Vandalism of Queen Victoria draws mixed reaction

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This article was published 24/06/2020 (2157 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Compared with other historical monuments that have been targeted lately, Queen Victoria’s larger-than-life statue in front of the Manitoba legislature survived relatively unscathed.

A graffiti-removal company was called Wednesday morning after the Queen Victoria monument was defaced.

It appeared to have white paint poured over its head, with a smear of red paint across its mouth. The 116-year-old statue was cleaned up by mid-morning but the image left an indelible mark at an unprecedented time in history.

“I think it’s a reminder right now that people are rightfully engaged in a very substantive conversation around history,” said Ry Moran, director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba.

“This is something that’s not isolated to Winnipeg. It’s happening worldwide.”

Simmering outrage at racial injustice boiled over following the May 25 death of George Floyd, an unarmed and handcuffed Black man. A Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for about eight minutes. People took to the streets in demonstrations across the globe to demand an end to police brutality. Symbols of racism and oppression became a target.

In England, the statue of a 17th-century slave trader was dumped into Bristol’s harbour. In Antwerp, the monument to a Belgian king who brutalized Congo was burned and then removed. In the U.S., Confederate statues have been toppled. In Miami and Kenosha, Wis., statues of Christopher Columbus were doused with red paint.

“All these statues are put up to remind us of higher ideals or virtues — they’re virtue-signalling devices,” said Moran, who will become the first associate university librarian for reconciliation at the University of Victoria in the fall.

“It becomes very plainly obvious that, viewed through the eyes of presently marginalized groups, there are some very questionable aspects of (the statues’) past virtues.”

In Winnipeg, more than 15,000 protesters gathered at the legislature on June 5 for a peaceful demonstration. Subsequent rallies have taken place outside the legislature and other buildings downtown. All have proceeded without incident.

Late Tuesday night, a vandal or vandals scaled the enormous statue of Queen Victoria to deface it. A spokeswoman for the province said the act was reported to police. She wouldn’t comment on whether it was caught on security cameras that surround the building, or if security will be beefed up.

“Staff are unaware if this type of situation has taken place in the past, and are always looking at ways to respect the safety of people on site and ensure the safety of the site itself,” she said.

The president of the Monarchist League of Canada said he was disappointed a statue to the “Mother of Confederation” — whose name adorns streets, schools, beaches and cities — was targeted.

“Queen Victoria was the monarch at the time of Confederation, and she obviously holds an important place in Canada’s history,” said Robert Finch in Oakville, Ont.

“Of course, people have legitimate concerns and genuine grievances, but vandalizing a statue of the country’s first Queen isn’t the way they should be expressing their dissatisfaction,” said Finch. “I suspect the vast majority of Canadians, while willing to lend a sympathetic ear, do not approve of this sort of thing and quite frankly find it appalling.”

House Speaker Myrna Driedger said she doesn’t think such acts help.

“Destructive vandalism doesn’t fix things,” she wrote in an email Wednesday. “It doesn’t solve problems and could even escalate them. It is not the way to resolve issues,” said Driedger. “Our history can’t be erased but, hopefully, we can learn from it to make things better.”

Winnipeg NDP MP Leah Gazan said people have to be careful about assuming who defaced the Queen Victoria statue, but she understands the sentiment that may be behind it.

“We have a country built on a colonial history that was a violent colonial history, rooted in many human rights violations,” said Gazan, a member of the Wood Mountain Lakota Nation in Saskatchewan. “We can never ignore that history in terms of the symbols we choose to represent it.” Especially not when they’re doused in white paint.

“I think it demonstrates clearly many Canadians are ready to have critical discussions about this country,” Gazan said. She called on the government to respond to the calls to action in reports by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

 

 

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