Quiet removal of Regina's John A. Macdonald statue motivated by security concerns: documents

The contentious future of a statue of Sir. John A. Macdonald that used to stand in Regina's Victoria Park was decided by a 7-4 city council vote earlier this year.

Just two weeks later, in the early hours of a snow-covered April morning, the statue was removed quickly and quietly.

The removalcame with little fanfare and no communicationuntil after the job was done.

It was all part of a plan by City of Regina staff members, according to acache of internal emails released under Saskatchewan's freedom of information legislation.The documents were first reported on by the Regina Leader-Post.

Security, protestors and in the dead of night

Many of the emailswere completely redacted, but the documents still provide some insight into the plan created by city staff.

The secretive nature ofthe statue's removal was the result of security concerns, according to email exchanges between Mark Sylvestre, a co-ordinator for cultural development with the city, and Todd Gall of the Regina Police Service.

The emailsare dated March 31, the day councillors approved the removal of the statue.

Sylvestre wrote that staff wantedto remove the Macdonald statue within a month and wanted guidance from police on whetherofficers should be there to monitor the situation, as well as what time police thought would be best to conduct the operation.

"[The] City of Victoria did it in the middle of the night with Police presence I think," Sylvestre wrote.

Gall concurred with an assessmentthat at least two officers would act as security, with the citypaying for the special duty.

In the days ahead of the statue's removal, internalemails paint apicture of a city bureaucracy hard at work creating a communication strategy around its plan.

Staff were also working to preparefor thelaunch ofBe Heard Regina, an online platform that would facilitate conversations on the legacy of Canada's first Prime Minister.

LISTEN| Regina Mayor Sandra Masters spoke with The Morning Edition's Stefani Langenegger in April about the decision to put the statue in storage

Staff monitored social media posts and collectednews articles as they attempted to gauge public reaction to the impending removal of the statue.

At least one tweet from Senator Denise Batters was flagged by staffas a trending topic.

The tweet,which tagged the City of Regina, was a letter asking the city to keep the statue and "not erase our history."

The removal

The actualplan for removing the statuewas ready and completedby April 9, according to an emailfrom Mark Sylvestre.

Wilco, a landscaping company, wascontracted to remove the statue for fee of around $2,000.

Workers would begin the removalon April 13 at 6:30 a.m. CST, with the process predicted to take somewhere between one-and-a-half to two hours.

City councillorsand the mayor's officewere notified by email about the city's plan less than 24 hours ahead of the statue's removal.

"Administration has confirmed with Elder/Knowledge Keeper Larry Oakes that no ceremony will be required for the removal of the statue," the email distributed to elected officials reads.

In total, the cost for the statue's removal came to $3,890:$2,000 to Wilco, $1,050 for "facilities site repair" and $840 for the two Regina police officers assigned to monitor the scene.

The plan worked as intended. There were no major disruptions to the statue's removal.

A public art collection curator was on site to make sure the statue was handled properly.

The statuewas then moved tothe Chrysler Building in the City of Regina's Parks Yard.

Itwill remain in storage until until consultations are complete and a new location is determined. The statue will be reinstalled with additional context.

A report by city administrators found that the statue overlooks the negative impacts Macdonald's policies and initiatives have had on Indigenous peoples.

"These policies include use of day schools and residential schools as tools of assimilation, relocation of Indigenous Peoples away from traditional hunting and fishing areas to make room for European settlement, and an inadequate and often corrupt system for delivering rations to reserves," the report said.