The encasement surrounding a statue of Canada's first prime minister outside of the Ontario legislature is finally set to be removed. The decision was announced Tuesday following a vote earlier this month from the province's Board of Internal Economy.

First erected in 1894, the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald was boarded up during the summer of 2020 after repeated vandalism from far-left activists.

A plywood sign was placed outside of the monument, which read:

The Legislative Assembly of Ontario is a place for debate and deliberation on issues that matter in our province. Though we cannot change the history we have inherited, we can shape the history we wish to leave behind. The speaker of the Legislative Assembly is considering how the depictions of those histories in the monuments and statuary on the Assembly’s grounds can respect all of our diverse cultures and peoples. 

Support to remove the barricade has been growing in the province, most evident when Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie said it was “crazy” that Premier Doug Ford's government had the statue blocked for nearly five years.

“We have to confront our history and not hide from it,” Crombie said. “Now look, our past isn’t perfect. But we have to confront it – not put a box around it. It looks weak, and we are not weak.”

The Toronto Sun reports Premier Ford was “pleased to see this vote finally happen.”

Statues honouring Canada's first prime minister and other historic figures were frequent targets for violent activists during the summer of 2020.

Throughout the country, monuments were torn down or vandalized in backlash to the death of George Floyd, a black American, while in police custody. Rebel News reporter David Menzies was assaulted at once such protest in Kingston.

Derek Chauvin, the officer who infamously kneeled on Floyd, was convicted of murder in the incident that sparked violent protests across the West, including Canada.

Macdonald and others involved in Canada's residential school system came under further scrutiny following claims of mass graves at a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia during the summer of 2021. No evidence has ever emerged to back that claim.

Premier Ford's government anticipates the statue will be restored this summer.

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