Vandals have once again struck the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald downtown.
The so-called “anonymous anti-colonial” activists left behind pamphlets at Place du Canada, accusing the country’s first Prime Minister of being a racist and a colonialist.
The statue itself was doused in red paint.
Last week, the city of Victoria, B.C. removed its statue of Macdonald, which stood outside City Hall.
A tribute plaque was erected in the statue's place outside City Hall - and has since been replaced because of vandalism.
Macdonald is remembered, in part, for the inauguration of the residential school system.
Over 150,000 Indigenous, Inuit, or Metis children were taken from their families and placed into these religious institutions.
The activists said their actions are, in part, to urge the City of Montreal to take similar measures and remove the Macdonald monument.
“John A. Macdonald was a white supremacist,” reads the written statement left at the scene. “He was racist and hostile towards non-white minority groups in Canada, openly promoting the preservation of a so-called ‘Aryan’ Canada.”
The full statement can be read below:
