Sir John A. Macdonald has been doused in paint & anti-racist messages at Queen’s Park.

The banner reading “Tear down monuments that represent slavery, colonialism and violence” has itself already been torn down.

A quick reminder of the some of the things Macdonald said during his time as prime minster, in case you're wondering why someone might want to cover the driving force behind Canadian Confederation in paint & anti-racist messages...

“The executions of the Indians... ought to convince the Red Man that the White Man governs." – Sir John A. Macdonald, before publicly hanging eight Cree men for treason — even though public hangings had just been banned.

"The Chinaman … has no British instincts or British feelings or aspirations and therefore ought not to have a vote.” – Sir John A. Macdonald while he was stripping Chinese immigrants of their right to vote.

Thousands of Chinese workers had risked their lives building the railroad across Canada — the one Macdonald is celebrated for. Hundreds died.

But now, as it neared completion, Macdonald's government banned them from voting & introduced a head tax on all Chinese immigrants.

“Chinese immorality [and] eccentricities … are abhorrent to the Aryan race and Aryan principles," Macdonald claimed.

If Canada continued to let Chinese immigrants vote, “the Aryan character of the future of British America should be destroyed.”

You might think that we're just judging Macdonald by modern standards. He certainly wasn't the only racist in 1800s Canada.

But the opposition was arguing Chinese-Canadians should keep the vote & John A was the only person to use the word "Aryan" in parliament during that period

Arrested activists were taken to 52 Division; protesters have gathered outside. @BLM_TO has asked people to call & email @JohnTory & @Joe_Cressy among others to demand their release.

King Edward VII has also been covered with paint & anti-racist messages at Queen's Park.

This statue has a very complicated history — the only reason he's in Toronto is because people in another, distant city decided to take him down.

King Edward used to stand outside the famous Red Fort in Delhi: a symbol of British rule over India. But after independence, India didn’t want British statues anymore. So they took them down & replaced them.

Delhi's old British statues were taken down from their places of honour and stashed away in a forgotten corner of Coronation Park, where the old British rulers had held big imperial celebrations.

The BBC has called it "the graveyard of the British Empire."

In the 1960s, a British-loving Toronto entrepreneur arranged to have Delhi's old statue of King Edward cut into pieces & shipped here from India — because he thought the city needed a good equestrian statue.

So that's how King Edward ended up in Queen’s Park.

When we were there this afternoon, someone was verrry slowly beginning to clean the paint off King Edward's horse, Kildare, by hand...

(Seemingly not a city employee or anything.)

There certainly seems to be more interest in the history of King Edward's statue now that he has paint all over him.

Lots of people stopping to read the plaques, some vocally surprised to learn this big statue in Queen's Park used to stand in India.

And there were lots of people stopping to take a look at Sir John A. Macdonald too — much more attention than he usually gets.

This is far from the first time King Edward's statue in Queen's Park has had paint on it—it has long been a target for U of T frosh, whose annual tradition of painting the horse's balls seems to end without anyone getting arrested at all.

(pic: Ashley Brook for @thisiscanadiana)

If you're interested in learning more about the complicated histories behind the statues of Queen's Park, I recently wrote a thread about them all: https://twitter.com/TODreamsProject/status/1279153582026219520?s=20

We shot a whole little 4-minute episode of Canadiana ( @thisiscanadiana) about the history behind King Edward's statue in Queen's Park — how he got taken down in Delhi and then put back up in Toronto: http://thisiscanadiana.com/episode-pages/2018/8/4/the-king-of-queens-park