A working group to advise on the future of the controversial “Holding Court” statue of Sir John A. Macdonald located in downtown Picton has been formed.
The Prince Edward County Heritage Advisory Committee (PEHAC) decided on the working group’s terms of reference in a two and half hour meeting Thursday morning.
After council approves the committee’s recommendation public input will immediately be sought on the issue.
Canada’s first Prime Minister has been increasingly criticized for his mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples and for the creation of the discredited residential school system and the statue has been vandalized twice in the past couple of days.
After council approves the committee’s terms of reference public and expert input will immediately be sought into the issue.
The statue was donated and installed in 2015 after efforts made by The Macdonald Project of Prince Edward County, a volunteer group.
At Thursday’s PEHAC meeting several members of the public spoke on the composition of the working group with many of them suggesting that a member of The Macdonald Project should not be included on the working group looking at the future of the statue.
Those against the group’s inclusion on the working group cited its obvious bias in favour of Sir John A. Macdonald.
However, in the end, PEHAC members voted to keep a representative from The Macdonald Project on the working group believing it would
be unfair to not include its point of view in the interests of soliciting as much information as possible.
One member of the public, Shannon Helm, who has two Indigenous daughters and a relative who never returned from a residential school told the committee the statue should be removed pending a final decision on the issue by council. She had already collected over 700 signatures on a petition asking that it be taken down.
That request was not dealt with by the committee.
Another woman told the committee that Macdonald was an “architect of genocide”.
Making up the working group, pending council’s approval, will be Brendan O’Connor, Ken Dewar, and councillor John Hirsch.
There will be also be representation from the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, one public member to be determined by PEHAC, a representative from The Macdonald Project of Prince Edward County, and one Museum Advisory Committee member.
Others could be added to the working group up to a maximum of ten.
Mayor Steve Ferguson said it was an appropriate time to begin a serious discussion on what he called “a very important issue”.
The working group is to use the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s ten principles and other relevant documents to guide its recommendations.
A report is expected to come to council by September 1.
