A PROPOSED WAR MEMORIAL TO BE BUILT IN CAPE BRETON, FEATURING A GIANT MOTHER CANADA LOOKING ACROSS THE ATLANTIC, WAS ABRUPTLY SCUTTLED BY PARKS CANADA LAST YEAR. BUT THE DREAM ISN’T DEAD YET.
Tony Trigiani speaks in torrents. Words rush out and, at times, he veers off into tangents, gradually finding his way back to his central point, one made clear during a conversation on a Sunday afternoon in late June: he is not giving up on the Never Forgotten National Memorial project. Remember it? A proposed 24-metre statue of Mother Canada, arms outstretched, perched on a slice of Cape Breton coastline and facing east, across the Atlantic, where thousands of Canadian soldiers lay buried in faraway graves? The memorial was green-lit by the Stephen Harper Conservatives. Parks Canada even designated a site for it at Green Cove, N.S., in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Environmental studies were conducted. Business plans were done. Influential Canadians signed on as patrons — Mila Mulroney, Margaret McCain, major general Lewis MacKenzie, the National Post’s own Rex Murphy, and more.
Trigiani imagined a ribbon-cutting ceremony for July 1, 2017. All appeared to be going swimmingly until it all started swimming sideways, as word of the project spread and opposition formed, as far away as Australia. Media pundits teed off. The Twitter mob roared. Headlines blared about a statue that was “hubristic, ugly and just plain wrong.”
Trigiani got a phone call at 6:30 a.m. on Friday Feb. 5, 2016. Parks Canada was on the line. The memorial was kaput. Trigiani was shocked.
But he is not about to surrender.
“I am not giving up,” he says. “My father immigrated to Canada in 1949 — four years after the war. Canada opened up its doors to him and we all benefited, not just the Italians. And this year — the 150th birthday of Canada — all immigrants, immigrants who were on both sides of the battles lines, we are all now an intricate part of this country.
“The great Canadian weave — we have so much to celebrate — and there are 114,000 of our boys buried overseas, and a lot of what they did helped to build this country, and what they did gave so many of us an opportunity.
“Why not take the 150th — not to float a freaking giant yellow rubber duck around — but to honour our dead. Am I crazy, or what?”
Not crazy, just passionate, and, at age 70, a dreamer, still, soldiering on in support of a cause that he has personally invested several hundred thousand dollars in to get off the ground. Trigiani, however, is not alone in his passion. In fact, he is in suburban Toronto, whereas the most vocal base of support for Mother Canada resides among the locals in Cape Breton.
Ray Stapleton lives in Ingonish, a short hop from Green Cove. The retired teacher is organizing a Canada Day sunrise celebration and veterans’ commemoration for July 1 on the site of the Mother Canada monument that hasn’t been built.
“We are trying to keep the flame here lit,” Stapleton says.
Stapleton applied for a Parks Canada permit to hold the July 1 service at Green Cove in April. About a week ago, he received word from Parks Canada that he required insurance.
“It was a bit convoluted getting the permit,” he says, chuckling. “The insurance cost us $120.” After the Mother Canada project was rejected, he circulated a petition among locals. Hundreds signed in support of the memorial. The community presented the petition to Catherine McKenna, the incoming (as of October 2015) Liberal minister responsible for Parks Canada.
“The memorial was a Harper government project,” he says. “And then Trudeau got in and ...” And Parks Canada called Tony Trigiani in February 2016.
Canada’s national memorial at Vimy sits on the ridge, overlooking the French fields below. On its surface, the memorial is just a massive hunk of Croatian marble, but it is a powerful reminder of what was done at that place.
On Cape Breton, the surf, pounding in against the rocks, has a hypnotic quality. Green Cove is a reflective place. Plus, it is a lot more accessible — and affordable — for Canadians to reach than France — a point made by major general MacKenzie.
The major general continues to be an ambassador with the Never Forgotten National Memorial project. He has been invited to Green Cove for the July 1 ceremony. Trigiani won’t be attending, out of fears of becoming a “sideshow.”