Vandals strike again: Downtown statue of Queen Victoria doused in green paint

An effigy of 19th Century monarch Queen Victoria - located on Sherbrooke St., outside McGill University - was doused in green paint by unknown perpetrators sometime Sunday morning. (Photo courtesy CJAD 800)

For the second time this week, vandals have doused a downtown statue in paint.

This time, it was an effigy of 19th Century monarch Queen Victoria - located on Sherbrooke St., outside McGill University - that was doused in green paint by unknown perpetrators.

Earlier this week, the John A. MacDonald statue at Place du Canada was baptised by red paint - the fifth time the statue has been targeted in the last year.

In 2018, two statues of Queen Victoria were vandalized: one at McGill, and the other in Victoria Square.

At the time, an anti-colonial group came forward to claim responsiblity for the act - the same group claiming responsibility for the most recent paint splattering.

In a statement, the Brigade de solidarite anticoloniale Delhi-Dublin said the event was linked to an anti-racism march being held downtown Sunday.

"The presence of Queen Victoria statues in Montreal is an insult to the struggles of self-determination and resistance of oppressed peoples around the world, including the Indigenous nations of North America," the statement reads.

The statues, they say, "do not particularly deserve any public space in Quebec, where Quebecers were denigrated and marginalized by British racists acting in the name of the putrid monarchy represented by Queen Victoria."