Macdonald statue will stay in Charlottetown with changes to ‘tell the true story’
First PM will get Indigenous companion
• The City of Charlottetown will add a representation of an Indigenous elder or child next to a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald to create a reminder of the darker side of the former prime minister’s legacy.
The statue in the cradle of Confederation depicts Canada’s first prime minister sitting on a bench with his arm outstretched and his top hat beside him.
It has been vandalized at least three times since council voted last June not to remove it, despite criticism of Macdonald’s role as an architect of Canada’s residential school system, where thousands of children suffered abuse or even death.
The Epekwitk Assembly of Councils wrote to the city in January recommending several changes to the statue. They include blocking the empty space on the bench to remove the possibility of photos next to Macdonald’s likeness.
Five recommendations were made by the assembly — and adopted by city council Monday night in an 8-1 vote — to “tell the true story of this individual and begin to address the trauma that its presence is continuing to perpetuate,” the group said in a statement.
The changes are:
❚ Add another figure, such as an Indigenous child or elder, “to offset the existing one and therefore visibly represent his impact on Canada’s Indigenous peoples.”
❚ Fill in or seal off the empty space on the bench so it can’t be used for photo opportunities.
❚ Install signage so viewers understand “the devastating role that Sir John A. Macdonald played in the Indigenous history of Canada.”
❚ If the artist engaged is not Indigenous, a Mi’kmaw artist should be hired as a consultant.
❚ Complete the work as soon as reasonably possible.
Coun. Mike Duffy was the lone vote against the resolution Monday to adopt the recommendations.
“Eighty-three per cent of the emails that came in favoured John A. Macdonald staying where he is,” Duffy told CBC, “and when you get that kind of feedback from the general public, you tend to listen.”
Duffy supported a suggestion that city council erect a new statue of an Indigenous figure somewhere other than the end of the bench facing Macdonald’s likeness, on the corner of Victoria Row and Queen Street in Charlottetown.
“All arrows for me ... pointed to the fact that was the way it should be and we could look after the Indigenous people by assisting them with their own site,” he said.
“That’s why I voted the way I did.”
Coun. Julie Mccabe, who chairs the city’s tourism and economic development committee, said the changes approved by council are significant.
“It’s important to be able to come to a compromise and find balance in the reconciliation process and to work collaboratively with the Indigenous groups,” she said in an interview Tuesday.
She said consultation will have to continue with the artist and the Indigenous groups to come up with a design.
Mccabe said only then will they be able to discuss a budget for the changes. The original art piece cost about $75,000.
Mccabe said the goal is to make the changes by this fall, but she said the consultation process could delay that.
“It has taken almost nine months to get to this point today, and we have to be realistic in working with the original artist and with Indigenous groups. I do believe this is going to be a process,” she said.
Artist Mike Halterman, who created the work in 2008, told The Canadian Press last month he has no problem adding to the statue.
“I’m an artist, man, not a politician,” Halterman said from his studio in Cripple Creek, Colo.
He said he likes the idea of an Indigenous elder or child joining Macdonald. “It might work. It would even it out,” he said.