Park honouring activist to be inaugurated today
Residents of the Milton-parc neighbourhood and officials from four levels of government will gather this morning to inaugurate Lucia-kowaluk Park at the southeast corner of Parc and Pine Aves.
“I'm pleased,” said Dimitri Roussopoulos, Kowaluk's widower and partner in a life of community activism. “More important is that the community is absolutely delighted and excited.”
Kowaluk, awarded the Order of Canada and Order of Quebec for her service to the community, died on Feb. 1, 2019.
The park's inauguration is the culmination of efforts by local residents to save the green space bounded by Pine Ave., Parc Ave., Léo Pariseau St. and the rear of buildings on Jeanne-mance St.
The Plateau Mont-royal borough rezoned it as a park in February.
The park will be landscaped with oak trees and a white pine, symbolizing the Indigenous nations that once occupied Montreal. It will also include a podium surrounded by benches, where speakers will be able to hold forth on various subjects. Tree planting has begun and will continue next spring, Roussopoulos said.
The couple were leading members of a citizens movement that saved part of the Victorian neighbourhood from demolition and founded the Milton-park Community in 1983. It now includes 16 housing co-ops and six non-profit housing corporations in the neighbourhood east of Mcgill University.
How would Kowaluk feel about seeing a park named after herself ?
“Lucia would be embarrassed,” said Roussopoulos, recalling when she got a phone call announcing she'd been chosen to receive the Order of Canada, her only response was: “Why me?”