The City of Gatineau, Que., has quietly reinstalled a statue of Samuel de Champlain, nearly a decade after it was removed for maintenance.
The monument to the 17th-century French explorer and founder of Quebec City was installed in a new location in the parc de la Francophonie on Thursday, without fanfare or a press conference.
The move comes at a time when other municipalities like Orillia, Ont., have debated what to do with their own memorials to the cartographer who helped established New France in North America.
Chief Jean-Guy Whiteduck of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg First Nation in western Quebec said his community had not been consulted over the monument, which stands on unceded Algonquin territory.
“It’s the French people who want to recognize him and that’s OK,” Whiteduck told Radio-Canada.
“But that doesn’t mean we agree or disagree. It’s their choice and not ours, that’s for sure.”
Gatineau’s statue was inaugurated in 2004 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first French settlement in North America and to commemorate Champlain’s voyages along the Ottawa River in 1613 and 1615.
Designed by artist Jérémie Giles and cast at the Inverness Bronze Foundry in Quebec, it stood at the intersection of promenade du Portage and rue Laval until 2016 when it was removed during downtown construction.
After nearly a decade in storage, the statue has now been reinstalled a few blocks away near the Ottawa River, as it was the waterway travelled by Champlain, a city spokesperson told Radio-Canada in an email.
Michel Prévost, an historian and president of the Outaouais Historical Society, welcomed the monument’s restoration.
“He was the first European to describe the region in writing,” he told Radio-Canada, speaking in French. “Champlain played a very important role. He was the first French or European explorer to come into this region.”
But not everyone is as enthusiastic about the resurrection of a colonial monument.
Whiteduck said his community had hoped to be consulted on the monument and wanted to see the contribution of Indigenous people to Champlain’s travels reflected.
“There should be a plaque that recognizes the fact that he wasn’t an explorer and he had the assistance of the First Nations to show him our territory and gave him permission,” he said.
“We guided them through our territory, allowed them to go through our territory — at the time he needed our permission — so he didn’t discover anything.”
This debate over the place of colonial statues in modern municipalities is one that has played out across Canada — and the world — in recent years
Ottawa’s own Champlain statue was moved to a less prominent location when the National Capital Commission redeveloped Nepean Point.
When the renamed Kìwekì Point reopened in May 2025, the NCC relocated the sculpture from its “dominant” position occupying the highest point overlooking the Ottawa River to a lower location alongside a nearby walking path.
Champlain sculpture won’t keep ‘dominant’ spot over the Ottawa River
Orillia, Ont., to decide fate of controversial Samuel de Champlain statue
In Orillia, city council is debating what to do with its own statue to Champlain, which it dismantled and moved to a secret location after it was vandalized.
Even among Indigenous people there is no consensus about what to do with these statues, according to Alexandre Bacon, who is an Innu from Mashteuiatsh, about 200 kilometres north of Quebec City, and a strategic advisor for several Indigenous organizations.
“Some would like that we remove them all and some others would like that we better inform people,” he told Radio-Canada, suggesting that contextualizing the statues with informative plaques could help.
There is “no link” between the current controversy in Orillia and Gatineau’s own Champlain statue, a City of Gatineau spokesperson said in an email, noting that its decision to relocate it had been made in 2024.
But keen-eyed observers may note that Gatineau’s Champlain statue is now without its sword.
The statue’s bronze sheath was damaged in an act of vandalism shortly before its reinstallation, the city said.
“Restoration work on the scabbard and sword will be carried out in August,” the spokesperson wrote.
