The City of Victoria has removed the John A. Macdonald statue that once sat on the steps of Victoria City Hall.
Mayor Lisa Helps announced the removal of the statue earlier this week through her personal blog.
According to the blog, Helps believes that this removal is a curtail step in achieving reconciliation.
“We will remove the statue of Sir John A. MacDonald from the front doors of city hall so that the family members and other Indigenous people do not need to walk past this painful reminder of colonial violence each time they enter the doors of their municipal government,” says Helps in her blog.
Good day for #yyj! #sirjohnamacdonald #yyjpoli #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/157teFezep
— Council of Cdns, Vic (@cocvic) August 11, 2018
The statue was carefully wrapped in layers of foam and packing material and laid flat on a truck bed.
A crowd of spectators, protesters and curious onlookers gathered around City Hall to watch this historical moment unfold.
A nice way to start the day... Bye bye, John A :) #yyj #yyjpoli #cdnpoli #decolonization pic.twitter.com/iwRdpr1v0J
— Ben Isitt (@Ben_Isitt) August 11, 2018
According to Helps, the monument will be stored in a city facility until a recontextualized purpose can be determined.
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