Statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth of Canada were torn down Reuters

Winnipeg, Canada (Reuters)-Protesters overthrew the statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II in Winnipeg, Canada, after the remains of hundreds of children were found in the unmarked graves of the original Aboriginal school. anger.

A group of people chanted “Don’t be proud of genocide” before tearing down the statue of the monarch.

The action took place on Canada’s National Day on Thursday, and traditionally celebrations were held across the country.

However, because of the scandal of indigenous children that allowed Canadians to face their colonial history, many cities cancelled events this year. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that this day will be a “time for reflection.”

Nearly 1,000 unmarked graves were found in former boarding schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, which are mainly operated by the Catholic Church and funded by the government.

For 165 years, as recently as 1996, schools forcibly separated indigenous children from their families, causing them to be malnourished and subjected to physical and sexual abuse. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission called it “cultural genocide” in 2015.

In Winnipeg, when the statue of Queen Victoria fell outside the legislature of Manitoba, the crowd cheered. The protesters, many of them wearing orange clothes, also kicked the collapsed statue and danced around it. The pedestal and statue are painted with red paint handprints.

The nearby statue of Queen Elizabeth was also torn down. She is the current head of state of Canada, and Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901 when Canada was part of the British Empire.

Protests to support indigenous children also took place in Toronto, the financial center of Canada, on Thursday, while the #CancelCana​​daDay parade in the capital Ottawa attracted thousands of victims and survivors of the boarding school system.

Vigils and rallies were held in other parts of the country. Many participants wore orange clothes, which has become a symbol of sports.

In his speech on Canada’s National Day, Trudeau said that the remains of children found in the former school “rightly force us to reflect on our country’s historical failures”. He said that there are still injustices among the indigenous people of Canada and many others.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government condemned any defacement of the Queen’s statue.

“After these tragic discoveries, we are with the Canadian indigenous communities, we pay close attention to these issues, and continue to engage with the Canadian government on indigenous affairs,” he said.