Queens toppled amid mourning in Canada
Canadian protesters ripped down statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II amid growing anger over the discovery of the remains of hundreds of children in unmarked graves at former indigenous schools.
The large statue of Queen Victoria on a throne had been standing outside the legislative building in Winnipeg, Manitoba, since 1904.
On Canada’s national day, a crowd splattered it with red paint and put a rope around the statue’s neck.
As it toppled they cheered and chanted “Bring her down,” and “No pride in genocide”.
Nearby, a smaller statue of the Queen was knocked over, and left face down on a concrete path.
Downing Street condemned the vandalism but expressed sympathy for Canada’s indigenous community.
Canada is in the midst of a national reckoning over its treatment of indigenous children. Survivors and their descendants trace the blame back to Queen Victoria’s reign when Canada was part of the British Empire.
For 165 years, boarding schools run by the Catholic Church and funded by the government separated indigenous children from their families in an attempt to “assimilate” them.
A total of 150,000 were forcibly sent to 139 schools where many suffered malnourishment and abuse.
In 2015 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada concluded that more than 4000 children had died of disease and neglect in a “cultural genocide”.
In recent weeks the issue has been reignited by the discoveries of the unmarked graves of more than 1000 children. There were 751 found in western Saskatchewan, and 215 and 182 near two schools in British Columbia.
On Canada’s national day, celebrations were muted, replaced by vigils and marches in honour of the children.
Thousands gathered in Ottawa where Claudette Commanda, an Algonquin elder, told the crowd: “Today is a day to honour the 215, the 751, the 185, those children who were recovered, those children who were hidden, those children who were buried because Canada thought that by burying the children, they would be forgotten. They were never forgotten.”