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Charlottetown city council has voted to permanently remove a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald from a downtown intersection as a response to recent revelations about Canada's residential school system.
Elder Junior Peter Paul (sitting) points to a Sir John A. MacDonald statue next to 215 pairs of children s shoes placed in remembrance of the bodies discovered at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, during a ceremony in Charlottetown, P.E.I., Monday, May 31, 2021. Photo by John Morris /THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Charlottetown city council has voted to permanently remove a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald from a downtown intersection as a response to recent revelations about Canada’s residential school system.
The decision late Monday followed a vigil earlier in the day where demonstrators placed 215 pairs of shoes next to the statue of Macdonald, whose government introduced the residential school system in 1883.
Charlottetown council votes to remove controversial statue of Sir John A Macdonald - Medicine Hat NewsMedicine Hat News medicinehatnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from medicinehatnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
First Published: 1:32 PM PDT, June 1, 2021
The discovery in interior British Columbia last month is leading to renewed trauma, grief and calls for accountability among Indigenous communities across the country.
Flags across Canada are being flown at half-mast after 215 bodies of Indigenous children were discovered last month buried near a former British Columbia residential school, a church-run education system in operation for more than 100 years that forced kids as young as 3 years old from their families and communities for the purpose of assimilation.
Since the discovery, prayer vigils and memorials led by Indigenous leaders from different bands have sprung up both locally and across the country. Mi kmaw jingle dancers performed Monday morning across the country in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and hundreds of children’s shoes, moccasins and stuffed animals were left on the steps of the legislature building in nearby Saskatchewan.