Statue of women’s rights activist Emily Murphy vanishes from Edmonton park named after her

The statue of women's rights advocate Emily Murphy has been stolen from an Edmonton park. CTV News Edmonton's Connor Hogg has the story.

A statue depicting one of Canada’s most famed women’s rights activists, Emily Murphy, has vanished from its Edmonton home.

The shoes are all that’s left of the statue in Emily Murphy Park.

The monument stood at the south side of Groat Road at the entrance to the park that bears her name.

• Sign up for breaking news alerts from CTV News Edmonton, right at your fingertips

The statue was chopped off at the ankles. The plaques on the pedestal were also removed.

Murphy was a women’s rights activist who helped women gain personhood and was part of the so-called Famous Five.

The statue has been vandalized in the past.

Her legacy has been criticized for her role in the sexual sterilization act and for racist comments, particularly attacking people from China.

The Edmonton Police Service confirms it is investigating the disappearance of the statue.

The Edmonton Arts Council (EAC), the organization responsible for public art in the city, says it was notified on Tuesday that the statue was gone.

“It would have to be a planned effort to do this. From what we can tell, it looks like some of the use of power tools. Not sure how much the statue actually weighs, but I would assume they would have just backed the truck up to it,” David Turnbull of EAC told CTV News Edmonton on Thursday.

“(You) feel disheartened when things like this do happen, whether it’s theft or whether it’s vandalism. Public art. We’ve got close to 300 pieces of public art within the collection right now, scattered throughout the city, and the importance of this collection is that it’s there for the citizens, it’s free.”

Turnbull says the bronze statue was donated to the city in 1992 by former Mayor William Hawrelak’s wife.

“She is an important figure in Canadian history,” Turnbull said of Murphy. “She was pivotal with getting the right for women to vote, but she also had a bit of a storied past as well.”

He says EAC hopes to get the statue back so they can restore it.

“Almost anything can be repaired and restored. It’s just a question of the amount of effort and the resources that it takes in order to get it back to its original condition.”

“In the past, what we’ve done to restore bronzes is have them sent off to a foundry. They get welded back up, they get repatina, and then can be reinstalled.”

“The last thing that I’d like to see is for it to be melted down for scrap.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg