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During a three-day visit to Manitoba intended to “improve the lives of residents of the province,” Gov. Gen. Mary Simon refused to weigh in on whether it was “right or wrong” for protest mobs to pull down statues of “colonial” figures.
“I think it’s really important for Indigenous people to express themselves in whichever form they want, but it’s also very important for us to recognize that the effects of colonization and residential schools have had such a devastating impact on the cultures and identity of Indigenous people,” the 75-year-old viceroy told reporters during a Monday stopover at the Manitoba legislature, which two years prior had seen protest mobs pull down statues of two Canadian monarchs; Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II.
She added: “So in a way, I can’t say whether it’s right or wrong.”
Reporters had been asking about the statues because Simon’s visit just happened to coincide with Manitoba’s reinstallation of the statue of Queen Elizabeth II, the monarch who had appointed Simon early last year.
In 2021, the usual July 1 festivities on the legislature grounds had instead been dominated by a “Cancel Canada Day” rally organized in protest of a series of recent ground-penetrating radar surveys showing what appeared to be large numbers of unmarked children’s graves located near the sites of former Indian Residential Schools.
By late afternoon, some of the protesters turned violent, assaulting and spitting upon attending Winnipeg police officers, and then using ropes to haul down bronze statues of the two Queens.
At the time, then-Manitoba premier Brian Pallister promised that those responsible would be “pursued actively in the courts.” But despite ample video and witness evidence gathered by police, Crown prosecutors ultimately refused to follow through with charges against the statue vandals.
The century-old Queen Victoria statue was damaged beyond repair, but the Queen Elizabeth II effigy — which had first been installed in 1968 — was restored after $60,000 in repairs.
Last week, it was reinstalled atop a more secure pedestal less susceptible to tear-down. Although, only hours later — and just before the arrival of the Governor General — an unidentified vandal spray-painted it with the words “killer” and “colonizer.”
Simon said Monday that these statues are reminders to some of the history of colonization and that “there’s anger” about that.
“For me, as a representative of the King, my role is to help understand what’s going on,” she said.
Simon’s noncommittal answer is much different than the initial reaction of Buckingham Palace. At the time, a spokesperson said that “our thoughts are with Canada’s indigenous community,” but emphasized “we obviously condemn any defacing of statues of the Queen.”
It’s not the first time that Simon — the official Canadian representative of King Charles III — has been somewhat blasé about the institution she’s sworn to represent.
Last month, in an interview with the Globe and Mail, Simon hinted that it might not be a bad idea if Canada ditched constitutional monarchy altogether and became a republic.
“It has to be a very big conversation about how we would do it and what kind of government we’re looking for — and all those things take time, and sometimes they take years,” she said.
In the same interview, she also said that “Canadians may never have felt great affection for Charles,” and urged the monarch to “develop his relationship further with Canada.”
The reinstallation of the Queen Elizabeth II statue was condemned rather strongly by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, who said in a Tuesday statement that “the replacement of the Queen Elizabeth II statue, without warning, perpetuates the painful legacy of Canadian colonialism.”
The group noted that Manitoba officials had pledged to commission statues depicting the Indigenous negotiators of the Peguis Selkirk Treaty, an 1817 agreement with the Hudson’s Bay Company that constituted the first written Indigenous treaty in what is now Western Canada. Nevertheless, the chiefs said it showed “a lack of commitment to reconciliation” to reinstall Queen Elizabeth II first.
Former Truth and Reconciliation Commission head Murray Sinclair lives in Winnipeg, and has long struck a nuanced view of the statues’ destruction.
After they were pulled down, Sinclair said in a widely circulated Facebook post that he was “not at all impressed by acts of destruction such as this.” When Winnipeg city councillors suggested rebuilding the Queen Victoria statue, however, Sinclair said the idea “borders on the idiotic” and was akin to “colonial gloating.”
SOURCE:GG won’t say whether statue desecration is ‘right or wrong’ | National Post
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