Reckoning, reconciliation, and reflection are changing our landscapes. In When Heroes Become Villains, Jon Bartlett and Brian Robertson bring home the “naming” controversy, telling the stories of three erstwhile heroes, and how our reconsideration of their roles in our collective story is unsettling our maps.

John Sebastian Helmcken is memorialized for bringing British Columbia into the Canadian federation. But that same act also meant the displacement and alienation of Indigenous peoples from the lands they had occupied for countless generations.

Joseph Trutch was B.C.’s first Lieutenant-Governor after Confederation — rewarding his services as Land Commissioner of the Colony, in which role he actively worked to alienate Indigenous peoples from their lands.
William Bowser, premier of the province in 1915-16, served as Attorney General in successive Richard McBride cabinets, in which role he was instrumental in forcing the Squamish First Nation off their Kitsilano lands, as well as deploying police forces against striking Vancouver Island coal miners.
Jon Bartlett and Brian Robertson argue that this “naming” controversy is simply part and parcel of current generations coming to a deeper understanding of their history and province, and an important part of the process of reconciliation and social justice.

Jon Bartlett and his partner Rika Ruebsaat, both ex-teachers, have written two books of local history, about Princeton, their home town. They have both been Secretary of the local museum and active in their local arts council. They have recorded seven CDs of traditional Canadian song, and founded and ran the Princeton Traditional Music Festival for a dozen years. Jon’s legal and historical training allowed him to provide research for both the federal government and a lower mainland First Nation. His latest book, Triumph and Solidarity, investigates the actions of Vancouver Communists in the early years of the Great Depression.

Jon Bartlett's profile page

Brian Robertson is a bit of renaissance man, with degrees in engineering and business yet someone who has worn many other hats - millworker, commercial fisherman, salvage diver and cabbie - and finished his professional career as an historical consultant for several decades to both First Nations and the Government of Canada. An accomplished singer-songwriter, Brian is perhaps best known for his authentic and engaging songs about the BC coast and has released two CDs featuring this content, Saltchuck Serenade and Times and Places (for more, go to his website at www.brianrobertson.ca). In this he connects with his good friend Jon Bartlett, a celebrated singer and musicologist in his own right and fellow student of BC history. Brian shares with his partner Beth a passion for ocean kayaking, traditional dance, adventure travel and gardening at their home in Vancouver BC. When Heroes Become Villains is his first book.

Brian Robertson's profile page

This is a spirited intervention in the current battles over naming and historical memory. The authors do not ask us to forget past heroes for whom statues have been erected and schools and streets named. They compel us to recognize them as villains, as “racists and sociopaths” who prospered by stealing land from Indigenous peoples and labour from workers of every ethnicity, race, and gender. The authors demonstrate how they used racism and sexism to divide people and used the brute force of government, courts, police, and military to accomplish their aims. Much is packed into this slim volume: extensive, careful research, political commitment, and thoughtful analysis of the issues, all handled deftly, thoroughly, and with wit. The result is a book that delivers powerful insights into our history and important lessons for our future.

Mark Leier, History Department, Simon Fraser University