George Vancouver statue vandalized in city of Vancouver

Security officials noticed the desecration early Thursday morning. Paint had been splashed on both sides of the statue. Cleaning crews have begun washing the paint off.

Much of the British Columbia coastline was charted by George Vancouver, who was a British explorer in the 18th century, after which both the city and island have seen been named.

There is a growing sentiment to take down statues of historical figures across North America. These are mostly statues and memorials to those who, while making great contributions to their nations, also held discriminatory views.

A petition to take down a statue of Sir John A. MacDonald in Montreal's Place du Canada Park has garnered over 9,000 signatures. The organizers of the petition are calling on Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante to remove the monument which they are calling a symbol of Canada's "racist, colonial, white, nationalist" history.

Two statues of the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus were forcibly taken down and desecrated this week, one in Richmond, Virginia and the other in Boston, Massachusetts as a response to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

There have also been statues to abolitionists and monuments to fallen African-American soldiers that have been vandalized. In London, statues to Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln were defaced as well.