Macdonald statue is down
No Borders Media reports on Facebook that protesters have thrown down the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in Place du Canada. Photo from them. Links to come.
Seems this was part of, or following a Defund the Police march Saturday afternoon.
Update: Stories from Radio-Canada, CBC, La Presse.
Further photos from Twitter:
Ian 16:51 on 2020-08-29 Permalink
Good riddance. I’m surprised nobody did it sooner.
EmilyG 17:04 on 2020-08-29 Permalink
Good.
thomas 17:27 on 2020-08-29 Permalink
So vandalism will convince people to defund the police?
Dominic 17:31 on 2020-08-29 Permalink
This is a good thing.
mare 18:51 on 2020-08-29 Permalink
And nobody stole the head? Or put it on a stake? Colour me surprised.
Douglas 20:17 on 2020-08-29 Permalink
City needs to put the statue back on asap.
Kids pick up a history book for the first time in their lives and suddenly they are “woke”.
Blork 20:33 on 2020-08-29 Permalink
Nope. This is bad. This is not how you do things in a civilized country, especially in the current climate. This act was juvenile and illegal, and the backlash will also be juvenile and illegal and probably violent.
We are not immune to the insanity that is prevalent in the US right now.
Dhomas 21:29 on 2020-08-29 Permalink
John A. MacDonald is a part of our history. Taking down his statue will not erase the fact that he was Canada’s first Prime Minister. Was he perfect? No, but he was a product of his time. Personally, I think he was pretty shitty to First Nation peoples, but I have the benefit of several decades of hindsight. Still, I’d much prefer if the statue remained with a plaque explaining who he was and why he is controversial by today’s standards. It would be much more of a learning experience for everyone, rather than allowing people to tear down whatever they feel doesn’t agree with their world view.
Side note: I’m not exactly sure what John A. MacDonald has to do with defunding the police.
Kate 21:34 on 2020-08-29 Permalink
Dhomas, Macdonald was the main founder of the RCMP, widely used out west to suppress indigenous and Métis folks.
Kevin 22:12 on 2020-08-29 Permalink
Not the first time this statue was beheaded.
Dominic 05:42 on 2020-08-30 Permalink
“Personally, I think he was pretty shitty to First Nation peoples”
“I have reason to believe that the agents as a whole … are doing all they can, by refusing food until the Indians are on the verge of starvation, to reduce the expense.” Macdonald in the House of Commons in 1882.
We should never honour men who supported and cheered on the mass-starvation of indigenous people, by blanketing it in some mock-protection of history. What kind of nation celebrates a racist who caused the death of thousands on purpose simply because that person was elected to office? The statue belongs in a museum, and his story taught to children, but not in display to all citizens. I’d rather see a dozen statues to Terry Fox or Viola Desmond or Dr Wilder Penfield before we put the JAM statue back.
Dhomas 07:36 on 2020-08-30 Permalink
@Kate: I hadn’t considered the RCMP angle. Thanks for clarifying; it now makes more sense to me.
@Dominic: that is pretty shitty. I had not heard this particular quote of his. I am glad I have now, and I would hope others also learn of how JAM was a genocidal maniac.
Maybe we should move the statue to a museum, and maybe this latest incident will convince the powers that be to do just that. I don’t agree with these methods, though. I definitely agree with the right to protest, but I think it should be done peacefully and without violence or damage to property.
Michael Black 08:14 on 2020-08-30 Permalink
But this isn’t about the guy, it’s about a mob pulling down a statue.
If it had been a group of neo-nazis stomping around and doing damage, would people be cheering them on?
150 years ago, Thomas Scott was not an elected official, yet he had a gang, and he was part of the process that expected people who were already in Red River to roll over and let Canada spread. He and his gang beat and lynched Norbert Parisien, they say my great, great grandfather stopped it, but too late. Norbert had been imprisoned by Scott, escaped, and in fear shot my great grandmother’s brother. Yet the family didn’t want any retaliation. Where were people yesterday taking responsibility? When the expeditionary force got out to Red River, in essence the forerunner of the mounties (complete with Sam Steele), there was a lot mire violence, and it seems from that force. People just talk about Louis Riel, but a lot of people were hated. How is that different from the mob yesterday deciding what’s “right”?
I’m tired of people being so outraged by public figures, when everyone who came over were part of it. They carried the diseases, they spread it, and they moved in as population diminished. They benefitted, and they too were racist. They elected those officials that are now so hated. They were not really different from the mounties or the prime minister . That prime minister wasn’t the cause of the racism my great, great grandmother felt, it was from everyday people.
It’s convenient to blame a long dead official, but real change won’t come from reacting to some historical factoid, but looking deep and realizing the problem isn’t some other. People should be thinking about this hatred, maybe it’s really that they hate themselves.
It’s easy to be against something, harder to actual like something. But there is a whole lot that needs to be done, and it won’t change by slogans or just reacting to the tip of the iceberg.
And on top of all that, tearing down a statue doesn’t do a thing to change police abuse. There too, people are outraged by the most blatant physical abuse, but tye story is way deeper.
Douglas 08:34 on 2020-08-30 Permalink
Be honest. Those kids that pulled it down don’t care about aboriginals.
They care about anarchy first and foremost and expressing wokeness.
MacDonald was just a target of their teenage angst. I’d put up 2 statues in response but that’s just me.
dwgs 08:48 on 2020-08-30 Permalink
Thank you Michael, that was very well said.
walkerp 09:40 on 2020-08-30 Permalink
He’s also super boring and all those outraged by this can barely remember what he actually did.
I’d rather they put up a big statue of a cool owl done by some crazy artist.
Kate 09:59 on 2020-08-30 Permalink
Thank you, Michael Black.
Douglas, what you don’t know about young people would fill a book. Teenage angst may exist, but it stays home and listens to sad or angry music. These people put themselves out there, risking police brutality and arrest, to make a point about the kind of society they want to live in. What did you do yesterday?
Meezly 10:15 on 2020-08-30 Permalink
I fully support the toppling of statues of problematic historical figures. Whether you were a Hungarian who toppled the statue of Stalin, or an angry middle class Montreal student who just toppled the statue of JAM, toppling statues of leaders who had committed horrible acts against humanity is a powerful symbolic act. Sure, it’s not going to change people’s minds overnight. But for many, including myself, it signifies a first step towards ending the myth of white supremacy.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-people-are-toppling-monuments-to-racism/
MarcG 11:48 on 2020-08-30 Permalink
For people who say that it should have a plaque put on it or be moved to a museum rather than taken down like this: there was plenty of opportunity for that over the past few years when it started being vandalized on a regular basis. You snooze, you lose.
Jebediah Pallindrome 14:31 on 2020-08-30 Permalink
Guys c’mon now, this one’s easy:
Toppling statues in Eastern Europe 30 years ago = good, liberty
Toppling statues in Canada now = bad, cancel culture
Remember, they’re only genocidal racist maniacs if they’re from another country. When they’re from here they’re ‘flawed’ or ‘controversial’.
Also, all statues erected in the 19th century are inherently good because no one from a long time ago ever made a mistake, and they certainly didn’t have any kind of political agenda.
All public spaces with pre-existing statues ought to be secured against any kind of change – in perpetuity – despite whatever new information may come to light. All historians are dangerous radicals, unless they confirm what you already think you know.
Oh and most importantly: removing statues erases history. The Soviets destroyed all Nazi monuments and this is why no one in Germany knows what happened between 1933 and 1945. Total. Mystery.