Face of Nation : New Westminster has removed a controversial statue of Justice Matthew Begbie, B.C.’s first chief justice who sentenced six Indigenous leaders to death in 1864.
The statue, which was located outside the provincial courthouse on Carnarvon Street in Begbie Square, was taken down Saturday. City council voted in May to remove the statue, calling it a symbol of the colonial era and a grave injustice.
The motion was put forward by city councillors Nadine Nakagawa and Chuck Puchmayr, who pointed out the province of B.C. has apologized for the hangings and exonerated the chiefs.
The motion states that the execution of the six Tsilhqot’in Chiefs was used as a threat to all Indigenous people attempting to defend their land.
The city now plans to engage in a conversation with the Tsilhqot’in Nation about the history and legacy of Judge Begbie and the impact his decisions had on generations of their people.
The move follows a similar one three years ago by the Law Society of B.C., which also removed its statue of Begbie.
The society said the statue served as a painful reminder to Indigenous people of the province’s colonial past and Begbie’s role in hanging the chiefs, who were trying to defend their land in a clash with non-natives that was known as the Chilcotin War.
In 2014, the province apologized for hanging the chiefs, and former B.C. premier Christy Clark, during a ceremony in Quesnel, declared them fully exonerated of any crime or wrongdoing.
Last year, the federal government also apologized and exonerated the chiefs. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered the apology in the House of Commons, and acknowledged they were wrongfully killed for defending their land.
The incident stems from a deadly confrontation with a white road-building crew that had entered Tsilhqot’in territory without permission in 1864.
After the workers were killed, five chiefs attended what they were led to believe would be peace talks at the invitation of government representatives. Instead, they were arrested, tried and hanged, and a sixth chief was executed the following year in New Westminster.
Begbie presided over the trial in Quesnel that resulted in the wrongful hanging of Chief Lhats’as, Chief Biyil, Chief Tilaghed, Chief Taqed, and Chief Chayses of the Tsilhqot’in Nation. A year later, Chief Ahan was also wrongfully hanged in New Westminster.
Begbie was judge of the Supreme Court for the Colony of British Columbia in 1858 until 1871, and the first chief justice of the Supreme Court of the new Province of B.C. It wasn’t until after his death that he was dubbed as B.C.’s “Hanging Judge.”
