christianity.

Tafsik, a pro-Israel organization, brought Yousef to speak in Toronto on Nov. 19.

He spoke of recent Palestinian flag raisings in Toronto, Calgary and Winnipeg, excoriating Canadian politicians as “hypocrites looking for votes” who are “supporting chaos and terrorism.” Local demonstrators against Israel are “spitting venom, taking advantage of Gaza’s tragedy” while “using your freedoms to destroy your freedoms.”

He spoke of being raised in a “death culture” where “women are treated like cattle, as property” and “they feed children from an early age how to hate, in the name of resistance and occupation.” ​

He called Islamists “savages” that cannot be negotiated with. He said they perpetuated an “inverted narrative” that used projection to accuse Israel of genocide and colonization, but they were guilty of those very crimes.

Yousef spoke with Dave Gordon for National Post:

Q: On a governmental level, what needs to be done to prevent more antisemitic incidents?

A:

The problem with the government of Canada, is they have been platforming Palestine. This is the biggest antisemitism out there – rewarding Palestinians for their violence, then expecting from such a government to actually be fair to the Jews.

They are appeasing Muslim voters, and there is going to be consequences. (The government is) legitimizing jihad against all Western values.

If they continue to choose to close their eyes and see it differently, then they are part of the problem. They are not part of the solution.

I don’t count on them being fair to the Jewish people, and their fight against antisemitism. How can this be possible, when they are raising Palestinian flags, in their capitals?

Q: Would you say that the Gazans were unique, in that, as a group, they were for decades subjected to daily jihadist messages by Hamas?

A:

Actually, some of the most dangerous terrorists that the West ever experienced came from very wealthy Arab oil countries like Saudi Arabia. The only difference (with Gaza) is poverty, and that they are very close to the Jews. Like, for example, if Pakistan was close by, jihad would not be limited to the Palestinians.

Terrorists, jihadists, are worldwide. What we saw, for example, in Syria, remember ISIS? Remember what happened just recently against the Druze in Syria? See what the Houthis are doing. See the barbarism of the Iraqis, for example, during the Shia-Sunni clashes. But of course, there were no headlines. Take Algeria also. I can go on and on. Look at Sudan recently.

What I’m trying to tell you is that the entire region is ruled by tribalism. This is not only unique for the Palestinians. It’s a death culture. They just find in Israel a common enemy, because they are Jews. But practically, if they don’t have the Jews to kill, they will kill each other.

Q: From time to time, Gazans will say things against Hamas on camera. Is this genuine, and how prevalent is that sentiment?

A:

Hamas ruled over the Gazans for 17 years, and they made many enemies, they killed many people, and they oppressed their political rivals.

They imprisoned them, they killed them, and these people basically are still there, and they have a blood feud with Hamas. So now Hamas has enemies. There are tribes who actually oppose Hamas, and they are armed, and they are defending themselves. There are so many divisions and subdivisions within the Gaza Strip.

But as of now, I think the vast majority of Gazans, they don’t see Israel as a possible peace partner, and they don’t recognize Israel. They still want a Palestinian state on the rubble of Israel.

Q: There is a sense among many that a large-scale terror attack is imminent in the West. Do you agree?

A:

First of all, the jihadis, the extreme Muslims, they are thinking, ‘Oh, it’s a political win. The political win is better than the military win.’ I’m not saying it’s better. What I’m saying is, to them, right now, they are winning.

They always will come to a point where they choose violence. For now, I call it, diplomatic,  political and financial jihad. This is something you must understand about how the Muslim Brotherhood works, which is basically the main mover and shaker behind all this chaos in the West.

Social jihad, which is what you experience on social media, is also significant in this game. As long as the jihadis are looking like freedom fighters, and the Jews are looking like terrorists, they are not going to go and do something that is going to actually change the narrative, or change the price.

But you need to take into consideration the lone wolves. Those are the ones that are basically not under control, and they take hateful indoctrination literally, and they may act on it.

We have more mayors being elected by social media. They also can now use these accounts to manipulate Americans and manipulate Westerners to get to power.

This is, in my opinion, a lot more dangerous than just a terrorist attack that would unify Westerners. If this continues, then eventually they are going to take over politics, controlling Congress or Parliament, to gain more power in decision-making circles.

Q: A three-piece-suit jihad?

A:

Yes, and especially when they are funded right now by Qatari money. I actually am not seeing an immediate threat of the magnitude of 9/11. I don’t see it in the interest of the Muslim Brotherhood, or any of its branches. 9/11 unified the West against terrorism, and October 7 divided the West, and this was the entire Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood strategy, basically, to demoralize the West, and they succeeded.

Q: What do you think allies of Israel and the Jewish people need to do?

A:

Defend freedom; defend the West, counter the Islamist threat, that has an aspiration to conquer the world. Once people start to understand that this is a real and existential threat, and they understand their strategy, financial, social, and diplomatic jihad, then it becomes a different story.

If the West is not united, say Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, all types of people, then everybody is a target.

The Jihadists are going to be violent, and anyone who would oppose them or offends their religion or criticizes their religion, they are going to kill and kidnap and commit terrorism.

This is paving the way for a new generation. Right now it’s like a cancer; it’s a big problem that nobody actually knows how to deal with.

What we need is to bring the truth to the people. For example, all the allegations of occupation, of genocide, of colonization, of stealing the land from the Palestinians, these are baseless accusations. And they are very serious accusations. We need to shed light on how the Gaza tragedy was the outcome of Hamas weaponizing civilians.

This interview was edited for brevity.

• Israel Defense Forces strike Hamas terror training compound in south Lebanon
• Inside Gaza: A ceasefire in name only

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Canada no longer considers its approach to global engagement a “feminist foreign policy,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday, marking a clear departure from the doctrine championed by Justin Trudeau and his former Liberal government.

During a press conference at the G-20 summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Carney was asked whether Canada still applies a feminist lens while forging economic ties with countries that restrict the rights of women and LGBTQ people.

“We have that aspect to our foreign policy, but I wouldn’t describe our foreign policy as feminist foreign policy. Those are different points, but related,” he said while also affirming that gender equality remains a priority for Canada in its efforts to diversify internationally.

Carney highlighted how South Africa has elevated gender-based violence as a priority and admitted that Canada also needs to do more work in that regard, but said it’s not an economic issue.

“It is an issue of justice. It affects Canada. It affects everyone around that table. Different countries put a different priority on it,” the prime minister said. “But by discussing strategies and approaches, my experience is that I think that’s part of our policy as well.”

Carney’s remarks contrast with the tenets of Trudeau and his cabinet ministers, who made feminism a central organizing principle in Canada and in their international dealings.

Starting in the 2015 campaign that saw the Liberals elected, Trudeau promised gender equality steps that included appointing Canada’s first gender-balanced cabinet and launching the National Inquiry into missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). Two years into their first mandate, the Liberals introduced the

Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP)

, a new approach to foreign aid that aligns with the United Nations to address gender equality, change gender norms and prioritize women.

No formal document outlining the specific “feminist foreign policy” was ever published during Trudeau’s tenure, but cabinet ministers continued to tout it.

“Canada’s Feminist Foreign Policy and (FIAP) are centred on building a more gender-equal world by promoting rights-based and inclusive initiatives and supporting efforts to end sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation,” Mélanie Joly stated in a 2023 news release while she was still the minister of foreign affairs.

“Canada is proud to have a feminist foreign policy, not because it looks good, but because it produces tangible and measurable results,” François-Philippe Champagne said in a speech in February 2020 when he was leading foreign affairs,

The Globe and Mail reported.

Carney’s comments also come less than a month after Randeep Sarai, his secretary of state for international development, testified before the foreign affairs committee that Canada still applies a feminist lens to its foreign aid because it makes economic sense.

