VANCOUVER—New Westminster city councillors have voted to remove the statue of Matthew Begbie, B.C.’s first chief justice, because of his role in an infamous part of the province’s colonial history.

The decision came after two years of dialogue on how the city can move forward on truth and reconciliation with Indigenous people, said Nadine Nakagawa, a city councillor who was involved in that process and introduced the May 6 motion.

The process involved meeting with members of the Tsilhqot’in Nation in B.C.’s Interior.

“We find Begbie statues offensive,” said Russell Myers Ross, chief of the Yunesit’in, one of the six communities that make up the Tsilhqot’in Nation.

In 1864-65, the Tsilhqot’in Nation were engaged in what they considered to be a war with white colonists who were unlawfully intruding on their territory; the Tsilquot’in also feared the colonists were spreading smallpox — a disease that had already decimated Indigenous populations in the province.

As chief justice at the time, Begbie played a role in the decision to hang five Tsilhqot’in chiefs in Quesnel for the killing of 21 people, including nine road-builders. A sixth chief was hung a year later near New Westminster.

The trial and death sentences were a political statement made by the colonial government to show other nations the consequences of resisting, Ross said. “It marks the point where the British took over our land.”

In 2014, the provincial governments formally apologized for the hangings, while the federal government apologized in 2018.

Nakagawa said she heard from constituents who supported the move to remove the statue, while others were concerned the city would be “erasing history.”

She said it was particularly problematic that the statue is currently positioned in front of the courthouse: “We know that Indigenous people are over-represented in the criminal justice system, and that’s a direct legacy of colonialism.”

Rather than the think of removing the statue as erasing history, Nakagawa and Myers say their goal is to find new ways to tell the full history of British Columbia.

“For the Tsilhqot’in … we want to share we were defending ourselves from smallpox and genocide,” Myers said.

“We want to remember our history and not erase it. It’s a creative process to look back and understand other people’s histories.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

In 2018, Victoria city council voted to remove a statue of Canada’s first Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald because of his role in the creation of residential schools.

Correction - May 9: This story has been edited to correct the spelling of Tsilhqot’in.

Read more about: