St. John's statue
In May 1963, Brazão, then the Portuguese Ambassador to Canada, visited St. John's to meet with premier Joey Smallwood.[12] Following conversations with Brazão, Smallwood announced on 28 May 1963 that the Portuguese fishing fleet "with the hearty approval of the government of Portugal" would commission "a famous Portuguese sculptor" to create a statue that would depict both Gaspar Corte-Real and his brother Miguel.[13] Following their meeting, Brazão invited Smallwood to Portugal,[14] where Smallwood met with Salazar in October of that year.[15]
Two years later, a statue of Corte-Real (minus Miguel)[16] was presented under the banner of the Canadian Portuguese Fisheries Organisation in 1965 to commemorate the hospitality of Newfoundlanders towards Portuguese Grand Banks fishermen.
In early 1999, a car, apparently chauffeured by a speeding tourist, slammed into the pedestal that supports the statue. The statue itself was unscathed, but its base was mangled. Later that year, Ottawa bronze restoration specialist Craig Johnson subcontracted local foundry sculptors to undertake the repairs while Johnson himself repainted the statue. According to local sculptor Will Gill, who did some of the work, no scars remain from the accident and the statue was returned to its original condition.[17]
In 2020, it was noted that the statue, designed by Estado Novo propagandist Joaquim Martins Correia, was erected as part of a behind-the-scenes fisheries rights conflict between Salazar and Spain's Francisco Franco.[18] In 1968, Smallwood had announced that "Generalissimo Franco is to present a statue to the province" which would have been erected beside the statue of Corte-Real;[19] this second statue was never delivered.
On June 11, 2020, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball was quoted as saying the government would review politically sensitive provincial statues.[20] Author Edward Riche noted on June 20, 2020, "If enough people now see the statue of Corte-Real as memorializing a character who enslaved Indigenous people during his imperial ventures, we have a problem."[21]
On June 28, 2020, it was reported that Todd Russell, president of NunatuKavut, which represents Inuit in central and southern Labrador, "doesn't need any more consultation — he wants it taken down."[22] On July 8, 2020, it was reported that the statue had been spray-painted with the phrases "Slaver" and "Why is this guy still here?"[23] Various opinion pieces and letters to the editor called for the statue's removal.[21][24][25] The statue was further vandalized in July 2021, following the discovery of unmarked graves of Indigenous children on properties part of the Canadian Indian residential school system. A government working group made recommendations on the statue in February 2022; no action had been taken by July 2023.[26]