“It’s not just the right thing to do. It’s a smart thing to do,” he said on Oct. 28, as reported by

The Canadian Press.

• Robyn Fryer Bodzin: Mélanie Joly’s feminist foreign policy has no room for Jewish rape victims
• Canada’s feminist foreign aid policy isn’t making much progress on a gender equal world

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

The Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation is calling on the prime minister and minister of foreign affairs to reconsider Canada’s stance recognizing a Palestinian state.

In a Nov. 17 letter to Carney and Anita Anand, shared with National Post by CAEF executive director Andrea Spindel, she argues “there is no leadership among the Palestinian Authority that seeks co-existence with Israel.”

Instead, Spindel asserts, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is a murderous regime that “incentivizes and rewards” terrorist activity, “paying salaries to the barbarians who committed mass murder on October 7th.”

Spindel’s letter refers to

Palestinian Media Watch

as repeatedly documenting that Palestinian movements “compete for popular support by arguing over who has committed more terror.”

And she cites 

Jibril Rajoub

, secretary general of the Fatah Central Committee (the Fatah party’s most senior institution responsible for developing and implementing strategic initiatives, with members holding top portfolios in Palestinian politics). Spindel says he has publicly urged that the PA unite with Hamas under the

Palestinian Liberation Organization

framework.

It’s a pattern, she says, that reveals several dangerous messages from the PA such as hypocrisy toward the international community. “On the one hand, the PA seeks international legitimacy and aid, claiming it fights terror. In reality, the PA’s senior officials publicly reaffirm and even boast of its terror history and a desire to ally with Hamas — the very organization the PA pretends to distance itself from in diplomatic settings.”

Further she says that Western audiences and donors may “imagine a Fatah-Hamas rivalry that favours moderation, Rajoub’s welcoming of Hamas shows that the PA does not really want to have Hamas destroyed.”

In mid-October, Spindel says, Palestinian Media Watch released the

latest list of “Palestinian terrorist millionaires

thanks to the pay-for-slay program. Many of those who received financial rewards were among the terrorists released by Israel in exchange for Israeli hostages.”

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian National Authority since 2005, says Spindel, “is playing a game of duplicity which you and other Western nation leaders have swallowed, despite decades of evidence that duplicity is how the PA operates … You are demonstrating incredible naivety or willful blindness and neither serves the interests of Canadians.

“PA schools celebrate October 7! This is part of the

hate curriculum that has infected Arab children

for decades and continues to promote murder and martyrdom.”

Finally, Spindel challenges the prime minister and foreign affairs minister: “If you proceed with the reckless idea of recognizing another terror state in the Middle East, sanctioning the Palestinian Arabs to continue to train killers, reward terrorists, celebrate violence, preach and teach Jew hatred, then please tell us how this is different from supporting Nazism?”

• Opinion: Now that ‘Palestine’ has been recognized, it must be branded a state sponsor of terror
• Avi Benlolo: The West keeps subsidizing the Palestinian Authority’s death culture

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

The Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation is calling on the prime minister and minister of foreign affairs to reconsider Canada’s stance recognizing a Palestinian state.

In a Nov. 17 letter to Carney and Anita Anand, shared with National Post by CAEF executive director Andrea Spindel, she argues “there is no leadership among the Palestinian Authority that seeks co-existence with Israel.”

Instead, Spindel asserts, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is a murderous regime that “incentivizes and rewards” terrorist activity, “paying salaries to the barbarians who committed mass murder on October 7th.”

Spindel’s letter refers to

Palestinian Media Watch

as repeatedly documenting that Palestinian movements “compete for popular support by arguing over who has committed more terror.”

And she cites 

Jibril Rajoub

, secretary general of the Fatah Central Committee (the Fatah party’s most senior institution responsible for developing and implementing strategic initiatives, with members holding top portfolios in Palestinian politics). Spindel says he has publicly urged that the PA unite with Hamas under the

Palestinian Liberation Organization

framework.

