A decision to remove the statue of John A. Macdonald from the steps of Victoria City Hall was made nine months before the idea became public, blindsiding a majority of city councillors, according to a just-released email.
But the email doesn’t tell the whole story, said Mayor Lisa Helps, noting that an advisory body wrestled with the decision for months before approaching city council.
City councillors were surprised last August when Helps gave them three days’ notice that a decision had been made to remove the statue as part of the city’s reconciliation efforts with First Nations. The decision was made by the “city family,” an appointed advisory body of three councillors along with First Nations representatives.
Removal of the statue of Canada’s first prime minister, a key figure in the introduction of residential schools, was handled speedily. Helps gave a heads-up to councillors on a Monday, a late item was added to the agenda on Tuesday, council voted to ratify the decision on Thursday and in the early-morning on Saturday, crews and a crane removed the 635-kilogram bronze statue and put it in storage.
It happened so fast that some councillors, such as Pam Madoff, felt torn in their decision-making between supporting reconciliation and upholding promises to the electorate for consultation.
Now, a redacted email from Helps to city family members, released as part of a freedom of information request made by the Times Colonist in August, shows that as far back as November 2017 — nine months earlier — the decision to ask council to remove the statue had already been made.
“A decision was made that we would ask council to remove the statue and put it in storage until we were further along our journey of reconciliation and came up, as a family and community with a better way to present the complexities of his role in Canadian history,” says the email from Helps to city family members, dated Nov. 13, 2017.
“Here [below] is some proposed text for the plaque/sign for discussion Wednesday,” it says. (That proposed text is redacted.)
In an interview, Helps said a decision had not been made at that point, despite what the email says.
“That’s one meeting and then at the next meeting, we thought maybe we don’t do it, then we thought maybe we do it and then we thought maybe we don’t do it. I can assure you absolutely the final decision was made just before the report went to council,” Helps said.
She said the importance of consensus building in First Nations culture can’t be underestimated.
“We revisited and talked and continued the conversation until we were sure it was the right thing to do. Then, once we were sure it was the right thing to do, that’s when we made the recommendation to council,” Helps said.
But there’s no record of those discussions because, also in keeping of First Nations traditions, no minutes were kept of the meetings.
The November 2017 email was part of a cache of documents released to fulfil a freedom of information request for any minutes or other records of discussions surrounding the statue’s removal and any minutes of in-camera discussions of city councillors regarding the decision.
When told about the email, Madoff, who is no longer on council, said she was surprised councillors were kept in the dark for months and that no effort was made by the mayor or by councillors Marianne Alto or Charlayne Thornton-Joe — the other two city family members from council — to inform the full council about the plan.
Madoff said that the last-minute rush to remove the statue intensified divisiveness about the action. The process “was like throwing in a hand grenade and then walking away.”
Coun. Geoff Young said he was also surprised at the last-minute report on removing the statue. “I remain surprised that [Helps] wouldn’t have considered it appropriate to discuss it with the public or even in some kind of informal way with the council,” Young said.
UVic Lansdowne professor of social policy Michael Prince called the process used by Helps and the city family “manipulative,” noting that nine months would have been ample time for public consultation. “We have very vibrant neighbourhood associations. We have councillors who like to think they are open and consultative and progressive and transparent,” Prince said.
“But when you get a decision like this with these details, [it] shows a really kind of different, elite, closed, very tightly managed process that plays council.”
Madoff said poor handling of the statue removal will make finding a new home all the more difficult. She said Confederation Square near the legislature is a prime location. “But because this was handled so badly, I wonder if the provincial government will want anything to do with it.”
Former councillor Chris Coleman said the process “shattered trust” at the council table. “It’s a caution for everyone. When you want to try to deal with thorny issues … more light is better than less light.”
The statue is in storage in an undisclosed location. Helps has promised public consultation in finding a suitable location for it.
The city says it cost $30,126 to remove the statue. Of that, $7,683 was for equipment and $21,749 for staff costs.
According to city documents, the vast majority of staff cost was for overtime. The statue was removed early on a Saturday morning.
All $12,446 paid in police staffing costs was overtime, and of the $9,303 paid to city staff, $6,017 was for overtime and $3,286 was regular time.
