Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II statues toppled in Canada

[Economy 52,842]

50 minutes ago, Medusa said:

The queen is a lovely Lady though, watching the crown & knowing from history, she has been through a lot and invested her life into it, and none of this is her doing, the ancestors of the monarchy really were brutal. Coming from the UK and being raised to obviously have a lot of love and respect for our royals, it’s a hard pill to swallow.

Thats the thing tho. The hatred is justified but they are basically targeting 1 individual who wasnt responsible for any of this with an action like this

 

Tbh i think energy would be better spent on investigations on individuals who may still be alive who were a part of these atrocities directly because there probably are. It was not that many decades ago that some of these schools were still running and there may be criminals still alive. Although its possible in the later decades the abuse was less severe and most if not all the graves were from longer ago in which case maybe none are alive anymore but we wont know for sure till we investigate

 

Even if no deaths occured in later decades, if there was still abuse then thats still something worth investigating into anyone who may have been a part of it.

 

Like Queen Elizabeth ends up being an extremely indirect link. She wasnt born when Britain colonized North America, and by the time she was born the monarchs no longer controlled the country either so even if more bad actions were taken then on Britains end it wouldnt be her doing either...

 

Also Canada already had its own autonomy by the time of her birth and Canada was already therefore responsible for its own actions. Britain may have settled what is now Canada but the moment Canada became its own Nation it had the power to do things differently. The choice not to after that therefore is blame that falls on Canada not the Queen of England

 

Theres a lot to investigate further... there may be individuals still alive to answer to some of this... im not sure why go after Queen Elizabeth tho

 

Yes shes a monarch of a country that was responsible for starting the trend of those atrocoties here. But i dont personally believe in blaming people for the actions of their ancestors

[Nemo 4,410]

18 minutes ago, Economy said:

Thats the thing tho. The hatred is justified but they are basically targeting 1 individual who wasnt responsible for any of this with an action like this

Actually, they targeted a statue. Not a person.

[Economy 52,842]

1 minute ago, Nemo said:

Actually, they targeted a statue. Not a person.

Of the person

 

The statue is of Queen Elizabeth specirically not the British Empire and everything they did before she was born

[PunkTheFunk 125,703]

I have nothing against the Queen as a person, but I 100% support the sentiment behind bringing her statue down. The British monarchy has the blood of so many people on their hands, including my ancestors.

[Economy 52,842]

2 minutes ago, PunkTheFunk said:

I have nothing against the Queen as a person, but I 100% support the sentiment behind bringing her statue down. The British monarchy has the blood of so many people on their hands, including my ancestors.

Honestly thats a fair view... but if we are gonna view things like this as a society from now on then no one important should get a statue in the first place

 

U can probably find something despicable in any major powerful organization (governemnt, religious, corporate etc) that occured at some point in time... and if anyone affiliated with such an entity has to take the fall, then hardly anyone important will ever truly be clean enough to never have their statues taken down if every piece of corruption that ever existed was brought to light

 

Personally i dont believe any 1 individual should be placed in a such a pedestal above others anyway so im not a lover of statues existing at all for anyone in the first place, especially for ppl who are important only by birth and didnt even work towards it

 

However i also dont like see someone being blamed for something they didnt do either. The statue was for a specific individual so to some extent or another its like laying blame on Queen Elizabeth

 

No that im saying they should do this because the individuals alive running them today arent the ones who did this but the Federal Government of Canada was more responsible than Queen Elizabeth for what took place as was the catholic church. Vandalism to parliament or another Federal building or a catholic church makes a lot more sense cuz they are more directly responsible

[TimisaMonster 31,073]

Down with this archaic form of government...leave princes and princesses in Disneyland...

[Economy 52,842]

7 minutes ago, TimisaMonster said:

Down with this archaic form of government...leave princes and princesses in Disneyland...

They are literally just costing money now. They dont really do anything

[Gagaloo911 12,959]

We love to see it! 

Down with the monarchy! 

[Fuffy 1,049]

12 hours ago, Serial Chiller said:

Why are you indignant then if the statues of some powerless figureheads are taken down? Just saying. 

They're dismantling the symbols of imperialism and colonialism. Of course this is not by itself substantive action but symbols are powerful. 

 

It's because they carry positive symbolism for many other Canadians. For some of my family here, it's part of our own history. Even for the Asian Indian side of my family, the QEII statue is a sign of how things have positively progressed from the Raj era. You'll be surprised how new immigrants are so positive about "Canada Day" or the Royal family. 

I could understand the motive for Victoria, but Elizabeth is our monarch and her positive work in the world deserves more respect. Even at the start of her reign, she didn't carve up maps or force assimilation schools. The Royal Family is no longer colonialist, you only have to see their charity work for climate changes and global education.

Similarly, it was the Canadian government in charge of these schools. Even Justin Trudeau's father played a bigger role in allowing these schools to exist, yet he still has an airport named after him?

[Hades 27,980]

We won't miss them. Time to expose the monstrosities. 

[Fuffy 1,049]

9 hours ago, TimisaMonster said:

Down with this archaic form of government...leave princes and princesses in Disneyland...

Actually a constitutional monarchy is less archaic than most forms of republic. 

You only have to look at Trump, Xi Jinping and Putin to know why they can be messy. 

A constitutional monarchy is one of the most stable governments for peace because the constitutional balance between the monarch and government stops either from going extreme or be undemocratic. Japan, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden all have one.

[Serial Chiller 8,044]

10 hours ago, Gogo Yubari said:

 

A constitutional monarchy is one of the most stable governments for peace because the constitutional balance between the monarch and government stops either from going extreme or be undemocratic. Japan, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden all have one.

It's funny because literally almost every example you mentioned took part in massive colonization, fascism, imperialism and committed crimes against humanity the legacy of which can be felt in every third world country today.  

But sure, they are the "positive symbols" of what works. 

[Fuffy 1,049]

13 hours ago, Serial Chiller said:

It's funny because literally almost every example you mentioned took part in massive colonization, fascism, imperialism and committed crimes against humanity the legacy of which can be felt in every third world country today.  

But sure, they are the "positive symbols" of what works. 

You believe Queen Elizabeth II herself was a fascist and directly colonized and committed crimes against humanity? 

The US government has been much more imperialist in the last century, such as supporting fascism in central American republics, yet we are not trying to knock down The White House or Capitol Hill? 

Please do understand that when you start destroying other people's personal history, it's brings instability which causes people like Trump to gain power. No one benefits from that.

It's about seeking balance. I think the Canadian government should embrace its indigenous culture in the present and give them opportunities to thrive and share the culture with others.

Destroying a personal symbol from a shared past doesn't achieve that, even though it may look like symbolic justice. I'd rather see new statues or monuments of indigenous leaders, particularly the Huron peoples in my area.