In the name of reconciliation, the City of Victoria might have taken more time for public debate before removing a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald from the entrance of city hall, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said on Thursday.
“It’s obviously an emotional issue and going more slowly would have probably kept more people on board,” said May, who represents Saanich-Gulf Islands.
Macdonald was a key figure in the birth of Canada and in completting a national railway, but was also an architect of the residential school system, making him a polarizing figure in reconciliation efforts with Indigenous Peoples.
May said she didn’t want to wade into municipal politics nor processes, but neither did she want to duck the question.
“If it were me, I would have gone much more slowly on the actual removal of the statue.”
In some cases, the removal of monuments might be appropriate. In other cases, “re-plaquing” to add context to an historical account might be the more important step toward reconciliation, May said.
“It’s clear a lot of people within this region — not just sitting as residents of Victoria — thought it was awfully fast. … I think it’s important as we’re moving through the steps of reconciliation that we use every moment on that pathway to bring everybody along with us and that takes time.”
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and Janice Simcoe, director at the Centre for Indigenous Education and Community Connections at Camosun College, were both on a committee that decided the statue had to be removed quickly and made that recommendation to council.
The matter was introduced on a city council agenda on Aug. 7, put before council for a vote on Aug. 9, and removal of the statue began at about 5 a.m. on Aug. 11.
Helps and Simcoe have said that healthy conversations about reconciliation are happening now, because of the statue’s removal.
The statue will not be relegated to long-term storage and will be relocated, the mayor has promised.
On Thursday, May referred to the recommendation of Sen. Murray Sinclair, the former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, who suggested that tearing down statues is “counterproductive” to reconciliation because it “smacks of revenge.”
Sinclair’s preference is for Canada to find more ways to recognize and honour Indigenous history and Indigenous Peoples.
— With files from Canadian Press
