TORONTO — Hoarding that has covered a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald at the Ontario legislature for the past five years will soon be taken down, a move that will cause pain and anger for Indigenous communities, the lone First Nation representative at Queen's Park predicted.
The statue of Canada's first prime minister has been boxed up since 2020, when it was vandalized amid a wave of protests across the country that took aim at Macdonald as Canadians grappled with the history of residential schools.
Childrens' shoes were placed at the site after the discovery of possible unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools.
Macdonald is considered an architect of the country's notorious residential school system that took Indigenous children from their families in an effort to assimilate them.
Now, five years after being boarded up and after being the subject of various discussions and committee hearings, Speaker Donna Skelly said the statue will be cleaned and uncovered this summer.
"We cannot run away from our history," she said Tuesday.
"We are about to undergo significant changes to the building...(Indigenous Peoples) need to be a part of it and now's the time to reach out and move beyond the hurt and the pain, acknowledge it, recognize the suffering, but make sure that this is a place that they feel welcomed."
The legislative assembly has been working on a plan to renovate the building and move provincial parliament to a temporary location, as is being done for the federal Parliament in Ottawa.
Government House Leader Steve Clark said that a committee will look at how to respect Indigenous representation as part of the legislative building rehabilitation.
"I can't change the history of our country, but I can make sure that while we're here and while we move forward, that we do it in a way that listens to Indigenous voices," he said.
Sol Mamakwa, a New Democrat who is the only First Nation member at Queen’s Park, said the government is not listening to Indigenous voices on a large number of issues.
Tears welled in Mamakwa’s eyes as he explained the hurt caused by the decision.
“It’s not just a statue," he said. "It's a statue of oppression. It is a statue of colonialism. It is a statue of Indian residential schools."
He told the board of the legislative assembly studying the issue to either move it to a museum as a piece of art, or keep it, but build a memorial for residential schools. The board chose neither.
The federal government in decades past, with help from the Catholic and Protestant churches, tried to kill Indigenous languages through various means, including residential schools that ripped children away from their families and forced them to speak English. Indigenous languages have been slowly dying over the past century.
Mamakwa is himself a survivor of residential schools and is currently planning with Skelly a lunch for elected officials next week, dubbed the “taste of the north."
But Skelly never gave Mamakwa a heads-up about the decision on the statue.
“I don't think she understood the significance of doing what she did,” he said. “I would give her the benefit of the doubt, but she's got to do better than that.”
News of the Macdonald statue being uncovered comes at the same time that many First Nations leaders and communities are furious with the government over a proposed law, known as Bill 5, that would create so-called “special economic zones” where it can suspend provincial and municipal laws on certain projects.
It intends to designate the Ring of Fire the first such zone in an effort to speed up mining projects in the area that is said to be replete with critical minerals. The Ring of Fire is about 450 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ont., and home to several remote First Nations.
"The timing of unboxing Sir John A. Macdonald's statue here at Queen's Park, and also very close to having the third reading of Bill 5...it's very disrespectful," Mamakwa said.
"This is not reconciliation."
Progressive Conservative and Liberal members of a non-partisan board of the legislative assembly agreed earlier this month on a motion to remove the hoarding after the statue is cleaned.
Skelly said the statue should be ready this summer and she welcomes both supporters and protesters to come to Queen's Park, as long as there are no further acts of vandalism.
Legislative security will be keeping a close eye on it, Skelly said.
"People have the right to protest here, as long as no one is hurt, and you don't break the rules or the law, you're welcome," she said. "This is where you should be protesting. I want to hear your views."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2025.
Allison Jones and Liam Casey, The Canadian Press
