Protesters shut down Conservative MPs speaking in favour of John A. Macdonald statue

Conservative MPs in Regina held a livestreamed rally to defend the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in Victoria Park on Thursday, but it didn’t go as smoothly as they might have expected.

Protesters showed up, shouting obscenities and hurling insults like “Nazi” and “white supremacist,” and even going as far as calling former Conservative Leader and Regina-Qu’Appelle MP Andrew Scheer “Hitler.”

Since the end of June, the statue has been under review by the city, as some view the legacy of Canada’s first prime minister as harmful.

No decision has yet been made on whether the statue will stay standing or be removed.

Scheer’s take on the matter is clear. He and his Conservative colleagues, Regina-Lewvan MP Warren Steinley and Regina-Wascana MP Michael Kram, believe it’s important to preserve the history that the statue represents.

“If we look back at our rich history and study the leading figures and see only the blemishes, then we are missing out on the beautiful story of a wonderful country that is constantly bettering itself,” Scheer said.

The statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in Victoria Park with a residential school jacket placed on top of it on Sept. 3, 2020. (Dominick Lucyk/980 CJME)

That being said, he does not deny wrongdoing on Macdonald’s part.

“I understand that many of his actions and policies have caused hardship and pain. It is reasonable to debate and discuss his decisions,” he said.

However, Scheer thinks it’s wrong to only focus on the negatives.

“It is indisputable that Sir John A. Macdonald played a critical role in building this great nation, and that is why we honour him,” Scheer said.

With protesters screaming, booing and insulting him, Scheer also criticized those who aren’t willing to participate in a civil dialogue.

“If we replace cancel culture with critical thinking, we can have heartfelt conversations and actual dialogue instead of emotional reactions. By talking and learning from those mistakes, we can separate those mistakes from actual hate,” he concluded.

After the rally, the protesters justified their actions.

Saima Desai was one of them.

“Scheer wasn’t actually here to have a conversation. He showed up here and we told him exactly what we thought,” she said.

“Andrew Scheer chooses this moment … at 8:30 a.m., knowing nobody will be around except the media … That was a deliberate choice to circumvent those conversations.”

Desai disagreed that removing the statue would have a negative impact on history.

“That history remains in history books and the people who live here. What we’re saying is that we will no longer put racists and people who have attempted genocide on a literal pedestal,” she said.

Last week, protesters in Montreal removed a similar statue of Macdonald.

Activists in Montreal have pulled down a statue of Canada's first PM, Sir John A MacDonald, who was responsible for brutal policies that forcibly removed 150,000+ indigenous children from their homes and caused deaths of many indigenous people. pic.twitter.com/taL3Zf1buv

— Patrick Corrigan (@PatrickCorrigan) August 30, 2020

If the City of Regina doesn’t remove the Macdonald statue in Victoria Park, Desai thinks protesters would emulate those in Montreal.

“If politicians who we know are primarily white (and) are primarily men … if after all of our efforts at democratic participation, at both having conversations with people like Andrew Scheer as well as disrupting events like this, if after all of that, the statue doesn’t come down, then I think it would be totally justified for people to take the matter into their own hands,” she said.