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The Law Society of B.C. just took down a lobby statue of Matthew Baillie Begbie, B.C.’s first chief justice — as well as phasing out a trophy in the judge’s image and eliminating the word “Begbie” as a security code word for the building.

The City of New Westminster is discussing whether to take down its statue of the judge, and possibly strike his name from a city street.

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And with plenty more Begbie schools, Begbie streets and Begbie plaques across the province, more takedowns may not be far off. Earlier this month, the Tsilhqot’in Nation called for Begbie’s name to be removed “from all public places.”

The reason, according to proponents, is an ugly piece of 1864 history from B.C.’s Chilcotin region: A massacred white road crew, a peace delegation betrayed, and a mass hanging of Tsilhqot’in chiefs.

“It seems horrible to hang 5 men at once,” wrote Begbie, then a judge for the colonial B.C. supreme court, in his trial notes. “Yet the blood of 21 whites calls for retribution.”