A committee of independent experts has rendered its decision: the unbolted and decapitated statue of John A. Macdonald should not be reinstalled on its plinth in Place du Canada.
I remind you that the statue of the man who was Prime Minister of Canada from 1867 to 1873, then from 1878 to 1891, was detached from its seat during a demonstration, in August 2020, which took place when we discovered the existence of hundreds of anonymous graves on the grounds of former boarding schools.
Today, 131 years after Macdonald’s death, many citizens are aware of the role that one of the Fathers of Confederation played in the establishment of the Indian residential school system, where hundreds of children suffered mistreatment and lost their lives.
The authors of this debunking judged that the one who applied assimilating and genocidal policies with regard to the indigenous peoples does not have the right to know the eternal recognition, that which one likes to cast in bronze.
PHOTO ERIC THOMAS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
The John A. Macdonald statue in Canada Square was torn down in the summer of 2020.
The committee therefore suggests taking a step back from this “colonial vision represented by the monument”.
The committee had two options: hand over the statue or not hand it over. However, the members proposed another avenue: that the base remain empty, but that an interpretative plaque be added to it to explain the existence of this block of granite that is now bare.
In addition, a team of architecture students from the University of Montreal proposed to install an orange swing in tribute to the victims of residential schools.
The opinion of the experts will be debated during a public session which will take place on 7 December. Citizens will be invited to offer their point of view to the committee members, who will then draft their final opinion.
I don’t hate the idea of the empty plinth and plaque. But as long as highlighting the removal of this symbol, let’s be bold. With real audacity.
As I learned about the Montreal committee’s point of view, I chanced upon a story strangely similar to the fate reserved for the memory of John A. Macdonald.
In the heart of Vienna, the presence of a statue to the glory of Mayor Karl Lueger (1844-1910) has caused enormous unease for many years. This notorious anti-Semite, admired by Adolf Hitler (Lueger’s anti-Semitic positions are said to have inspired Hitler when writing Mein Kampf), is a source of shame for Austrians.
In October 2020, a collective of artists also inscribed the word “shame” on the base of the monument which has stood for almost a century on the Ringstrasse. It is regularly the subject of acts of vandalism. Despite this, the Vienna City Hall made a decision that no one saw coming.
While holding the statue in place, she entrusted two Austrian artists, Nicole Six and Paul Petritsch, with the task of creating a work that highlights Lueger’s sulphurous past. The result, unveiled in mid-October, takes the form of a huge, brightly colored wooden structure. I hasten to say that this is an ephemeral installation and that a permanent work will be created in a year.
Will you be surprised if I tell you that the presence of this work completely divides the population? Starting with the Union of Jewish Students in Austria, which believes that “with these colors and this disproportionate size, we absolutely do not see that this installation is supposed to deal with anti-Semitism”.
Some find the installation nondescript (I pretty much agree), others think we should remove the statue, move it to a museum and rename this public square.
“The aim of this work was not to be specifically a sculpture against anti-Semitism, but to open up a space for discussion,” said Veronica Kaup-Hasler, head of culture at the City of Vienna, who rather advocates a contextualization of the monument.
The retort is relevant. What matters at the moment is that there is a reflection and a reminder (this story has been reported in several media around the world) of the deep nature of this man. Lueger was a great mayor (he revolutionized Vienna). But he was also an anti-Semite. He was. Can we say that in all honesty?
In recent years, several symbols recalling a racist, slavery or genocidal past have been abused. Even if the golden age of statues is behind us, we continue to create monuments to the glory of men and women, some of whom keep skeletons in their bronze shells.
In short, we have not finished unbolting.
The idea of highlighting past mistakes rather than making them disappear is an option that I find very interesting in some cases. It joins that of the concentration camps, like that of Dachau, which are today places of awakening and education, in particular for young people.
The decision of the City of Vienna deserves that we stop there. Montreal, whose administration prides itself on being close to art and artists, should take inspiration from it for the decisions it will have to make when some of its symbols fall out of favor.
By storing a statue in a dusty warehouse, one naively believes to correct history. I rather believe that this gesture prevents us from having a real dialogue with memory.
The nuance is crucial, don’t you think?