Ottawa should veto ‘Mother Canada’ statue

Viewpoint: Toronto Star (excerpted)

The Trudeau government has done the right thing by arranging for a controversial memorial to victims of communism to be downsized and moved away from the heart of official Ottawa. It should follow up quickly by withdrawing support for an even more questionable monument proposed for Cape Breton.

The Ottawa memorial was a favourite of the Harper government, which paved the way for a private group to erect a jarringly intrusive structure right next door to the Supreme Court of Canada building, just west of Parliament on Wellington Street.

It wasn’t the right design and it certainly wasn’t the right place. It smacked of political opportunism as the Conservatives curried favour among the Polish and Ukrainian communities, in particular, which understandably hold bitter memories of their nations’ suffering under communism.

A chorus of critics pushed back. And now the new Liberal government has sensibly arranged for the memorial to be relocated to a more suitable spot in the Garden of the Provinces and Territories.

Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly says the government is also cutting its financial support for the project in half, to a maximum of $1.5 million, ensuring the memorial will have a more human scale.

This is a deft move. The memorial now stands a good chance of adding to the national capital instead of becoming a needlessly divisive symbol.

There’s a similar controversy that needs addressing. Under the Harper government, Parks Canada opened the door to construction of the massive “Mother Canada” monument to Canada’s war dead on a prime coastal site in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

“Mother Canada,” proposed by a private foundation, would be a towering eight-storey figure modelled on the famous Canada Bereft statue at Vimy Ridge. The design manages to be both kitschy and reminiscent of the oversized monuments beloved of tyrants the world over. It would be particularly inappropriate for a noted beauty spot in a national park.

The Liberals are now “reviewing” the whole idea. It should quickly conclude that such an outsized and tasteless monument has no place in a national park.