While the War of 1812 will be memorialized on Parliament Hill this fall, a monument to the Canadians who fought in the recent conflict in Afghanistan sits in storage.
The National Capital Commission and the Department of National Defence are still struggling to find an appropriate location after repatriating the Kandahar Air Field cenotaph to Ottawa.
At the same time, the NCC has chosen Parliament Hill as the site for a memorial for the War of 1812. The location was revealed earlier when a call went out to artists to participate in a competition to create the monument.
“The purpose of the monument is paying tribute to the men and women, who were soldiers, who were First Nations, that all came together against this enemy,” says Sylvie Tilden, a senior manager with the NCC. “This is really a great opportunity for any artist.”
As part of the federal government’s $28-million celebration of the bicentennial of the War of 1812, the NCC will spend $780,000 on the monument and a total of $2 million on the project.
While Tilden describes the chosen location for the 1812 monument at Parliament Hill as “really a key site,” she would not comment on the process of finding a location for the Kandahar cenotaph.
But according to the DND the white marble cenotaph with names of fallen Canadians is still in storage.
When it was first announced the memorial was to be moved from Afghanistan to Ottawa, Defence Minister Peter MacKay stressed the importance of repatriating the cenotaph quickly. The new site for the memorial was to be announced in early 2012.
One proposal suggested Dow’s Lake as the future location. But according to Lieut. Greg Menzies, a DND spokesperson, Dow’s Lake is only a proposal and the question remains unresolved.
“It is not set in stone yet,” he said. “The location currently has not been chosen yet, but defence is pleased to be working very closely with the National Capital Commission to identify an appropriate site.”
Menzies was unable to explain why it has been easier to find a location for the 1812 memorial.
“It’s a whole different project, so I can’t speak of the location of that memorial,” he says.
But according to Steve Saideman, an expert on Afghanistan at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, finding a location for the Kandahar cenotaph may be a more complicated process because it concerns a current conflict with an uncertain outcome.
“I think Canadians are still confused about Kandahar. After years of civil war, Canadians are wondering what we are doing there,” he says. “But in general Canadians have a sense of pride that when we were asked to participate, we stood up and performed better than most of the allies.”
The 1812 monument will be unveiled on Parliament Hill in 2014. Menzies says he hopes a location for the Kandahar cenotaph will be identified in the coming months.