Vancouver's Gassy Jack statue toppled, covered in red paint during Women's Memorial March

A well-known Vancouver statue was toppled over and defaced by some participants of the 31st annual Women's Memorial March on Monday.

In a video posted to social media, hundreds of people can be seen cheering as the Gassy Jack statue on Water Street was torn down.

Some were warned to move back as the statue narrowly missed bystanders as it came crashing down to the ground.

The statue was also covered in red paint.

Vancouver police said the incident happened shortly after 1 p.m. as participants of the march made their way past the Gastown landmark.

"Demonstrators tied ropes around the statue, then pulled it to the pavement," said Sgt. Steve Addison in a news release.

Police added that nobody was injured, no arrests have been made and an investigation is underway.

The Gassy Jack statue, which depicts Jack Deighton – who opened a bar in the neighbourhood in the late 1800s – has been a source of controversy in recent years.

A petition was previously launched in 2020 calling for the statue to be removed as Deighton was "a terrible symbol of Vancouver, upholding and honouring violence towards and oppression of Indigenous people."

According to the petition, Deighton "took a 12-year-old Squamish girl to be his wife at the age of 40, impregnating her with his child at her young age."

Organizers of the petition said at the time that removing the statue "is not about erasing history, but about reconciliation."

Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart took to Twitter to express his thoughts on Monday's demonstration, calling it "dangerous."

"The City of Vancouver has been in consultations with Squamish Nation on the right way to remove the Gassy Jack statue and recognize the truth of John Deighton's harmful legacy," it reads.

Stewart goes on to say Monday's actions were "dangerous and undermines ongoing work with Squamish to guide steps to reconciliation."

The march takes place in the city's Downtown Eastside on Valentine's Day each year, to honour the lives of missing and murdered women.

Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year's march was also livestreamed.

Wendy Nahanee, a member of the Women's Memorial March committee, said it's still as important as ever to hold this march.

"Still our women and children are going missing each and every year," she said. "There's been an increasing number, into the thousands across this country so far, and there has been very little if any reporting, investigating or charges laid."

Nahanee said the march begins at Main and Hastings streets in the city's Downtown Eastside, as it's an area that is home to an "overly saturated population of the women who have gone missing."

"The significance of having it on Valentine's Day is to share our love with the women and children and their families and also to hand out roses as many people do on Valentine's Day," she added.

"We lay these roses in honour of them."

A joint statement issued by Premier John Horgan, Melanie Mark, Grace Lore and Murray Rankin, said the annual march is "a reminder to all British Columbians of the daughters, sisters, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, cousins and friends who have been directly affected by violence."