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Artist: It's a very shocking statue to me. In today's world, she's a criminal against humanity. She's known to be one of the most harsh and cruel rulers of Europe. She created, with her husband, the Spanish Inquisition, which was a very violent way of oppressing everyone who disagreed with the monarchs and the Church. She is known to have killed and expelled all the Jews of Spain in a very very very violent manner, and is also the one who sponsored Christopher Columbus to do his famous discoveries.After that, everything that was done by Christopher Columbus was done in her name. She had all the power and drove everything she did through her vision of her faith and was not a kind ruler. She has a violent history and a ton of blood on her hands and I find it extremely shocking in North America that in we would honor such a woman, especially given the values we're trying to promote as Canadians. When we see Justin Trudeau get his relationship with First Nations to better grounds, you have the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we have all these things that we're trying to do, understanding there's a very painful past, and then at the same time we have a bust of this bitch? Makes no sense to me.
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It was offered in 1958 by the Embassy of Spain to the City of Montreal. But honestly, thank you but no thank you Spain, this is not what we want to keep from you. It's like if history went a different way and Germany went to Poland and offered them a bust of Hitler.Most people don't know who she is. People know Christopher Columbus a little bit but she's the one who sent [him], who paid for this whole thing. And she created the Spanish Inquisition.That's why I did something big, because I wanted the attention to be, like, "Someone is really angry."So what you do to the statue, exactly?
We added a bloody crown, covered it with blood. The plaque is a list of what I blame her for.Because history is what it is, we can't change it, it is what it is, and it's not about discussing that.But why do this, instead of say, talking about it?
Because nobody wants to hear this, they don't want to hear about those history things—it bothers them. Only now are people starting to understand that Christopher Columbus was not just a discoverer and adventurer, there was more than that and he had a huge responsibility when it comes to how [Indigenous peoples] were treated.
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Because I wanted to bring attention and honestly, I feel it's the least I could do because I feel so aggressed every time I see her. It was my anger speaking.What do you hope people feel when they see this?
I hope they feel disgust. I want them to be like, why is this lady here, why is it that we have this statue here, it makes no sense, it's crazy.Do you think the city should take it down?
I personally think so, but at least I want people to be outraged by it.Follow Brigitte Noël on Twitter.