The Orphan Monument

I was going to submit the following letter as a lament on things not done.  Although a copy of it was published in the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the press in Upper Canada has chosen not to publish it, so I thought it needed to be circulated by other means.

There is a monument, commonly called the Bonaventure Anchor, which is found at the tip of Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, Nova Scotia where it can be seen by ships entering and leaving that great port.  This monument is different.  Unlike the hundreds if not thousands of war memorials across Canada which are dedicated to those who died in wartime, with the possible exception of the Peacekeeping Memorial in Ottawa, this one is dedicated to military members who died on duty in peacetime.  Whereas most of the war memorials are maintained by the local Legion branch or the town, or some other level of government, this monument is an orphan.  Nobody will accept responsibility for this monument that is important to many veterans of the Cold War and beyond.  Among other things, it is the only monument open to the public that records the names of the nine men who died aboard HMCS Kootenay in 1969 in the Canadian Navy’s worst peacetime disaster.  In fact, survivors of that event and their families gather each year for a memorial service on the anniversary date, October 23^rd.  But there are others who are so honoured, although there are still many names that need to be added.

So why do we have to talk about this monument now?  Unfortunately, the monument needs work.  It needs work to protect it.  It needs work to refurbish it.  And it needs the names added of many other victims of peacetime service.  A survey has been carried out that outlines the essential work that has to be done.  There appears to be sources of money available to undertake some of the work.  Among the most critical items is the need to protect the monument from shoreline erosion which threatens the stability of the base.  As the owners of Point Pleasant Park, this should likely be in the purview of the Municipality of Halifax/Dartmouth.  But work cannot be undertaken on the monument itself without someone acknowledging ownership and authorizing such work.  This is the problem with orphanhood.

When the monument was dedicated in 1973 by Rear Admiral Robert Timbrell RCN, then the Maritime Commander Atlantic, he promised that the Navy would look after the monument with the work being done by the ships of the Atlantic Command.  Obviously, this promise has long been forgotten.  But should the burden fall solely to the Navy when many of those that are and should be honoured were members of Maritime Air Command of the Royal Canadian Air Force?  

A small group of volunteers, several who are survivors of the Kootenay disaster, have been trying for the past couple of years to find some organization or agency who will take some responsibility for this monument.  They have so far approached various levels of government, as well as the Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal Canadian Legion and the Naval Association of Canada, looking for some help in this quest.  So far there has been no positive response from anyone.  Some agencies have not even bothered to reply to requests.  So these volunteers soldier on looking for some answers and hopefully some recognition about the fate of this monument.  And so in this vast country with its many hundreds of war memorials, there stands a rather imposing monument that remains an orphan.

But I have just found out today that some group has agreed to do something about the monument. I am told that the military, among others, has agreed to form a committee to take charge of the restoration work that needs to be done.  A lot of credit must be given to a couple of people, both Kootenay survivors, who have pursued this issue.  Chief among them is a gentleman named Allan “Dinger” Bell who has been investigating and pushing this issue for over ten years.  He has been assisted by John Montague, another survivor.  This is truly a very happy outcome for this quest.  But we cannot let down on continuing to ensure that the committee carries out their mandate and the necessary work in fact gets done.