OUR STORIES IN STONE PART 15 Stone: The capital’s monuments are writings on the landscape

CHRIS MIKULA, THE CITIZEN Markings that cover the curving wall located behind the Supreme Court are rudimentary but, like many of the statues and monuments scattered through the city, they testify to a longing to affix the human presence with meaning and purpose.

BY ROBERT SIBLEY mento of their passing moment. The capital’s monuments, like all mon- The markings — there are dozens uments, are writings on the landscape, Artifacts are thrust into the world. They along the wall’s curving length — are assertions of human spirit amidst an have the power to stabilize life. rudimentary, reminiscent of the signs overwhelming geography. — Geographer Yi Fu Tuan lovers carve on tree trunks or little boys Today’s exploration, my final walk, is a any of the names and initials are inscribe in wet cement. Yet, for all their meditation on that notion — creating barely legible, worn away by commonplace sentiment they are “place” amidst “space.” I’m following the time. Still, I scrape away grit and strangely evocative. pathways along , from the Mlichen to discover the identities Or maybe, after two weeks of explor- to the of tourists and lovers who’ve scratched ing the national capital’s landscape of on the side, and then back again their presence on the stone top of the ter- monuments, I’m seeing every artifact — on the side. The walk approxi- race wall. from statues and wall plaques to gar- mates one I first did shortly after moving Roy Chantal and Babe Shaw were here goyles and graffiti — in monumental to Ottawa nearly 25 years ago, a way of in- May 31, 1967, to enjoy the view of the Ot- terms. troducing the city to myself. Back then, as tawa River from the lookout behind the The marks left by Doreen and Bernard, I recall, everything — , Supreme Court. Ken and Casey visited Roy and Babe, Ken and Casey differ only Champlain’s statue on , the in 1974. Jim announced how much he in kind and dimension from the monu- National War Memorial — possessed the loved Theresa in 1983. Bernard Skehen ments to kings, queens, soldiers and shine of strangeness. and Doreen Paul left their mark Sept. 6, politicians that I’ve encountered. I am obviously more familiar with the 1965. Statues or scratches, they all testify to city now. Its streets, neighbourhoods, ar- In 1954, Margaret and Ulrich Richie a longing to affix the human presence chitecture and, yes, its monuments, have etched their names into stone as a me- with meaning and purpose. become the familiar and largely uncon- scious backdrop to my life. But walking ments: “Monument-building is about those streets these past weeks has rekin- making thoughts and ideas into concrete dled a sense of strangeness, or, more pre- form.” cisely, the familiar has become strange in In this regard, monuments should be its familiarity. It’s as if at the end of my seen as cultural products that have their two-week exploration, I know the place function, their power, in the symbolic and for the first time, and, somehow, it’s dif- physical realms, and the meaning of a ferent from what it was before. monument reflects the purposes of those Even the view before me now — the who built it. Monument builders want to broad stretch of the river and the shape society according to their ideals and Hills, blue and hazy in the dis- ideas, including that of nation building, tance — seems more panoramic than I says Roberts. Arguably, the most essential remember. cultural landscape for fulfilling this nation- With that notion in mind, I head for building purpose is, or should be, the na- the stairway at the back of Library and tional capital. In Roberts’ words: “The Archives that leads to the Ottawa landscape of the capital represents a long- River Pathway. term commitment by a variety of actors to ■ ■ ■ create an imaginary world of meanings re- lated to what it means to be Canadian.” It’s a fine day for a walk, sunny and CHRIS MIKULA, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN Many of the monuments I’ve encoun- warm with a cooling breeze off the river. A plaque commemorates those who tered — the statue of Queen Victoria on Joggers, inline skaters, cyclists and office built the Alexandra Bridge. Parliament Hill, the South African War workers, jackets slung over their shoul- Memorial in or the ders, crowd the pathway. Three women same way that an artist lives on in his Sharpshooters’ statue in front of the share a blanket on the grassy strip at the painting or a poet in his poetry. Even en- Cartier Square Drill Hall that commem- river’s edge. The tinny