Queen Victoria, Elizabeth statues toppled in Canada over indigenous deaths

As anger grows over deaths of indigenous children at residential schools in Canada, protestors toppled prominent statue of Queen Victoria on Thursday, reports BBC. The protesters cheered as the statue at the legislature in Manitoba’s capital Winnipeg was toppled on Thursday.

The protestors also damaged smaller statue of UK monarch Queen Elizabeth II. According to local media, police used a stun gun to arrest at man but the protest was largely peaceful.

The toppling came on Canada Day, an annual celebration on 1 July that marks the country’s founding by British colonies in 1867. This comes after recent discoveries of unmarked indigenous Canadian graves at residential schools.

The UK government has condemned the toppling of the two statues. 

In 19th and 20 centuries, over 150,000 indigenous Canadian children were taken from their families and forced to attend the schools to forcibly assimilate them into society. An estimated 6,000 children died while attending these schools due to poorly built, poorly heated and unsanitary facilities.

In Winnipeg, thousands of people took to streets to remember and honour victims of residential schools and show their support for indigenous communities.

Queen Victoria, who was British monarch from 1837 till 1901, oversaw the founding of the Canadian confederation. 

A survivor of a residential school, Belinda Vandenbroeck, told Canadian broadcaster CBC she felt no remorse about the toppling of the statue, which she had had no part in.

Ever since the death of African-American George Floyd in May 2020, symbols of empire, colonialism and slavery have been targeted by protesters across the world. In the US and UK, several prominent statues of Confederate leaders and slave owners were torn down.