It’s a pattern, she says, that reveals several dangerous messages from the PA such as hypocrisy toward the international community. “On the one hand, the PA seeks international legitimacy and aid, claiming it fights terror. In reality, the PA’s senior officials publicly reaffirm and even boast of its terror history and a desire to ally with Hamas — the very organization the PA pretends to distance itself from in diplomatic settings.”

Further she says that Western audiences and donors may “imagine a Fatah-Hamas rivalry that favours moderation, Rajoub’s welcoming of Hamas shows that the PA does not really want to have Hamas destroyed.”

In mid-October, Spindel says, Palestinian Media Watch released the

latest list of “Palestinian terrorist millionaires

thanks to the pay-for-slay program. Many of those who received financial rewards were among the terrorists released by Israel in exchange for Israeli hostages.”

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian National Authority since 2005, says Spindel, “is playing a game of duplicity which you and other Western nation leaders have swallowed, despite decades of evidence that duplicity is how the PA operates … You are demonstrating incredible naivety or willful blindness and neither serves the interests of Canadians.

“PA schools celebrate October 7! This is part of the

hate curriculum that has infected Arab children

for decades and continues to promote murder and martyrdom.”

Finally, Spindel challenges the prime minister and foreign affairs minister: “If you proceed with the reckless idea of recognizing another terror state in the Middle East, sanctioning the Palestinian Arabs to continue to train killers, reward terrorists, celebrate violence, preach and teach Jew hatred, then please tell us how this is different from supporting Nazism?”

• Opinion: Now that ‘Palestine’ has been recognized, it must be branded a state sponsor of terror
• Avi Benlolo: The West keeps subsidizing the Palestinian Authority’s death culture

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.

This is from a story about the scalping of British settlers and militia by Mi’kmaq warriors in what became known as the “Dartmouth Massacre” on May 13, 1751, from John Wilson’s eyewitness account: “These Indians chain the unfortunate prisoner to a large thick tree, and bind his hands and his feet, then beginning from the middle of the craneum, they cut quite round towards the neck; this being done, they then tear off the skin, leaving the skull bare; an inflammation quickly follows, the patient fevers, and dies in the most exquisite tortures.”

Wilson’s account is not the only record of Mi’kmaq attacks on settlers, nor even of the Dartmouth Massacre.

Another is from Thomas B. Akins, a lawyer, historian and archivist. In 1857 he was appointed Nova Scotia’s first Commissioner of Public Records and held that position until his death in 1891. He was held in such high regard that the government of Canada designated him a ‘Person of National Historic Significance.’ His History of the Settlement of Halifax was published in book form in 1895, four years after he died. But it had been published as a pamphlet half a century earlier, in 1847, and eight years prior to that he gave a formal reading from his notes about the attack on Dartmouth:

“The Indians were said to have destroyed several dwellings, sparing neither women nor children. The light of the torches and the discharge of musketry alarmed the inhabitants of Halifax, some of whom put off to their assistance, but did not arrive in any force till after the Indians had retired. The night was calm, and the cries of the settlers, and whoop of the Indians were distinctly heard on the western side of the harbour. On the following morning, several bodies were brought over – the Indians having carried off the scalps,” he said.

Enter Edward Cornwallis, the founder of Halifax, who had arrived on the shores of Nova Scotia on June 21, 1749, with 13 transports – boats or frigates – and 2,576 people. During that first winter more than one-third of those settlers died. Cornwallis, a major historical figure in Atlantic Canada, was a military man who had been named governor of Nova Scotia by King George II.

According to oral histories and archaeological evidence, the Mi’kmaq had been living in Nova Scotia for a long time. But with the coming of the Europeans things changed. Disease became widespread and by 1749 their numbers had dwindled. Between 1688 and 1763 there were seven wars in northeastern North America between the French and English with major impact on settlers and Indigenous people. But for the Mi’kmaq two were consequential – Father Le Loutre’s War from 1749 to 1755, and the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1763.

