Statue may be removed from St. Catharines city hall lawn
Tribute could be perceived as symbol of animosity toward Indigenous people
Pte. Alexander Watson has been on active duty on the front lawn of St. Catharines city hall for 134 years.
Despite his longevity, many generations of residents would be hardpressed to identify him, his connection with St. Catharines or why he was placed on the downtown corner.
“If we’re going to put prominent monuments on our lawn at city hall, they should be things that are important to us that we want to preserve and invest in,” said St. Patrick’s Coun. Karrie Porter. “This is not one of them.”
Porter will ask city council on Monday to support removing the Watson statue and installing it at Victoria Lawn Cemetery, where the solider is buried. Her motion, supported on Twitter by Mayor Walter Sendzik, comes after city resident Gavin Fearon created an online petition calling for the statue to be removed because of its relationship to the North-west Rebellion.
“It has no place at our city hall, nor
does Watson continue to earn a hero’s place in our civic identity,” Fearon’s petition states. “Quite the opposite: he is unknown, ignored and an image of Canada’s ongoing genocide of First Nations, Métis and Indigenous peoples.” Launched Wednesday at AVAAZ.ORG, the petition had received more than 300 signatures by Thursday.
“I am impressed it has already gained the momentum it has in just a day,” Fearon said. “I’m really glad to see our level of civic engagement here in St. Catharines.”
Watson, a militia volunteer and member of the 90th Winnipeg Rifles, was one of 8,000 soldiers who fought for the Canadian government in the North-west Rebellion battle. He died on May 15, 1885, from wounds suffered during the Battle of Batoche in Saskatchewan. He spent his youth in St. Catharines before moving to Winnipeg, so when he died his body was returned to the city, where there was an elaborate public funeral.
Fearon said his petition is not about trying to erase history. It’s about attempting to co-ordinate present values and the moment we’re in now with the past.
“We’re living in a certain moment here where we’re seeing a remarkable number of colonial monuments come down in the United States and U.K. and other parts of the world and that prompted me to look at my own neighbourhood,” he said.
It’s not the first time the appropriateness of the statue has been raised at city hall.
A council report by the city’s culture department staff in 2009 said the statue “could be perceived as a symbol of animosity toward past First Nations of Canada.”
The report said while the statue was erected in 1886 at a time when Louis Riel was considered a traitor by many, since the 19th century Riel’s actions have come to be honoured and respected.
“I think this statue was put up at a time when Canada had some different values,” Porter said. “We need to recognize the mistakes that we made in the past and mistreatment of Indigenous people. We made a commitment as a city to truth and reconciliation and we have a memorandum of understanding with the Niagara Regional Native Centre and this puts our words into action.”
Porter said even putting aside the racism around those 19thcentury battles, it’s hard to argue that the monument has a place on the front lawn at city hall. There is already a statue recognizing veterans and the military there and there is no strong connection between the city and the Métis uprising, she said.
The 2009 report said it would cost up to $125,000 to repair the statue, which was decaying. The city did not fund a restoration and was left to the elements. Fearon said he was surprised when doing his research there didn’t seem to be any meaningful reason for Watson to be honoured either as he wasn’t a civic leader or contributor to St. Catharines.
The statue itself was crafted not in Watson’s likeness but as an anonymous war hero. Whether Watson stays or goes, Brock University professors Michael Ripmeester and Russell Johnston have found people don’t have strong connections to the statue.
The researchers conducted a survey in 2005 and found only 10 people out of more than 160 knew who Watson was.