Vancouver B.C.
Gassy Jack's statue was toppled, sprayed red and taken away in February 2022.
So, who was ‘Gassy’ Jack?Capt. Deighton, who was a seaman and riverboat pilot on the Fraser River, was thought to be one of the earliest settlers at the site where Vancouver would develop.
A one-time riverboat captain and saloon keeper, Deighton opened his tavern in 1867 near a grove of maple trees in the spot where the statue was toppled. The Globe Saloon established what would become Vancouver’s first downtown core, eventually named Gastown in his honour. The town soon thrived with the introduction of the Hastings Mill sawmill and a seaport, eventually growing into a hub of trade and commerce. He is considered by many to be the founding father of Vancouver.
As the 31st Women’s Memorial March wound through downtown Vancouver, protesters came up against the six-foot statue of Gassy Jack that stood in the historic Gastown neighbourhood named after him.
Amid the drumming and chorus of cheers, demonstrators tied ropes around the neck of the copper statue and heaved it down from its brick-lined plinth. The statue, brought down where ’Gassy’ Jack Deighton’s Globe Saloon one stood, was then splashed with red paint.
As many critics have pointed out, the late-19th century businessman married a 12-year-old Indigenous girl(his deceased wife's niece) at age 40. She ran away when she was 15 after giving birth to their son. The crowd that gathered at his monument were chanting: “No more colonists. No more pedophiles.”
Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart said toppling the statue impeded reconciliation, adding negotiations to remove it were already underway.
A complicated situation.
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