Le Loutre was a Catholic priest and missionary for the French Foreign Missions Society, an ardent French nationalist who led the band of French resistance forces which consisted of Acadian fighters and Mi’kmaq warriors. Thus, the Mi’kmaq were allied with the French and remained so during all those years of warfare in Nova Scotia.

Mi’kmaq raids on settlements began on September 30, 1749, and there would be eight raids on Dartmouth alone. French authorities had been paying bounties to the Mi’kmaq for British prisoners and their scalps. And so, on October 2, 1749, Cornwallis issued a proclamation, offering a similar bounty for Mi’kmaq warriors. Women and children were not included, but to be taken prisoner following the norms of British policy in such conflicts.

Today, the statue of Cornwallis in the middle of Cornwallis Park is no longer there. The park has been renamed, too. Cornwallis has been cancelled in the same way John A. Macdonald, Egerton Ryerson, Henry Dundas, Matthew Begbie, and other notable figures from Canada’s past have been cancelled by those with an axe to grind. And they don’t do it with history, but their own twisted take on history which is deep in ideology and involves something other than the truth.

Scalping is front and centre in this “controversy” which wasn’t a controversy for almost 250 years until a 1993 book by Mi’kmaq elder Daniel Paul. The book was We Were Not the Savages: a Micmac perspective on the collision of European and aboriginal civilizations. Paul passed away in 2023.

In his book he laid the charge of genocide perpetrated against the Mi’kmaq squarely at the feet of Cornwallis. He called the bounty proclamation an “extermination” order calling for “the scalps of men, women and children.” No sooner did he make this claim that other voices picked it up and built an anti-Cornwallis narrative in keeping with the story of the evil white man. Soon, the Daniel Paul story became the official party line and the rest, as the old saying goes, is history.

But it’s revisionist history.

After Paul’s death, this is what Global TV reported: “His research also helped persuade Nova Scotia politicians that statues, school names and even a coast guard ship should no longer bear the name of Edward Cornwallis, the province’s first governor, who offered rewards for Indigenous scalps.”

In 2020 the CBC ran a story about the Mi’kmaq wanting to rename a coast guard icebreaker. The icebreaker was called Edward Cornwallis. The headline was: “Founder of Halifax issued proclamation of bounty for killing Mi’kmag men, women and children.”

Leo J. Deveau – an author, newspaper columnist, and authority on Nova Scotia history – says this of Paul’s claims: “Paul’s analysis ignored the wider context of the imperial wars of the period and the close alliance between the Mi’kmaq and the French in the struggle of empires. The history of that alliance records regular bounties paid for the delivery of scalps belonging to British soldiers and settlers obtained by Mi’kmaq warriors during numerous raids.”

Deveau went on: “Adopting the familiar ‘good and evil’ interpretation of history, Paul lays the charge of ‘genocide’ against Cornwallis, feeling that the term genocide ‘aptly’ described the barbaric behaviour of the British in colonial Nova Scotia. This in turn is meant to justify his wild exaggeration that the statue of Cornwallis represented ‘white supremacist thinking.’ For the author and his acolytes it seems everything comes down to genocide and white supremacy. This is grossly oversimplified history.”

Not all media reports were sympathetic to Daniel Paul’s take on history. Paul Bennett, an author of Canadian history textbooks, wrote an article in The Chronicle-Herald with the title ‘How solid is the case against Cornwallis?’ He said this set a dangerous precedent and took aim directly at Daniel Paul.

“While Paul is often described as an historian, his work is mostly popular storytelling since it’s a fascinating mix of history, folklore, and personal testimony.”

