Charges Dropped for Regent Park Resident Involved In Toppling Sir John A. Macdonald Statue

By -


Regent Park resident, Miguel Avila-Velarde, who was arrested following his participation in the removal and destruction of the Sir John A. Macdonald statue from Gore Park in Hamilton, has had his charges dropped.

In August of 2021, Miguel Avila-Velarde was one of approximately 200 demonstrators who had gathered in Hamilton’s Gore Park to protest the Hamilton City council’s decision not to remove the statue of Sir  John A. Macdonald. Protestors pulled the statue down using ropes tied to the statues neck. The statue was further vandalized by a grinder, hammer, red paint and finally was beheaded.
 
John A. Macdonald, was Canada’s inaugural Prime Minister, and considered by many to be a key architect in the creation of the residential school system. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2007), has since declared that residential schools were a form of “cultural genocide” against First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.

Following the release of his photo and a warrant for his arrest, Miguel Avila-Velarde surrendered to Toronto police, and was charged with mischief exceeding $5,000.
 
Although Avila-Velarde was one of four people suspected in the incident, which the Hamilton Police were investigating originally as criminal mischief, he was the only one charged.

In the final episode of the case against Miguel Avila-Velarde, Charles Spettigue a Hamilton defense lawyer (who represented Miguel), confirmed that the Crown has determined that “it wasn’t in the public interest to proceed” with the case against his client.

By Dimitrije Martinovic


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Regent Park Portrayed in Film and Television

By -
Image
Toronto has a rich history of being a go-to shooting location for many television and film production companies. Some notable films shot here over the years include Good Will Hunting (1997), Billy Madison (1998), American Psycho (2000), and X-Men (2000). Regent Park has also had its share of showcases in film. This article aims to review the general content of movie dramas and televisions shows shot in Regent and explore their relationship to the community. Clement Virgo is a director, producer, and writer from Montego Bay, Jamaica. He was born in 1966 and moved to the Regent Park area in Toronto in 1977. During this time Regent Park was generally populated by low-income families and as a hot spot for drugs. Virgo is most recently known for his roles in Greenleaf (2016-2018), The Book of Negroes (2015), and The Wire (2002) as Director and/or Producer. His first feature-length film, however, was Rude (1995), which was filmed almost entirely in the old Regent Park. “The film told
Read more

Meet Your Neighbourhood Police Officers – PC Mircea Biga and PC Farzad Ghotbi

By -
Image
Community-based policing is a proactive law enforcement strategy that focuses on building ties and working closely with a community’s members to create partnerships and plans for preventing and reducing crime. While community policing will look differently depending on the community it serves, a central feature is that the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis. Currently there are 17 community-based police programs in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), but what most people don’t know is that Toronto’s community policing started in Regent Park in May of 2017. We know this because the original officers involved in setting up the Regent Park community policing program continue to work here today. The officers are PC Mircea Biga, PC Farzad Ghotbi, and PC Edward Parks; the newest officer assigned to the Regent Park community is PC Nigel Thomas (who is replacing PC Melissa Huntley while she is on maternity leave). Symptomatic of the increasing diversity of
Read more

What Social Inclusion Means to Me

By -
I had moved into Regent Park only a few days before I saw the pink, fuchsia, strawberry, indigo, yellow, green, neck streamers and sparkling robes worn by children, parents, aunts, uncles, and elders as they marched passed my kitchen door. Soon, the nearby Athletic Grounds was blazing with colour. Although it was the first time I heard them, the intonations on the microphone were recognizable, even to me, as prayers. It was Eid, the concluding celebration after Ramadan. It was a beautiful sight. I am a White Jewish senior and I hunted for a stairless condo for years before I chose to live in Regent Park and then only because a relative did business with the new seniors’ building there. “Regent Park?” a friend exclaimed. “You are going to have ethnic problems.”  “Not I.  I come from a long line of fiery leftie activists.” I replied. Stage four and five of revitalizing this post-war subsidized development into a multi-income community was just beginning and I jumped in w
Read more