The statue of Canada’s first prime minister at the Ontario legislature, which has been boarded up since 2020, will soon be unveiled for public viewing.
Authorities had ordered the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald, first erected in 1894, to be covered by a plywood box since 2020, saying it was needed to protect the statue from vandalism. The Ontario Board of Internal Economy announced on May 27 that the statue would be restored to public view before the summer.
Several statues of Sir John A. Macdonald were vandalized during protests across Canada following the death of George Floyd in May 2020. Some of these included the statue in Queen’s Park, a statue in Baden, Ont., and one in Montreal that was repeatedly doused in paint before being toppled and decapitated in August. It was not reinstated by the city.
After the statue of Macdonald in Queen’s Park was covered, a sign was placed on it by authorities that said Canada can “shape the history we wish to leave behind,” and that the speaker of the legislative assembly was considering how the “depictions of those histories in the monuments and statuary on the Assembly’s grounds can respect all of our diverse cultures and people’s.”
Statues of Macdonald were further targeted in 2021 after members of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced ground-penetrating radar had led to the discovery of potential gravesites of 250 indigenous children at the location of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. The Macdonald government introduced the residential school system in 1883. So far, the excavations done at some of the sites cited as potential burial grounds haven’t found any remains.
Throughout the year, statues of Macdonald were removed from his hometown of Kingston, Ont., as well as from the cities of Hamilton, Charlottetown, and Regina. Children’s shoes were placed at the statue of Macdonald at Queen’s Park as a sign of protest against his legacy.
In the years since, several other streets, buildings, and institutions have been renamed to erase figures associated with residential schools. These include Ryerson University—named after Canadian educator and author Egerton Ryerson—renamed as Toronto Metropolitan University in 2022, and the rebranding of Ottawa’s Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway as the Algonquin word “Kichi Zībī Mīkan” in 2023.
In 2024, Toronto also renamed Yonge-Dundas Square to Sankofa Square, which is based on a Ghanaian word that refers to the act of reflecting on and reclaiming teachings from the past. Henry Dundas pushed for the abolition of slavery in the 18th century, but his critics say he did not do so quickly enough.
In a statement, the Canadian Institute for Historical Education said they supported the Ontario government’s decision to uncover the statue of Macdonald, and that public monuments are “not endorsements, but opportunities.” The organization said it would like to see other statues of Macdonald restored, and hoped communities could do so with “clear interpretive context that fosters respectful, evidence-based discussion.”
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
