Chiefs release statement on statue

The Lennox Island and Abegweit First Nations chiefs say action on changes to the Sir John A. Macdonald statue in downtown Charlottetown have dragged on too long.

Chief Darlene Bernard of Lennox Island First Nation and Chief Junior Gould of Abegweit First Nation made the comment in a statement released through L'nuey Thursday evening.

The City of Charlottetown reached out to Indigenous partners in June 2020 after receiving emails from members of the public concerned that the statue exalted Canada's first prime minister without acknowledging his role in the devastating residential school system, which separated Indigenous children from their parents and led to abuse and death.

"We had made five suggestions to amend the art installation and tell the true story of this individual and begin to address the trauma that its presence is continuing to perpetuate," the chiefs say in the statement.

Those suggestions all included ways to deter photo ops at the bench statue at the corner of Richmond and Queen streets and to visibly represent Macdonald's impact on the Indigenous population.

"We understood when we were asked for input following the city’s decision to keep the statue last summer, that we were to provide recommendations on how that statue could be offset to address the situation in keeping with reconciliation objectives," the statement reads.

"What was not made clear was that the only intent to engage us was to assist in rewriting the existing plaque."

The chiefs are asking changes be made "as soon as reasonably possible" and signage should be in place in the meantime to reflect that changes are coming.