Regina coalition wants John A. Macdonald statue removed by city hall

Statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in Victoria Park (Photo By Scotwood72 – Own work, Public Domain)

REGINA — The Saskatchewan Coalition Against Racism is hoping to get support for a petition calling on the City of Regina to take down its statue of John A. Macdonald.

Chris Kortright with SCAR says they held a rally about white nationalism earlier in the month and one person recommended they get rid of certain monuments.

The petition is now posted to the coalition’s website.

Kortright says the city “is built literally on white supremacy” with things that celebrate the colonial history of Canada, such as the statue of Canada’s first prime minister.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday that the federal government has no plans to delete Macdonald’s name from anything under federal responsibility while Premier Brad Wall said last week that removing the names of historic figures is “a slippery slope.”

Kortright says it’s never elected officials who lead the charge for any progressive charge.

“If they want to actually have a true monument, they want to show some artistic design of John A. MacDonald holding food away from Indigenous people and actually show the genocide that he did,” he says.

“This monument is not maintaining history, it’s not teaching history, it’s exactly whitewashing history.”

He says people in the United States are trying to do something similar by tearing down the statues of Confederate War leaders.

“It’s a continental move to actually challenge these violent histories.”