Vandals target statue of George Vancouver
A statue of George Vancouver outside Vancouver City Hall was vandalized overnight Wednesday with blue paint, as protesters in the U.S. target historic monuments after George Floyd’s death.
The incident comes as thousands of people around the world gather in the streets to protest police brutality and racism.
In the U.S., statues of Christopher Columbus were toppled, destroyed and disfigured in St. Paul, Minn., Boston and Richmond, Va., on Wednesday, according to the Washington Post, which noted that most of the protest has been aimed at Confederate memorials in cities across the U.S. South, including Richmond, Va.; Birmingham, Ala.; Charleston, S.C., and Raleigh, N.C.
Vancouver city staff were cleaning the statue of George Vancouver on Thursday morning.
A city spokeswoman, Ashton Patis, said the statue was covered in blue and grey paint overnight, and the paint has since been removed.
Patis said the city recognizes the extensive public dialogue regarding historic monuments happening in Vancouver and across Canada and the U.S., and consideration of monuments will be part of the planned review of the city’s commemoration policy.
“Next week, we will share information about how we hope to start our work with the community to develop actions to address racism in Vancouver,” Patis said Thursday.
Sgt. Aaron Roed, a spokesman for the VPD, said police are aware of the vandalism to the statue. He said police have been contacted by the city and there are officers conducting “an investigation into this mischief.”
“It is very unfortunate that incidents like this have happened, we do have officers who are looking into this incident and will also look into anything similar to it,” Roed said in an email Thursday.