Workers were powerwashing red paint off the statue of Queen Victoria at the B.C. Legislature around 4 p.m. Friday after the statue had been splattered with red paint by old growth forest proponents earlier in the day.
A demonstration against logging old growth forests took place outside the legislature on Friday. Several speakers spoke on the legislature’s steps before a live-streamed video posted to Facebook showed the crowd move to the statue’s area.
An Instagram user who goes by Sii-am Hamilton said the demonstrators tossed the paint on the statue.
“Today Indigenous youth stood up against old growth logging, and in an act of solidarity against the authority derive from the queen, covered her in blood red paint!” said Hamilton in a Friday Instagram post. “NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE! Resource extraction is intrinsically linked with our fight for sovereignty and land protection.”
In a Friday release, Victoria police said they’re looking for witnesses and others with information after they said the statue was vandalised around 2:30 p.m. VicPD said as the protest was going on outside the legislature, a group of people moved to the Queen Victoria statue and vandalized it with red paint.
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| A worker powerwashes the Queen Victoria statue at the B.C. legislature after it was splattered with red paint Friday. (Jake Romphf/ News Staff) |
Police said the damage to the statue is being assessed.
Anyone with information can contact VicPD at 250-995-7654, ext. 1, or report anonymously to Greater Victoria Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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