Leftist statue smashers emerged again over the weekend in Canada, toppling the statue of Canada’s first prime minister Sir John A. MacDonald in Hamilton on Saturday. A separate incident saw a statue honouring British monarch Queen Victoria doused in red paint in Ontario.
On Saturday, a “Hamilton Indigenous Unity” protest was organised against the local council’s decision not to remove the statue depicting the Scotsman who became Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. MacDonald.
Rather than abiding by the will of the democratically elected council, activists took it upon themselves to tear down the statue over his links to the historical oppression of indigenous people in the residential school system, which he helped form in Canada in the 1800s.
Following the march, activists converged on Gore Park, where one activist tied a rope around the kneck of the statue and toppled it as the crowd cheered on, CBC reported. The statue was further vandalised by the mob as it fell to the ground.
One of the organisers, Jordan Carrier, claimed that it was not their intention to see the statue toppled, yet, said: “They had an opportunity, city council. We knew this was going to happen one day, sooner or later. Here we are.”
“I feel really relieved. This is amazing. I am a bit fearful for the criminalization and the villainization of Indigenous peoples now that this all happened. We will see how much support we get from the city and police, and I wish for everybody’s safety,” Carrier added.
Police have appealed for information about the vandalism, and one man who claimed to be responsible for the damage has even boasted of his involvement on social media, daring police to come and arrest him. Breitbart London has approached Canadian police for information about their investigation and whether any arrests have now been made after that development, but received no reply at the time of publication.
Just one day after the toppling of the MacDonald statue, activists doused red paint on a monument depicting Queen Victoria in Kitchener, Ontario.
The words “every child matters” were scrawled in red paint across the statue honouring the 19th-century British monarch in an apparent reference to the indigenous children who attended the residential school system.
In response to the iconoclastic act, Shawn Falcao, Manager of Corporate Communications for the City of Kitchener, said in a statement: “The City continues its commitment to reconciliation and anti-racism, which includes contributing to and participating in the Regional Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group.
“We recognize there is much more work to do ahead of us and remain deeply invested in building relationships with local Indigenous communities as we advance this work.”
Both Queen Victoria and Sir John A. MacDonald have been targeted previously in the trans-Atlantic assault on statues in the wake of the re-emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement last year.
In August of last year, BLM supporters — chanting “abolish the police — toppled and beheaded a statue of Sir John in Montreal. Other monuments to the nation-building Scotsman were removed by left-wing local governments.
Statues honouring Queen Victoria as well as current British monarch Queen Elizabeth II were both torn down by activists following false reports of “mass graves” of indigenous students at residential schools.
The Black Lives Matter inspired attacks on British heritage previously saw vandals deface statues in England including Britain’s war-time leader Sir Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria, and even the national war memorial the Cenotaph.
In June of last year, BLM radicals tore down the statue of Sir Edward Colston, dumping the monument honouring the British slave owner and philanthropist into the local harbour in Bristol.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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