voice of a tour gineers crave remembrance. orates the Northwest Rebellion, for ex- boat guide competes with the screech- So, too, do architects, I tell myself as I ample — reflect the city’s British her- ing gulls holding a convention on rocky cross the bridge and turn onto the itage, which, as Roberts points out, pro- outcrops in the river. Voyageurs Pathway below architect vided “a rich repository of material to Looking up, I see the steep-sloped cop- Douglas Cardinal’s magnificent Museum help in the formation of a new country.” per roof of the Supreme Court, and, of Civilization. Does Cardinal regard his Monument building acquired a more ahead of me, beyond the tree-thick lime- building as a monument to his life? If so, pan-Canadian flavour after the First stone escarpment, the spires of the Par- then his aspirations are fundamentally World War. The National War Memorial, liamentary Library and the Peace Tow- no different than those of tourists who the prime ministerial statues on Parlia- er. A flag on the tower flaps against the carve their initials on walls. We all want ment Hill, and, more recently, the Peace- blue sky. to be remembered. keeping Monument on and Rounding a bend, I catch my first So, too, do nations. Nations, however, the Valiants statues and busts in Confed- glimpse of the entrance to the Rideau create remembrance — and significance eration Square; they all testify to the de- Canal and the cliffs below Major’s Hill — through monuments. velopment of a “national” identity. Park. The glass dome of the National Of course, monuments can become Gallery and the silver spires of Notre THE POWER OF MONUMENTS unfashionable. Think of the haste with Dame Cathedral catch the sun. Samuel A monument, according to the Oxford which the newly liberated nations of de Champlain’s statue stands in silhou- English Dictionary, is “anything enduring eastern Europe scrapped the statues to ette on Nepean Point like some kind of that serves to commemorate or make Marx, Lenin and Stalin after the collapse guiding spirit. celebrated.” That’s OK, but the larger of the Soviet Empire, or how quick Iraqis From the plaza at the foot of the question is the purpose of commemora- were to pull down Saddam Hussein’s , I admire the fairy-tale tion that monuments serve. I like scholar statues in Baghdad. Such is the power of towers of the Château Laurier and the Marvin Trachtenburg’s summary: Mon- symbols. towers of the House of Commons at the uments “function as social magnets, But you don’t need revolution or top of the escarpment. crystallizations of social energy, one of regime change for monuments to fall in- On the other side of the canal, set the means civilization has devised to re- to disfavour. They can also fade into the against the cliff face, I find a Celtic-style inforce its background, their meaning and import cross, dedicated to the “memory of the cohesiveness and to give meaning and no longer relevant. As geographers Ken- 1,000 workers and their families who structure to life. Monuments are a way neth Foote and Maoz Azaryahu write in died building this canal — 1826-1832.” men transmit communal emotions, a a 2007 essay, new forms of commemora- The sloping pathway takes me up to medium of continuity and interaction tion are added to the cultural landscape the Alexandra Bridge, or, as it is also between generations.” while others disappear, gradually or known, the Interprovincial Bridge. I stop It is this symbolic function, this capac- abruptly, according to the needs and con- to read the plaque riveted to a girder at ity for transmitting (and transforming) cerns of the times. “Monuments are rein- the bridge entrance. The Dominion communal self- terpreted and their social and political Bridge Company of Lachine, I learn, built understanding that provides monuments relevance is reformulated according to the bridge in 1900 for the Pontiac Pacific with their power. The ideas and ideals of contemporary priorities and sensitivi- Junction and Ottawa and Gatineau rail- any society — freedom and democracy, ties.” ways. Horace J. Beemer was the contrac- rights and responsibility, pride and patri- tor, and Guy C. Dunn the chief engineer. otism, courage and self-sacrifice — de- ARE WE TOO INCLUSIVE? Both men are long dead, of course, but fine its collective identity. But as another This has been Ottawa’s experience, at walking across their bridge I think about scholar, John Roberts, observes, nations least to some extent. The National War how they live on in their work in the foster that identity by means of monu- Memorial may retain its relevancy de-

