Petition launched to remove statue of Pierre Elliott Trudeau

A petition has been launched on change.org to remove a statue of ex-PM Pierre Elliott Trudeau in Vaughan over what they are calling “historical racism”.

“Recently, the remains of 215 Indigenous children were found in a grave near a Residential School in Kamloops, BC,” the petition begins.

Pierre Elliott Trudeau was the Prime Minister of Canada while this school was open, and refused to take action.

Additionally, Pierre Trudeau was reported to have written an anti-Semitic play when he was in University.

It is time to stand up to symbols of racism and hate. The statue of Pierre Elliott Trudeau should be removed from the Vaughan park.”

Last summer, the statue of the former prime minister Pierre was defaced once again with paint in June and in August. Vandalizers wrote the word “Pedo” across the statue’s base. Vaughn Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua’s statement said, “The former prime minister created opportunities for Canadians and newcomers so that we may all live peacefully and free from discrimination.”

Earlier this year, an online petition called for removing Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s name from the Montreal airport. The petition gathered over 20,000 signatures. Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra quickly rejected the idea.

Among the signatories was Paul St-Pierre, the current leader of PQ. The petition stated: “The goal of this odious sabotage strategy was to deliberately undermine the socio-economic status of the Quebec people in order to further undermine the popularity of the independence movement… It’s high time to clear our major international airport of the name of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau…this man is not worthy of such an honor in Quebec.”

Quebec nationalists accuse Trudeau of finding ways to increase unemployment in the province and was planning to ask key investors “to pull out of Quebec” to steer the citizens away from separatism.

As our own Lori Noel noted in the1998 film, Dancing Around the Table, Trudeau equally was no stranger to ridiculing Indigenous beliefs – as he did at the 1984 First Minister’s Conference on Aboriginal Constitutional Matters. In talks of land ownership, he said, “Are you going to pray every morning in public? Going back to the creator doesn’t help very much. So he gave you a title. But did he draw on the land where your mountain stopped, and someone else’s began?”

This isn’t even mentioning the (to put it mildly) anti-Trudeau sentiment in Alberta, directed at both father and son.

Should Trudeau’s statue in Vaughan be removed? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.