The following letter to the editor regarding the Champlain Monument was submitted by retired school superintendent Jack N. Gourlie:
To: Hon. Catherine McKenna, minister of the environment and climate change
From: Jack N. Gourlie, school superintendent, Toronto Board of Education (retired)
The treasured monument was removed by your Parks Canada a year ago to have the base rebuilt and the monument refurbished. It was to be replaced July 2018 as indicated on a sign on the fencing which still hangs there.
The monument belongs to the federal government as does the land it occupies. You have been quoted as being in agreement that historical/treasured monuments should not come down as was the Sir John A. Macdonald in Victoria, B.C. It would seem that the latter monument was brought down because of considerations for First Nations peoples. It seems difficult to compare their concerns when they were in a different era. All accounts indicate that Champlain was revered by the Huron Indians of his time. The account of 100,000 Orillians gathered in ceremony when the beautifully sculptured monument was unveiled in the last decade is recorded. It has graced the fine Couchiching Beach Park and lent itself to thousands of visitors ever since. It is the grand symbol of Orillia.
I would request of you on behalf of myself personally and thousands of current citizens – a petition could be forthcoming – to follow through with what you originally posted and if there are any directions from a city council, which I understand is to meet and bring forth by 2019 some "concerns," then consider them at that time. Otherwise, the monument is down for a long time and the new base sits alone and the park area is disrupted and looks a mess.
It is your monument! It is our monument!
Respectfully submitted,
Jack N. Gourlie
Resident of Orillia for 25 years
