The cenotaph at Grand Parade should be ready in time for Remembrance
Day, says city spokesperson Shaune MacKinlay. “But it’s up to the
veterans’ group if they are going to have their ceremony,” says
MacKinlay. “They’ll inspect it and make a decision in a few days.”
During a routine maintenance of the structure this summer, workers
discovered structural problems, and the cenotaph had to be completely
dismantled and rebuilt. Crews were winding up that work last week.
Construction should also start soon on another monument in the Grand
Parade—a memorial to fallen peace officers will be built in the
centre of the grounds and, as seen from the perspective of the George
Street/Carmichael Street corridor, at a position in mirror image to the
cenotaph, closer to City Hall.
Fallen peace officers are those police and constables killed in the
line of duty. The monument was designed by a group of artists
associated with NSCAD, led by Cody Lee Stephenson. It will be in the
form of a 14-foot high arch constructed with Litracon, a translucent
concrete with fiber optic cables running through it, such that
different intensity lighting can be applied through it.
The positioning of the peace officers monument in Grand Parade was
the subject of heated debate during the design stage, and as recently
as two weeks ago councillor Dawn Sloane attempted to convince council
to move the monument to the southern section of Grand Parade so that it
wouldn’t interfere with concerts and plans for a skating rink. But
councillors declined to upset police advocates and nixed Sloane’s
suggestion.
But according to city staffer Andy Filmore, there will still be room
for a skating rink, which might be part of a reconstruction of the
Grand Parade when the wall along Barrington Street is rebuilt, some
time in the next five years. No one knows how much such a rink would
cost, says Filmore.
This article appears in Nov 5-11, 2009.
I think it is quite disgusting a monument to peace officers will end up being as prominent or more prominent that the monument to men and women who went off to an almost certain death.
The police unions in Canada never miss a chance to try to portray their work as dangerous and more worthy than other work.
What is next, a monument to firefighters ?
If we really cared about workers dying on the job or as a result of their work then I would suggest one monument to all workers… and well removed from the cenotaph.
I really admire someone who can literally find ANYTHING to complain about. “Why did kids have to take UNICEF boxes around at Halloween, can’t I just email transfer my money to poor countries?”
Anyway, kudos to the workers for getting the monument back and ready for the most relevant holiday of the year.