Chianello: Communism memorial’s saga spotlights Tories’ poor process

More on the proposed memorial to visitors of communism and the Government’s railroading over process and lack of broader consultation:

The official Long Term Vision and Plan is a comprehensive and sensitively designed development strategy for the Parliamentary Precinct, the Judicial Precinct and Library and Archives Canada. It’s not meant to be a rigid to-do list, but a framework for making decisions, ensuring that future developments “make a positive contribution to the total composition of the Precincts, while avoiding negative impact on the landscape.”

It’s hard to see how the proposed memorial will do any of these things. Kenney may insist that the massive, brutalist design for the memorial will be “more like a park,” but two dozen of the country’s most prominent architects have decried the plans, not to mention the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the mayor, and pretty much every architectural and planning organization in the country.

Ottawa’s city council will debate and likely pass a motion next week asking the federal government to relocate the proposed memorial because it would violate the guiding principles of the government’s plan.

“I believe fundamentally that due process has to be followed,” says Dewar, “so development can be protected from the whims of any political interference.”

If you care about the outcome, you need to care about the process. But this Conservative cabinet seems to care mostly about the political outcome, and has thus managed this memorial with an opaque, political process.

Chianello: Communism memorial’s saga spotlights Tories’ poor process