Plaque replacing statue of Macdonald is defaced
Victoria vows further talks on reconciliation
VICTORIA • A temporary plaque placed where a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald once stood has been defaced.
The statue of Sir John in the grounds of Victoria’s city hall was removed on the weekend as a gesture of reconciliation with First Nations.
Mayor Lisa Helps said the city was carefully storing the statue of Canada’s first prime minister.
A temporary plaque placed where the statue was removed was vandalized less than a day after it was installed.
The words “communism” and “1984” were scrawled on the surface and a large X was scratched on the plaque that explained the reasons for the statue’s removal.
Helps said she was not surprised the plaque was vandalized.
“I guess it was to be expected,” she told CTV. “Emotions are running high, and what we will be doing in the next few months and year, as promised, is continuing the conversation with the community about reconciliation.”
Macdonald should be celebrated for “all the great things” he had done but it was also time to “grapple with all the other legacies of his term in office,” Helps told radio station CFAX.
“I think we have broadened the conversation and if that’s changing history, then maybe we have.”
In a statement last week, Helps said “the statue will be removed and stored in a city facility until an appropriate way to recontextualize MacDonald is determined. We do not propose to erase history but rather to take the time through the process of truthtelling and reconciliation as part of the Witness Reconciliation Program to tell this complex and painful chapter of Canadian history in a thoughtful way.”
Helps said in a text that the city was continuing to discuss the best place to locate the statue with First Nations and the community.
The statue of Macdonald, who represented Victoria in Parliament from 1878 to 1882, was removed as part of the reconciliation process with the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations.
Helps and several Victoria councillors began discussions last year to remove the statue in light of Macdonald’s role in the creation of the residential school system that displaced thousands of Indigenous youth.
Helps has been criticized for fast-tracking the statue’s removal just two days after council voted on Thursday, but she dismissed complaints about a lack of consultation.
“I don’t imagine, in 1982, when the statue was put in, there was any consultation either.”
The Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations were consulted because they are the most directly affected, she said.
Sylvia Jones, Ontario’s minister of tourism, culture and sport, told the legislature Monday that it was important to learn from the mistakes made by historical figures.
“There are historical figures who served in this house from across the political spectrum who, frankly, their views would not be viewed very appreciatively now,” she said. “We cannot let extreme political correctness dictate what people can learn and see in our communities. Using that logic, there would not be a museum open in the province of Ontario today.”
Helps said Victoria continued to look for the right place for the statue and had turned down an offer by Ontario to find the statue a new home.
“The city has no intention of getting rid of the statue. It was a gift to the city,” she said in her text to The Canadian Press.
“We are storing it carefully and in the meantime, we will have a continued dialogue with the nations and the community as to the best place, way and context to place the statue that balances commemoration with reconciliation.”