Queen Victoria statue consultation wraps up first stage with City of Kitchener
Queen Victoria statue consultation wraps up first stage with City of Kitchener
The City of Kitchener says they have wrapped up the first phase of consultation regarding a controversial statue in a public park.
The repeated vandalism of the Queen's Statue in Victoria Park prompted the city to launch a community engagement campaign in the fall to consider the statue's future.
The plan outlined four events being mediated by placemaker and author Jay Pitter. One event was done through Instagram live and was followed by an in-person witnessing circle in November.
Two further sessions were planned for early 2023.
The city is now temporarily pausing engagement, plans to gather feedback from participants on the process so far, and says that Pitter's portion of the process has been completed.
“She's provided really valuable advice through the process, but part of the recommendation was to really engage in local facilitators to make sure we have that local dialogue as we move forward with the final recommendation,” said Justin Readman, the City of Kitchener’s general manager of development services.
The city adds that Pitter introduced the witnessing circle to get different perspectives from the community and also outlined a safer small table engagement approach to get more feedback.
Phase two of the consultation plan will move more slowly, as advised by Pitter, and be led by local community engagement facilitators.
The focus of the next phase will be to centre the voices of Indigenous, Black, and racialized community members.
Two more public engagement sessions will be held before a recommendation goes to council.
A date for those public meetings has not been set.
Consultations and an eventual decision on the statue's fate was anticipated to take about a year and cost between $15,000 to $30,000.
“We've been acting very fluid throughout the whole project,” said Readman. “We want to be reactive and nimble to understand the best needs and the best ways to make sure that we are able to consult and engage with the community as we move forward with a recommendation that people can find something to be part of because we know that we are not going to find a solution that satisfies everyone in this process.”
INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY RESPONDS
Some local members of the Indigenous community who have been very active in the project shared a statement with CTV News on Tuesday that said in part:
"We appreciated working with Jay Pitter, and although this ‘pause’ was unanticipated, we are committed to continuing conversations about the future of the Queen Victoria Statue. We are eager to continue working with the City of Kitchener on this initiative and await their announcement on next steps," said the statement from those with the Land Back Camp.
A CONTROVERSIAL PAST
The statue has been vandalized and covered in red paint several times over the years. It happened for the fourth time at the end of May 2022.
The city told CTV News the last time it cleaned paint off the statue on May 16, it cost $5,000.
"We're idolizing these colonial figures that built this country off of the backs and blood of Indigenous people and Black folks as well," Amy Smoke, co-founder of Land Back Camp and a member of Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan from the Six Nations of the Grand River told CTV News in May.
U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Ottawa Thursday evening for a whirlwind 27-hour visit expected to focus on both the friendly and thorny aspects of the Canada-U.S. relationship, including protectionism and migration on both sides of the border.
Canada and the United States are negotiating a deal that could see asylum seekers turned back at irregular border crossings across the border, including Roxham Road in Quebec.
Amid renewed questions over the pervasiveness of alleged interference by China in Canadian elections and affairs broadly, opposition MPs voted Thursday afternoon to affirm a parliamentary committee's call for the federal government to strike a public inquiry.
An asteroid discovered just last week will pass closer to the Earth than the orbit of the moon this weekend, an occurrence so rare it happens only once in a decade, according to NASA.
The number of Canadians receiving employment insurance benefits are at record lows and down 44 per cent from last year, new figures from Statistics Canada show.
Two Kanien'keha:ka (Mohawk) sisters from Montreal are on a mission that is close to their hearts: to save their ancestors' first language by developing video games young and old can play.
Zellers has opened the first of 25 new locations within Hudson's Bay stores across the country. The Canadian retail chain launched 12 stores in Ontario and Alberta Thursday, along with a new e-commerce website.
Embattled South Carolina Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom will resign next month after a US$3.5 billion accounting error in the year-end financial report he oversaw.
The new provincial budget features items specific to southwestern Ontario, including a new English public elementary school in London, Ont. that will serve 556 students and include 88 licensed childcare spaces.
A young Strathroy, Ont. man believes there's a promising way forward in the effort to fight his disease. But, he's being told, right now, that path isn't open to him. Friends and family are stepping up to try and make a case for Kyle McPhee to receive immunotherapy treatments.
After a year-and-a-half without, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) says it’s narrowing in on hiring a permanent chief medical officer of health.
When the permit to construct a replacement span for the Ambassador Bridge expired in the summer of 2022, many thought that would bring an end to a 20-year saga of boarded up homes in the city’s west end.
The quick thinking and immediate actions of two people are credited with possibly saving the life of a Midland councillor after he collapsed at a meeting Wednesday evening.
The co-owners of a new liquidation store in North Bay, Samuel Quesnel and Chloé Boivenue, say they want to bring a treasure hunt shopping experience to the city.
U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Ottawa Thursday evening for a whirlwind 27-hour visit expected to focus on both the friendly and thorny aspects of the Canada-U.S. relationship, including protectionism and migration on both sides of the border.
U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived in Ottawa on a foggy Thursday evening, kicking off a whirlwind two-day visit to the capital. Ottawa police and the city of Ottawa have warned residents and visitors will see an increased police presence across the downtown core, and there will be "significant traffic and transit disruptions" during the visit.
An Ontario man said he was shocked when his truck was stolen not once but twice, and the second time it was taken he was surprised to discover he was no longer covered for theft.
Friends of Camille Maheux are trying to assemble some of her life's work. The 76-year-old photographer was killed in the Old Montreal fire and her photographs and negatives were destroyed.
Canada and the United States are negotiating a deal that could designate all 8,900 kilometres of their shared border as an official crossing under the Safe Third Country Agreement.
The Tim Houston PC government remains firm in their promise they'll fix the health-care system by spending more taxpayer money on health than any previous government before.
The rate of snow and rain falling in the Maritimes will pick up late Thursday afternoon into evening as a weather system makes its way across the region.
Selkirk RCMP have arrested and charged a man after he allegedly killed his dog, smashed out the windows of a home and two cars with an axe, and set fire to a shed on his property.
The Alberta legislature wrapped up its spring sitting Thursday with politicians on both sides of the aisle test-driving insults and expected attack lines ahead of the scheduled May 29 provincial election.
When a former detective with the Vancouver Police Department discovered photos of his home were being used in a rental scam, he decided to start his own investigation.