2 spite the passage of 70 years since its un- ment Buildings, the Supreme Court and veiling — the increasing numbers who Library and Archives Canada are always attend Remembrance Day services at- in view, monuments to a particular idea tests to this — but the triumphal South of Canada. I remember historian Sandra African War Memorial or the mournful Gwyn’s lovely reference to Ottawa as “an Sharpshooters’ statue are no longer cele- idea carved out of the wilderness.” brated even though they endure. Crossing the Portage Bridge back to But something else has been happen- Ottawa, I pass the boarded-up ruins of ing to monuments. Foote and Azaryahu the Ottawa Carbide Company Mill, built point out that a major shift in regard to in the 1890s, and the recreated aborigi- what and who should be commemorat- nal village with its stockade, trading post ed took place in the last decades of the and teepees on Victoria Island. There are 20th century, at least in the West. What too many people milling about the car we now see, monumentally speaking, is park to suit my mood. I abandon my plan the commemoration of victims rather to conclude my walk at the tip of the is- than heroes and warriors. “A new and land with its view downriver. I decide to significant development has been the CHRIS MIKULA, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN go to the Garden of the Provinces and growing emphasis on commemorating The South African War Memorial in Con- Territories, across from the archives. shameful events and honouring the federation Park. But I abandon that plan, too. On im- memory of victims of genocides and pulse, I take a staircase off the Portage massacres, in effect acknowledging more ance, will monuments lose their unitary Bridge, following the path that leads to openly the influence that violence plays function and become symbols of social the end of Richmond Landing, a small in society.” fragmentation? If everyone gets their peninsula that juts into the river between The most compelling examples of this slice of symbolic territory, can we really Victoria Island and the Ontario side of are the numerous commemorations of have “national” symbols that unite us re- the river, just below the archives. There the Holocaust and the victims of the gardless of creed, colour or sexual per- are no people, and I still have a fine view. Nazi era, along with the victims of the suasion? Might all those monuments I find a spot at the river’s edge where I bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. concerned with violence, injustice, can stare at the swirling river and gaze at More recently, memorials have been abuse, etc. produce a psychology that re- the ancient limestone bluffs and the built, or are being built, to commemorate duces Canadians as a whole to victim gothic glory of the Parliament Buildings. the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the status since everyone at some point in In the distance I can see Samuel de 2001 terrorist attacks on the United their lives is a victim of some injustice or Champlain’s statue on Nepean Point. States. abuse however slight. If everyone is a Geographer Yi Fu Tuan once observed This turn to victim memorialization victim, there can be no heroes as models that the capacity to recover the strange- has made its mark on Ottawa’s symbolic of inspiration. (Who in their right mind ness in the familiar is a kind of grace, per- landscape. The Women’s Monument aspires to be a victim?) If everyone gets a haps one of the few forms of transcen- Against Violence — Enclave — in Minto statue, statues have no real significance. dent experience available in our disen- Park memorializes women who’ve been chanted modern world. Monuments can abused or murdered by men. The Viet- STRANGENESS IN THE FAMILIAR serve that purpose, too. Monuments are namese Commemorative Monument on That idea preoccupies me as I follow “places” where we can pause for reflec- the corner of Preston and Somerset Voyageurs Pathway to the Portage tion in the midst of our daily routines, streets, with its depiction of a Viet- Bridge. What kind of monuments are places where, with a bit of imagination, namese woman running with a child in suitable to the nation’s capital? Perhaps we can glimpse the human spirit in its her arms, is another example of this cur- the answer is right in front of me. heroic encounter with the world. Maybe rent fashion. Through gaps in the maples, willows and we need to regard monuments as bridges John Roberts argues that many of these poplars that line the pathway, the Parlia- across the gap that separates victims and newer monuments reveal “the break- down of the idea of a unitary Canadian heritage.” While earlier monuments “em- phasized broad national themes without particular reference to issues of gender and ethnicity,” more recent works reflect “the fragmentation of identity” that has resulted from changing demographics, the pressures of multiculturalism and at- tention to ethnic and minority concerns. For many Canadians, he suggests, the older monumental order, with its empha- sis on statesman, soldiers and great events, possesses little that is distinctly Canadian with which they can identify. I don’t quarrel with Roberts’ argument. Nor is it unreasonable for supposedly dispossessed groups to want monu- ments that highlight their contribution to the nation. But is there such a thing as being too inclusive? If every group can CHRIS MIKULA, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN erect a monument to its particular griev- ’s monument at Nepean Point.

