Black Rock and city hall

Re: “Etched in history” (Montreal Gazette, May 28)

As the former city of Montreal executive committee member responsible for real estate, I was mystified by references to the “disappointment” with the Coderre administration regarding a project near Black Rock to appropriately commemorate Irish immigrants who were victims of typhus in 1847.

In particular the phrase “after plans to create a memorial park hit a roadblock under previous mayor Denis Coderre” is misleading.

The land in question for a new memorial was not owned by the city, but by Canada Lands, a federal crown corporation. In fact, I advised representatives of the Montreal Irish Memorial Park Foundation as far back as 2015 that contrary to their impression, the city was not the owner of the land. We learned in May 2017 that Canada Lands had definitively sold the property to Hydro- Québec for the construction of a new power substation.

However, our administration did begin immediate talks with Hydro- Québec about integrating an appropriate memorial into the substation project, talks which were progressing well up to last fall’s election, including a commitment from Coderre to contribute to its financing.

While there might have been some tension between the Coderre administration and the Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation, to suggest that we were responsible for the “roadblock” is inaccurate.

It is also an unfair characterization of our genuine efforts to ensure that an appropriate memorial and interpretation centre be developed at the Black Rock site.

Russell Copeman, former mayor of Côte-desNeiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce