After a crowd in Winnipeg, Canada toppled statues of Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria outside the Manitoba legislature, police arrested one man who showed up to oppose them.
Yes, really.
A bust of Queen Elizabeth II was yanked down while a larger statue of Queen Victoria was defaced with red paint and then toppled by activists expressing outrage over the discovery of unmarked graves of indigenous schoolchildren.
The bedlam unfolded during a protest as part of the ‘Every Child Matters’ rally to demonstrate against the legacy of Canada’s indigenous boarding school system.
Demonstrators toppled statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth in Winnipeg this afternoon during rallies honouring the children discovered in unmarked graves on the sites of former residential schools over the past month. pic.twitter.com/Zx0aqPGcOW
— APTN News (@APTNNews) July 2, 2021
“Often run by the Catholic Church, many of the schools forcibly enrolled indigenous children under government mandates, aiming to assimilate native tribes even before Canada’s confederation in 1867. Children were taken from their families and were stripped of their cultural identities to hasten ‘integration’, many dying of abuse and neglect,” reports RT.
Despite the obviously criminality on clear display, police responded by arresting a man who turned up to counter-protest the event. None of the demonstrators who destroyed the statues were arrested.
“It’s possible the arrested man was angry at those who had pulled the statue down at around 4 p.m. CT,” reports CBC.
Statue of Queen Elizabeth II adjacent to Government House has also been brought down. pic.twitter.com/UCFZYYPKjy
— Renée Rodgers (@ReneeRodgersCTV) July 1, 2021
Hilariously, the Canadian broadcaster also reports that the demonstration was “largely peaceful,” a throwback to how violent BLM riots last summer, during which entire city blocks were burned and stores looted, were described by CNN as “fiery, but mostly peaceful.”
One of the protesters, Belinda Vandenbroeck, says she felt no remorse at the toppling of the statues.
“This queen is the one that gave our land away just like that to her merry gentleman — her fur traders,” she said.
“So I really have no place for her in my heart. I never did. She means nothing to me except that her policies and her colonialism is what is dictating us right to this minute as you and I speak.”
BREAKING: Statue of Queen Victoria covered in red paint, toppled at Manitoba Legislative Building. pic.twitter.com/RRdMLIQq8a
— Renée Rodgers (@ReneeRodgersCTV) July 1, 2021
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