I obtained a copy of the fourth edition of Daniel Paul’s book, published in 2022. In the Dedication it says: “To the memory of my ancestors, who managed to ensure the survival of the Mi’kmaw People by their awe-inspiring tenacity and valour in the face of virtually insurmountable odds! For more than four centuries these courageous, dignified and heroic people displayed a determination to survive the various hells on earth created for them by Europeans with a tenacity that equals any displayed in the history of mankind.”

Not to minimize the very real plight of the Mi’kmaq after the coming of Europeans, but such words do not lend themselves as an authoritative work on recorded history. There is no mention in Paul’s book, or from what I can find in anything he’s ever written, about the Dartmouth massacre.

Nevertheless, in 2014 protesters gathered in Cornwallis Park, demanding the park be renamed and the statue of Cornwallis removed. In 2015 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission came out with its report and in Nova Scotia that would later lead to the cancellation of Cornwallis. In 2016 a municipal election was held and now there were new councillors who were swayed by a presentation delivered by the city’s first Mi’kmaw poet laureate who called Cornwallis a man “who prided himself on brutality” and who used Mi’kmaq scalps as “currency.” A vote to remove his name from all municipal properties passed 15-1.

Never mind that surveys showed most people in Halifax wanted the Cornwallis name to remain on public parks, buildings and street signs. And that the statue should stay.

It didn’t matter.

More protests came in  2017 and Halifax Regional Municipality council launched a Special Advisory Committee with “equal representation from Indigenous and non-Indigenous backgrounds.” This is similar to task forces created at the Toronto university once known as Ryerson and the one set up at the City of Toronto to discuss the name Henry Dundas. Indeed, the modus operandi with historical revisionists tends to follow a playbook. Part of that playbook involves establishing an “expert” panel with equal parts Indigenous and non-Indigenous, provided the latter are academics who have a progressive bent.

Soon the Cornwallis statue was removed. Cornwallis Park was renamed Peace and Friendship Park, and Cornwallis Street was renamed Nora Bernard Street after a Mi’kmaw activist who had been murdered by her grandson back in 2007. In short, Edward Cornwallis and anything associated with his name was as good as dead.

The man who started all this – Daniel Paul – said in his book that Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, was an “unapologetic white supremacist.” He compared the plight of the Mi’kmaq to European Jews in the Holocaust. As for the Mi’kmaq and their way of life, he said: “Civility and generosity were so engrained in Mi’kmaw society that to be rude or mean was unthinkable.”

John E. Grenier, an American historian, wrote a book called The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710–1760. Published in 2008, it examines the wars in Nova Scotia during the 18th  century. While Grenier readily admits that when it was all over the Mi’kmaq and their way of life would be no more, he also said the treaties the Mi’kmaq signed with the British in 1760 and 1761 were “far harsher” than previous ones, including the Articles of 1749 with Edward Cornwallis. Nowhere does Grenier say Cornwallis is an angel or saint. He calls him a British colonial official who used “brutal but effective measures” to “wrest control of Nova Scotia from French and Indian enemies who were no less ruthless.”

Grenier was once interviewed by the National Post for an article about the renaming of  Cornwallis high school. In the article he said: “It is complicated. But the PC [Political Correctness] crowd, if you will, prefers to remain ignorant of the historical record.” He added: “It is important to look at the context in which Cornwallis and the other Anglo-Americans made the decision to issue the scalp proclamation. The Mi’kmaqs certainly were not innocent, passive victims in that train of events.”

The upshot of all this? No historian worth their salt examines any period or place through a one-way lens. That is to sacrifice context and credibility. What’s more, when a region, never mind a country, bases public policy on commentary that is rife with speculation, conjecture – and lies – a nation begins to lose itself and there is only one inevitable result.

Its history is vanquished.

Excerpt from the book SLEEPWOKING, which is about historical revisionism in Canada, and now available on Amazon.

• Coast guard ship Edward Cornwallis renamed to honour 1752 peace treaty with Mi’kmaq
• Rally held at former site of Halifax founder statue to celebrate removal

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.