The City of Victoria recently took down their statue of Canada’s first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, and now Montreal’s statue has been vandalized.
The statue in downtown Montreal was spray painted with red early this morning by a group of anti-colonials wanting to show support for Victoria’s removal of their statue and to show opposition to far-right groups.
Victoria’s decision to remove the City’s statue of the Prime Minister has started a national conversation about erasing history and how historical figures should be represented.
The reasoning behind the removal of Macdonald’s statue was due to his participation in the violence that was inflicted on First Nations during the time of residential schools.
A nice way to start the day... Bye bye, John A :) #yyj #yyjpoli #cdnpoli #decolonization pic.twitter.com/iwRdpr1v0J
— Ben Isitt (@Ben_Isitt) August 11, 2018
“We will remove the statue of Sir John A. MacDonald from the front doors of city hall so that the family members and other Indigenous people do not need to walk past this painful reminder of colonial violence each time they enter the doors of their municipal government,” said Lisa Helps, mayor of Victoria, when announcing the plan to take down the statue.
It was taken down on Aug. 11, 2018 while a crowd of spectators gathered around City Hall to watch the historical moment.
Macdonald argued in the Commons for the removal of indigenous children from their “savage” parents in 1883.
- With files from The Canadian Press
