Anti-racism protesters pull down statue of first Canadian PM

Anti-racism protestors in Canada’s Montreal tore down a statue of the country’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A MacDonald, in the wake of similar incident and protests in the United States and across the world.

In these protests, demonstrators have been pulling down and defacing statues of prominent world leaders, who were known to be racist in their operations.

The Montreal protest was led by a coalition of black and indigenous activists, according to Canadian broadcaster CBC.

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Videos shared widely on social media show protesters climbing atop the over 100-year-old monument and tying ropes around MacDonald’s statue, before pulling it down.

MacDonald served as Prime Minister of Canada for 19 years between 1867 and 1891. He was known for imposing discriminatory policies that led to the mistreatment and death of indigenous people in the 19th century.

According to BBC, a leaflet distributed at the Montreal anti-racism protest described him as: “a white supremacist who orchestrated the genocide of Indigenous peoples with the creation of the brutal residential schools system."