Several arrests were made after at least three Toronto statues were vandalized Saturday morning as Black Lives Matter Toronto protesters took to the streets demanding the government defund police.
The BLM protest began at Ryerson University where people were seen defacing the statue of Egerton Ryerson before heading to Queen’s Park where the statues of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first Prime Minister, and King Edward VII were also vandalized.
Toronto Police tweeted at 9:48 am that there were 30 to 40 people at Bond and Gould Sts. and that “demonstrators are damaging statue, throwing paint at a statue.”
Minutes later, police tweeted the protest had moved to Queen’s Park Cr. W. and Wellesley St. W. with more “ demonstrators damaging statues, spray painting and throwing buckets of paint on property,” and that officers were on the scene “to ensure the safety of everyone.”
About an hour later, police tweeted “several people” had been arrested as officers continued “to assist the crowd to carry out a peaceful protest.”
“Please be safe, respect each other and protest peacefully,” police tweeted.
Ryerson and Macdonald’s statues were targeted in particular because of their involvement in the creation of Canada’s residential school system for Indigenous children.
Messages written on signs left at the statues read: “Tear down monuments that represent slavery, colonialism and violence.”
Protesters later made their way to 52 Division — a Toronto Police station on Dundas St. W. just west of University Ave. — where they demanded cops release three protesters taken into custody during Saturday’s demonstration.
On their website, BLM Toronto made the call to defund, demilitarize, disarm and dismantle the police, saying, among other things, “the Toronto Police Services (TPS) budget is over $1.1 billion dollars, which is more than public funding allotted to libraries, housing, shelters combined. We believe that Black communities, and all communities, deserve better.”
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