Article content The timing of the destruction of Egerton Ryerson’s statue could not have been better played. As an educator at the end of the 19th century, he was one of the architects of the residential school system that was bent on “civilizing” students by “killing the Indian in the child,” and news had just broken that perhaps 215 unmarked graves had been found at the defunct residential school in Kamloops B.C. The thugs did not seek permission to tear down Ryerson’s statue, lob off his fingers, and toss his severed head into Lake Ontario. What’s next? Burning down the Ryerson Elementary School in Hamilton, even after it voted to change its name? Or driving up to Parry Sound and the nearby town of Ryerson and raising hell there?