Charlottetown city council defers Sir John A. statue discussion

Discussion on how to deal with requests to remove the Sir John A. Macdonald bench statue on Queen Street has been deferred to the next Charlottetown city council meeting June 24.

The item was on the agenda for Tuesday night's special meeting of council, but council voted to defer it to the next meeting.

Mayor Philip Brown said he and other councillors have received numerous emails requestingthe statue be removed out of respect for the Indigenous population.

Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, is widely recognized as the architect of residential schools, which separated Indigenous children from their parents and led to abuse and problems that have festered for more than a century.

The bench statue has been a fixture at the entrance of Victoria Row since 2008, and is a popular prop for photos.

Some of the options council is expected to consider are removing it, keeping it intact, or keeping it and adding a plaque with more historical context of the things Macdonald did.

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