Protestors have toppled statues of Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria in Canada amid increasing anger over the discovery of unmarked graves of Indigenous children.
Outrage at the discovery came to a head on the country’s national day on Thursday when a group gathered in Winnipeg, Manitoba to protest against the country’s treatment of Indigenous people and its colonial past.
Demonstrations are taking place after numerous unmarked graves containing the remains of what is believed to be thousands of Indigenous children were found at sites of former residential schools.
An estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were forced into these residential schools, where thousands suffered various forms of abuse.
They opened during the reign of Queen Victoria. The last residential school closed in the 1990s.
A protest took place around the statue of Queen Victoria in at the Manitoba Legislature on Thursday where demonstrators chanted “no pride in genocide” before covering the statue in red paint and pulling it down off its plinth, according to various reports.
The protestors left a sign that read “We were children once. Bring them home.”
Afterward, a smaller statue of the current monarch Queen Elizabeth II was also toppled.
More to follow.
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