3 victimizers, oppressed and oppressor. march inland through the white pine forests I remember reading that the Royal Cana- to the newly surveyed village of Richmond. Selected Series Sources dian Navy wants to build a monument on It is in such imaginative moments that you Richmond Landing to commemorate its understand how former prime minister rich history. I hope they come up with Mackenzie King could refer to Ottawa as ■ John Bell, editor, Ottawa: A Literary something noble, something inspirational, “the soul of Canada,” and argue that the city, Portrait, 1992. something concretely human (as distinct in its architecture, monuments, museums from abstract) with which visitors can iden- and memorials, had to “give some expres- ■ Courtney Bond, City on the Ottawa: A tify. And something that recalls the history sion of all that is highest in the idealism of Detailed Historical Guide, n.d. of this place. the nation.” For a moment I imagine that history, en- The screech of a gull breaks my reverie. I ■ Edward Brado, Guide to Ottawa: A visioning when those gothic towers did not stand, looking around as though I might see Cultural and Historical Companion, 1991. exist, when there was only wilderness, and evidence of those long ago soldiers. But then, like a movie in fast forward, there’s a there is no sign of their landing, beyond the ■ City of Ottawa, Ottawa: A Guide to ghostly Indian village strung along the ghosts of my imagination. And yet I need on- Heritage Structures, 2000. shore, and Champlain paddling upriver, and ly look down river to see all those other the soldiers of the 100th Prince Regent’s monuments Canadians have scratched on ■ Katherine Fletcher, Capital Rambles: Royal Regiment of Foot, hard-bitten veter- this stony landscape, symbols of a most im- Exploring the National Capital Region, ans who’d opted to settle in Canada after the probable country. 2004. War of 1812-14, landing in the late summer of 1818 with their wives and children at this Robert Sibley is a senior writer with the ■ Terry Guernsey, Statues of Parliament spot to unload their Durham boats and Citizen. Hill: An Illustrated History, 1986.

■ Robert Haig, Ottawa: City of the Big Ears, n.d.

■ National Capital Commission, A Capital Adventure: A Discovery Guide to Canada’s Capital Region, and Street Smart: A guide to the art on the streets of Canada’s Capital Region.

■ Jane Lydon, “Driving By: Visiting Australian colonial monuments,” Journal of Social Archaeology, 5, 2005.

■ Susan Phillips-Desroches, Canada’s National War Memorial: Reflections of the Past or Liberal Dream? M.A. Thesis, Carleton University, 2002

■ John Roberts, Nation-Building and Monumentalization in the Contemporary Capital, M.A. thesis, Carleton University, 1999.

■ Marvin Trachtenberg, The Statue of Liberty, 1976.

■ Anthony Trollope, North America, Vol. 1, 1862.

■ Yi Fu Tuan, “Life as a Field Trip,” The Geographical Review, Jan.-April, 2001.

■ Kenneth Foote and Maoz Azaryahu, “Toward a Geography of Memory: Geographical Dimensions of Public Memory and Commemoration,” Journal of Political and Military Sociology, 35, 1, (Summer, 2007).

■ Philipp Fehl, The Classical Monument: Reflections on the Connection Between Morality and Art in Greek and Roman Sculpture, 1972.

4