MacDonald was the architect of the residential school system, even though Langevin did take a hit for it when they scraped his name off the building in Ottawa. According to the radio discussion I heard this am, the plan is to put the statue in storage for now perhaps to be displayed elsewhere at a later date so as not to try to whitewash history, and a plaque be placed in the same area to describe his role as PM and his history of relations with indigenous people.
This is a plan to whitewash history or they would just put a plaque along with the statue.