Fountain irks Innu physician

The fountain statue of Jacques Cartier in St‑Henri Park features some Indigenous faces around the base, and nearby resident Dr Stanley Vollant, an Innu, doesn’t like it, although he doesn’t go so far as to recommend it be taken down.

On pondering this story, I think the offensive angle is not so much that the Indigenous faces are “monsters” as that there was a tendency to portray such people generically. So you have one named Frenchman and four interchangeable anonymous Indigenous faces. That the faces are gargoyles, in that they’re spouts when the water is running, is also offensive. The fountain is not currently operational.

You’ll see similar generic Indigenes used as heraldic supporters here and there as well.

Footnote here that we don’t actually have a portrait of Jacques Cartier from his time, but the statue is meant to be that person, and the wording on the plinth is about how he claimed this land in the name of New France. So, not good. Maybe not Sir John A. levels of bad, but not good.