A statue of one of the architects of the Canadian residential schools was debunked Sunday in Toronto following a demonstration in tribute to the 215 children whose remains were recently discovered on the site of a former residential school in British Columbia.

The statue of Egerton Ryerson, located on the campus of the university that bears his name, in downtown Toronto, was unbolted in the early evening Sunday after the demonstration, told AFP a witness who requested anonymity.

The sculpture, overturned with a rope attached to a car, lay covered in graffiti and sprayed with red paint on Sunday evening.

BREAKING: Left-wing activists tear down statue of Protestant minister and Canadian educator Egerton Ryerson at Ryerson University in Toronto pic.twitter.com/YNhMoOX5qM

- AntifaBook.com (@JackPosobiec) June 7, 2021

"A symbol of healing"

“It's too much, it's really too much.

It was high time that this statue fell.

For my people and the First Nations people, it is a symbol of healing, ”Craig St. Denis, a 36-year-old Métis whose grandfather was interned in one of these residential schools, told AFP.

Egerton Ryerson was one of the architects of the residential school system in the 19th century whose tragic history resurfaced in late May after the community of Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc announced the discovery of 215 child remains in near Kamloops Indian Residential School in Western Canada.

In recent days, there have been calls to change the name of the university and remove the statue.

"Cultural genocide"

Managed by the Catholic Church on behalf of the Canadian government, these residential schools were designed to remove Indigenous children from their communities and assimilate them into the mainstream culture.

Some 150,000 Native American, Métis and Inuit children were forcibly conscripted into 139 such residential schools across the country, where they were cut off from their families, language and culture.

In 2015, a national commission of inquiry called this system “cultural genocide”.

Pope Francis expressed his “pain” on Sunday regarding the discovery of the remains of the children, without going so far as to apologize despite multiple calls to this effect for several days.

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