November 2026
Re: Editorial: “Stop wallowing in sins of the past,” 9 November: Some other points to consider:
Slavery was a reprehensible practice, but let’s stop pretending that Black Africans were the only culture in the history of the world to suffer under enslavement. Pretty much every race, ethnicity and religion around the world have been enslaved and slaveholders at various times. Let’s also not forget that many of the African Blacks were sold into slavery by their fellow Black Africans from rival tribes, so there’s that too.
Royal Navy did indeed sail the world targeting slave traders. Great Britain borrowed money to finance this venture through the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which included purchasing slaves from the slave traders, buying their freedom in the process. Great Britain only finished paying off this loan of £20 million (around 40% of the Treasury’s annual income at the time), on 1 February 2015.
It’s true that none of this money went to to the enslaved people who had been brutalized, as compensation for their horrific treatment, but it’s also true that their enslavement may have gone on for many more years, maybe up to their deaths, if this money hadn’t been spent.
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The original column that inspired my column:
EDITORIAL: Stop wallowing in sins of the past | Toronto Sun
EDITORIAL: Stop wallowing in sins of the past
You cannot lay the blame for what happened centuries ago at the feet of taxpayers today.
At his latest stop on what has become the never-ending apology tour, King Charles III visited the Caribbean recently, where he was met with demands to apologize for the slave trade and have the U.K. government pay reparations for the harm it did.
When Charles was in Canada, First Nations made similar demands. While he has not issued a formal apology for either the slave trade or residential schools, in 2022, Charles did acknowledge this country’s dark history of residential schools and the pain they caused.
Charles made similar comments regarding the slave trade. At the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Antigua and Barbuda, Charles acknowledged the “evil” of slavery.
“We cannot change the actions of those who came before us. We can, however, learn from the past,” he said. “The transatlantic trade of enslaved persons still casts a shadow over these islands and other members of our Commonwealth.”
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has indicated that he’s open to making a formal apology, but not to reparations. He offered 40 million pounds (about $75.4 million CDN) for projects in the Caribbean.
“I do not think that British people today can be held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that happened in a different age under different laws and in which they played no personal part,” Burnham wrote in The Guardian.
The slave trade was evil and wrong. Residential schools caused great harm to Indigenous communities. But you cannot lay the blame for what happened centuries ago at the feet of taxpayers in those countries today. Britain has paid billions of dollars to forgive the debts of African nations.
Britain led the world in outlawing the slave trade. Its Royal Navy enforced that ban off the African coast. Charles’ great-great-great grandfather, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, dedicated his life as Prince Consort to the abolitionist cause.
Canada was one of the first countries to start the movement towards emancipation, with the 1793 Act Against Slavery. That’s why this country was the northern end of the Underground Railroad — the path to freedom for southern slaves. Queen Victoria refused all U.S. requests to return slaves who fled via that route.
At some point, you must stop wallowing in the sins of the past and move on.
