Next to the plinth of the statue of John A. Macdonald, left vacant in Place du Canada in Montreal, an orange swing could evoke the thousands of children who died in residential schools for Indigenous people, established under the leadership of the first Prime Minister of Canada. .
This is what was proposed by a team of architecture students from the University of Montreal, winner of the Charrette of design and architecture organized this fall by the Canadian Center for Architecture (CCA). The competition aimed to find alternatives to simply returning the Macdonald statue – beheaded by protesters to protest the racist policies he had implemented – on its plinth after its restoration.
“We have a very rigid way of commemorating history, with these monuments which do not change, which do not adapt according to the different ways of seeing. What interests us is redefining the way we stage history, ”explains Yimi Poba-Nzaou, coordinator of public collaborations for the CCA.
In Montreal alone, two spaces formerly occupied by monuments to the glory of historical figures are currently vacant. Not far from the statue of John A. Macdonald in Canada Square, the statue of James McGill, illustrious founder of the University of the same name, was also discreetly withdrawn from view this summer after falling prey to vandals, who denounced the fact that McGill had owned slaves.
In both cases, the statues have since been sheltered from popular vindictiveness, that of Macdonald by the City of Montreal, which has since restored it to a safe place, and that of McGill by the University itself. And in both cases, the responsible authorities remain evasive on how they intend to reintegrate the desecrated monuments.
A floating folder
As for the City of Montreal, we are not yet moving forward on how we intend to redevelop the plinth and the statue of John A. Macdonald. It is said to be designing “an intervention framework for recognition, in consultation with partners and experts.” This framework provides for an evaluation mechanism so that a past recognition, such as a monument, can be evaluated in certain exceptional situations, for example when it commemorates a person considered offensive to a group of people ”.
“The file for the monument to John A. Macdonald is therefore on standby, until the Recognition Intervention Framework is adopted by the authorities,” summarizes Fabienne Papin, of the City’s public relations. Once the Reconnaissance Intervention Framework is adopted, a Reconnaissance Advisory Committee, whose composition has not yet been determined, will be formed to look at the recognition files as a whole, including the monument to Sir John A. Macdonald. “
For its part, McGill University said it had not “yet determined whether [la statue] will be reinstalled in the same location ”.
Background wave
This wind of questioning historic monuments is blowing across America.
Last March, the City of Regina recommended that the John A. Macdonald statue be moved from Victoria Park. A few weeks later, the city council of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, also decided to remove a monument bearing the likeness of Macdonald. In Winnipeg, two statues, one of Queen Victoria and the other of Queen Elizabeth, have been removed after being the target of vandalism on Canada Day last summer.
At the entrance to the Museum of Natural History in New York, a statue that since 1940 has shown Theodore Roosevelt on horseback, followed by a Native and an African-American on foot, carrying his arms, will finally be relocated to the Presidential Library Theodore-Roosevelt. And in the UK, a statue of slave trader Edward Colston was pulled from the public square in Bristol after being thrown into the water during protests following the death of black American George Floyd. It has since been relocated, covered in graffiti, as part of an exhibition at the Bristol Museum.
There are different ways of putting historical monuments into perspective to bear witness to the plural interpretation of history.
And it is because this issue is international that the CCA decided this year to open its Charrette to foreign students, even if the winning teams are all based in Quebec. “We chose this theme because the architects will have to take up this topical question:“ what to do with memorial monuments in public space? ”Says Yimi Poba-Nzaou.
These new staging can be done in different ways. In some cases, it is proposed to juxtapose projections on existing monuments, or to wrap them in fabric to put them in perspective.
The CCA Charrette winning project also had the particularity of being able to be set up even if the statue of John A. Macdonald returned to its plinth.
“It may be a possible compromise,” says Ronald Rudin, professor emeritus in the Department of History at Concordia University and initiator of the Charrette project. This is one of the interesting facets of the project. I think Macdonald’s absence sends a pretty clear message. But if the City thinks it’s important to relocate Macdonald, we can have both at the same time. “