Agatha Ankiewcz is a Canadian citizen who moved from Poland 15 years ago. Ankiewcz has mixed feelings about changing street names and monuments after she experienced a political upheaval in her home country when she was a teenager. She spoke with Checkup host Duncan McCue about the dangers that can come from the rapid overhaul of a country's past.

Agatha Ankiewcz: When I was a teenager, Poland went through a transition in 1989. Pretty much the entire country went through an exercise of renaming streets, monuments, bridges, you name it, and it was done fairly rapidly. Obviously at the time the political forces wanted to cut away from the socialist or communist past - what you name it depends on where you stand on it politically. I think when a transition is done that rapidly, and for political reasons, it doesn't bring a good thing to the nation's life. Polish history, during the socialist times, is now considered quite pejorative. And if you try to say 'well, not all of it was bad,' people of a particular political view will treat you almost as a traitor. And that has gotten worse in the last couple of years with the new government in power. But I think when you're trying to change names for purely political reasons, and you're doing this very rapidly, I don't think that's a good thing.

Having said this, I immigrated to Canada 15 years ago, and I've been discovering the history of this country. Obviously I wasn't taught the ins and outs of Canadian history at school in Poland, but I think there's a point at which you have to recognize the untold history of Canada that is now only coming to bear with the reconciliation process, especially when it comes to the Indigenous communities.

So, it's a yes and a no on my part. If it's done rapidly without actually discussing this within the communities I don't think that's a good thing. But if it's done for the purpose of reconciliation, and acknowledging and honouring that the past of Canada is maybe not stellar, I think that's a decision that should be debated. And that should be done within the communities and with input from people.