Two Queen Victoria statues vandalized in Montreal – sub.Media

23.5.18

Two Queen Victoria statues vandalized in Montreal – sub.Media:



(Original anonymous communiqué by the Henri Paul* Anti-Monarchy Brigade, shared with sub.media)




In advance of colonial ‘Victoria Day’ holiday, two Queen Victoria statues are (again) vandalized in Montreal




Racist and imperialist legacy of the British Monarchy denounced


May 18, 2018, Montreal – Days before the outdated and insulting Queen
Victoria holiday, two landmark statues to Queen Victoria in Montreal
were vandalized last night.




The Victoria Memorial in downtown Montreal (erected in 1872) as well
the bronze statue on Sherbrooke Street (erected in 1900) at McGill
University were both sprayed in red paint.


This action is rooted in opposition to colonialism and imperialism,
and a dislike of the parasitic British monarchy (and all monarchies). We
are also directly inspired by the recent vandalism (with green paint)
of the same Queen Victoria statues in advance of St. Patrick’s Day this
past March by the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Bridage




These statues represent, to quote the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial
Solidarity Brigade, “a legacy of genocide, mass murder, torture,
massacres, terror, forced famines, concentration camps, theft, cultural
denigration, racism, and white supremacy.”




The Queen Victoria statues should come down and be placed in a museum
as a historical artifact. Public statues and monuments should not
represent oppression. The presence of Queen Victoria statues in Montreal
is, to again quote the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Brigade,
“an insult to Indigenous nations in North America (Turtle Island) and
Oceania, as well as the peoples of Africa, the Middle East, the
Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent, and everywhere the British Empire
committed its atrocities.”




These statues are also insulting to people who represent the
progressive struggles of the Irish, as well as Québecois. However, we
denounce the far-right anti-immigrant racist souchebags in Quebec who
coopt the legacy of the patriotes, but actually represent neo-fascist
ideas.




Important context: our action last night contributes to a tradition
of targeting colonial symbols and monuments for vandalism and eventual
removal: Cornwallis in Halifax, John A. Macdonald in Kingston and
Montreal, the Rhodes Must Fall movement in South Africa, the resistance
to racist Confederate monuments in the USA, and more.




To once again repeat the words of the Delhi-Dublin Ant-Colonial
Solidarity Brigade: “Our action is a simple expression of anti-colonial
and anti-imperialist solidarity, and we encourage others to undertake
similar actions against racist monuments and symbols that should be in
museums, not taking up our shared public spaces.”




— Communiqué by the Henri Paul* Anti-Monarchy Brigade