'Absolutely disgusting': Son of fallen RCMP officer angered by vandalized monument
Ricky Strongquill says his dad was a proud Indigenous officer whose goal was to protect everyone
The son of slain RCMP officer Const. Dennis Strongquill says he is outraged and hurt by the vandalism to a Winnipeg statue honouring fallen officers.
The spray-painted words "f--k RCMP" were scrawled on Wednesday across a monument outside the RCMP "D" Division headquarters on Portage Avenue.
The monument, dedicated to police officers killed in the line of duty, includes the statue of a sombre-looking Mountie whose mouth and chest were also coated in red paint.
"Absolutely disgusting that anybody would want to do that for any protest, really," said Ricky Strongquill, whose dad, Dennis, was killed while on duty on Dec. 21, 2001, in Russell, Man.
The Portage Avenue statue was put up not long after that.
"That statue, you know, it means a lot to the families of fallen police officers, and one of those police officers happens to be an Aboriginal police officer and has an Aboriginal family. So it's absolutely disgraceful," Strongquill said.
On the RCMP headquarters building itself were the red words "shut down KKKanada." Meanwhile, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and Liberal MP Dan Vandal's Winnipeg office were also hit by the graffiti, with phrases such as "stolen land" and "land back."
The graffiti follows weeks of protest in communities across Canada, where people have blocked transportation routes in solidarity with Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs who oppose a $6-billion natural gas pipeline project in northern B.C.
Things came to a head on Monday when police arrested 10 people at a rail blockade near Belleville, Ont., by Mohawks of Tyendinaga.
The messages spray-painted in Winnipeg appear to share sentiments expressed at protests across the country, but Winnipeg police say it's too early to make any conclusions about who is responsible.
Strongquill says his dad was a proud Indigneous officer whose objective was to protect everyone.
For the people responsible for vandalizing the monument, Strongquill has a message.
"I would tell them to grow up. Really think about what you're doing before you actually do it, because you probably don't even know what you're doing," he said.