Repaired Queen Elizabeth statue defaced within hours of reappearance outside legislature

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This article was published 05/06/2023 (854 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A restored bronze statue of Queen Elizabeth was spray-painted with the words “killer” and “colonizer” within hours of it being put back up outside the Manitoba Legislative Building.

The Winnipeg Police Service’s property crime unit is investigating the incident, said spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen.

Protesters toppled statues of queens Elizabeth and Victoria on Canada Day in 2021, during a demonstration that followed the discovery of hundreds of suspected unmarked graves of Indigenous children at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

The statue of the Queen was returned to its spot on the east side of the grounds Friday, after undergoing repairs that cost an estimated $60,000, according to a Manitoba government spokesman.

Government Services Minister James Teitsma denounced the vandalism, which was discovered Saturday.

“If someone tries to make a political statement about the injustices of the past and the work that remains to be done on reconciliation, vandalism is the wrong way to do it,” he said in a statement Monday. “Like in every country of the world, our history is not perfect but at the end of the day, there is no dignity in vandalism.”

The province did not comment on the decision-making behind the statue’s return nor if there was any consultation with Indigenous or non-Indigenous groups or individuals.

Surveillance cameras are installed around the Legislative Building grounds.

“The graffiti on the statue was cleaned right away,” a Manitoba government spokesman wrote in an email.

The incident has renewed the debate over what to do with monuments that celebrate figures from Canada’s colonial history or how to display them with appropriate context.

Elder and residential school survivor Belinda Vandenbroeck questioned why the statue was put back up.

“I wonder why it is we keep pledging our allegiance to the monarchy,” said Vandenbroeck. “To me, that tells me we’re still a colonized country. I would rather not see any monarch go up at all.”

“I wonder why it is we keep pledging our allegiance to the monarchy… To me, that tells me we’re still a colonized country.”–Belinda Vandenbroeck

A statue to an Indigenous leader such as Chief Peguis (1774-1864) should have been the next to go up, she said, “because we are the first people of our homeland.”

Historian Gordon Goldsborough suggested the statues of Elizabeth (1926-2022) and Victoria (1819-1901) could be put on display together in a memorial garden in a different location, with historical information for context.

“There’s a better place for these monuments. It’s not on the grounds of the legislature,” he said, while proposing the grounds of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights as a potential location.

Goldsborough, a member of Manitoba Historical Society, said the monuments should be used to educate people.

“To hide (them) away, I think, sends the wrong message,” he said.

Any information or signage must tell the story of First Nations people and how they were treated by colonizers, said Vandenbroeck. “If you’re going to tell the history, you better tell the truth.”

The Royal Commonwealth Society also denounced the defacing of the statue.

“The society is very disappointed with the vandalism of this recently restored statue,” Peter Kingsley, chair of the RCS’s Manitoba branch, wrote in an email. “This type of act does nothing to promote or assist in the very important work of reconciliation.

“We recognize and endorse the need to examine the role of the monarchy, the government and the peoples of Canada in righting the wrongs of our past.”

After the Queen Victoria statue was pulled down July 1, 2021, its head was removed and later found in the Assiniboine River.

Demonstrators covered the base with red handprints.

No one was charged.

Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen previously told the Canadian Press the statue was damaged beyond repair. He said the monument would not be replaced because it would cost at least $500,000.

The government has not yet said if a new statue, or something else, will replace the Victoria statue or if the space will remain empty.

The province previously said it was consulting various groups.

In February, the province said a new monument for the bicentenary of Manitoba’s first treaty will feature a statue of Chief Peguis and inscriptions recognizing four other signatory chiefs, King George III and Lord Selkirk.

It will be the first statue of a First Nations person on the grounds. A statue of Métis leader Louis Riel is on the south side of the building.

The Chief Peguis statue will be installed on the north lawn between the former site of the Queen Victoria statue and the existing Next of Kin monument.

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Last month, the province announced plans for a permanent memorial to children who died at residential schools.

In collaboration with Every Child Matters display organizers, a garden will be filled with orange flowers to honour Indigenous children who never returned home.

The memorial, located on the south grounds of the Legislative building along Assiniboine Avenue, will also feature Every Child Matters flags, a bench and a memorial plaque.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.