During demonstrations on Canada’s National Day, many buildings and monuments were painted red. The protests are directed against the Catholic Church and the former colonial power of Great Britain.
At least ten Catholic churches were attacked in color in Calgary, news channel CBC reported on Thursday (local time). The words “we were children” and “our life is valuable” (“our life matters”) were written on the doors of the church.
Indigenous children’s corpse discovered
The protest action relates to recent graves found in church re-education homes for Indigenous children in Canada, it was said. In the past few weeks, in rapid succession, Indigenous communities reported the discovery of bodies of nearly 1,000 children from Indigenous families near former re-education centers. Most recently, on Wednesday, 182 unmarked graves of alleged indigenous people were found near St. Eugene Mission School near Cranbrook in British Columbia.
re-education center
Between 1830 and 1998, it is estimated that about 150,000 Indigenous children were placed – often forcibly – in reeducation homes in Canada. Many of these 139 houses were run by the church. There the children should be introduced to the “Christian Civilization” on behalf of the state. Often they were not allowed to speak their mother tongue; Many of them were abused or abused.
In a face-to-face meeting, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently called on Pope Francis to apologize to indigenous peoples. On June 29, the Bishops’ Conference of Canada announced that a group of Indigenous Canadian representatives would meet Pope Francis at the Vatican from December 17 to 20. It is about promoting “dialogue and healing”, it said.
Great Britain’s responsibility
According to the CBC, statues of British queens Victoria (1819–1901) and Elizabeth II were overturned during a protest march in Winnipeg. Both statues were located in the park in front of the Manitoba Territory’s provincial parliament, where the protest march began in the afternoon. According to media reports, protesters pulled Victoria’s statue from its base and painted it red. A very small statue of Queen Elizabeth II was also overturned.
The British monarch is primarily the head of state of Canada. Canada was a British colony until 1931, and the state formally gained independence from London in 1982. So in addition to the Catholic Church, Great Britain is also being criticized as a former colonial power. According to the CBC, a Victoria statue was stained last year during anti-racism protests.
