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A statue of Sir John A. Macdonald that was removed from in front of Victoria’s city hall will be relocated to another public place in the city, according to Mayor Lisa Helps.

City council voted earlier this month to remove the monument to Canada’s first prime minister as part of the city’s reconciliation process with First Nations.

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Helps, who called Macdonald a “key architect of the Indian residential school system,” said the statue served as a painful reminder of colonial violence for Indigenous people entering city hall.

But in a op-ed that appears in the Aug. 29 Victoria Times Colonist, Helps apologizes to residents who felt excluded from the process that led to the decision, which she still believes was the correct one.

“I didn’t recognize the great desire of Victoria residents to participate in reconciliation actions. The process going forward will enable this,” Helps writes. “Reconciliation means following Indigenous leadership. It means listening carefully to how symbols and monuments that might be meaningful to many can create barriers for others. And it also means being in dialogue, and creating opportunities for true learning and conversation among Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. But it is complex, and so we will make mistakes as we navigate and try to walk this road together.”