Offending plaques removed

After years of criticism from the Indigenous community, BMO has removed two stone plaques from the facade of a building in Montreal’s tourist sector that commemorated the killing of an Iroquois chief in 1644.

The plaques, one in English and the other in French, told the tale of the founder of Montreal, Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve, who killed the chief “with his own hands. March 1644.”

Calls to take down the stones grew last year as people across the country began debating what to do with statues and other historic markers that were deemed offensive to native peoples.

On Tuesday, workers had removed the offending plaques and were readying to replace them with new stones whose message excluded the line about Maisonneuve’s busy hands.

A less provocative stone rested at the feet of one worker and read: “Near this square afterwards named la Place d’Armes the founders of Ville Marie first encountered the Iroquois whom they defeated in March 1644.”

Michael Rice, who said he first complained to the bank about the plaques in 1992, has “mixed feelings” about BMO’s decision and the new message on the stones.

He never wanted the bank to remove the markers entirely, he said. Rather, he just wanted another plaque to be installed beside the other ones, to give the Iroquois perspective.