My Dad visited England during the 1940's.

My Dad and Stepmother visited Montreal's Jarry Park to see the Montreal Expos baseball team play - 1970.

               

I have all of the negatives, and they will all be developed.

The Project of a Lifetime.

My Goal
To save all of the Corrections Canada buildings and towers in Kingston, Ontario, past and present.
To create a multifaceted, unique tourism experience in the Limestone City.

Try to convince the Prime Minister of Canada, Members of Parliament, Parks Canada and the Government of Ontario to preserve all of the prison buildings and landscapes.
Create a multimedia centre in the Kingston Penitentiary or the Prison for Women. The Centre will include videos, interactive content, paintings by prisoners; newspaper articles about the Pen by Charles Dickens and Ernest Hemingway: a speech by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood to a Save Our Prison Farms rally; documentaries, etc:

Canadian writer Margaret Atwood at Corrections Canada Headquarters, Kingston.

YouTube videos:
He's 38 years old and never kissed a girl - by the Tragically Hip.
We become our own wolves - with music by Rae Spoon. An animated video featuring works of art by women prisoners at the Isabel MacNeill Halfway House,
Small Minds by Vera Sola - Danielle Aykroyd.
Live at Collins Bay Penitentiary - by the Blue Diamonds.
I've Come to get My Baby Out Of Jail - The Rattlesnake Choir/Handsome Ned,
Music from The Big House - Rita Chiarelli.

Songs and Music Albums
Audible Songs from Rockwood - by Simone Schmidt.
Time off for Good Behavior - by Neil Young,
"My brother went to Kingston
He's in Kingston doin' time
He got seven years for sellin'
What I've been smokin all my life."

Documentaries:
P4W
The Netflix presentation "Alias Grace" by Margaret Atwood.
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Items that can be sold in the Penitentiary Museum:
Limestone necklaces and earrings. (Own a piece of the rock).
Replicas of the denim dresses that P4W inmates wore during the 1960's.
Key chains that resemble licence plates. (Prisoners used to manufacture licence plates for the Ontario government,)
Mug shots of tourists.
Record albums by the Tragically Hip, Rita Chiarelli, Rae Spoon, Simone Schmidt.
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I will contact:
The Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport - The Hon. Sylvia Jones, MPP.
The Official Website of Tourism in Ontario.
Tourism Kingston, located in Innovation Park, 209 Ontario Street.
The Haunted Walk of Kingston.
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Architecture
On a plaque in front of each building, document the fact that Kingston Penitentiary inmates were responsible for the construction of all of  the buildings; that limestone was used; give the dates of the construction and the names of the architects.
Return Canada's Maple Leaf Flag and Coat of Arms to the Kingston Pen, Rockwood Asylum, Prison for Women, Stone Gables, Isabel MacNeill Halfway House, etc.

Do not let the new owner of the Prison for Women remove any bars from the windows or cells, knock down any interior walls, or the demolish the remaining perimeter wall. YouTube has a video showing the 3 walls and many buildings being demolished, Google "P4W walls coming down."
Replace the bell in the Prison for Women bell tower.
Install telescopes in each of the Kingston Pen guard towers.

Sell books by local architectural historian Dr. Jennifer McKendry:
Historic Portsmouth Village, Kingston (1995).
With Our Past Before Us: 19th Century Architecture in the Kingston Area (1995)
Portsmouth Village, Kingston: An illustrated history. (2010)
Get copies of a presentation given by Dr. Jennifer McKendry before the Frontenac Heritage Foundation, called "The Importance of Kingston Penitentiary".
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 Street names where the buildings are located:
Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard
Mowat Avenue
King Street
Union Street
Stone Gables
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Places of Worship located within the Kingston Pen.
Church of the Good Thief - a nearby Catholic Church built by inmates using limestone.
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All of the land surrounding the Kingston Penitentiary and Rockwood Asylum will remain public:

Rockwood Asylum was built by Kingston Pen inmates to house federal prisoners, before the property was sold to the Province of Ontario. From: A City Of Kingston report, June 20, 2018---"The subject lands are part of a recognized "cultural heritage landscape" within Section 7.3.D.5 of the City of Kingston Official Plan." Real estate developers would like to commercialize the 100-acre Provincial Lands that surround the Asylum.

See the Corrections Canada Internet article "Kingston Penitentiary Harbourfront Property-CSC-SCC-"The remediated area will no longer be leased for boat slips or long-term boat storage, so the refreshed space will be open for the public to enjoy!"

More historical buildings and landscapes in the Village of Portsmouth.

1.) Penitentiary Water Tower - 61 West Campus Lane, Kingston. In 1969 the Government of Canada transferred prison farm land and an old limestone quarry to Queen's University.

2.) Penitentiary Farm House - 61 West Campus Lane - 1850-1900. The farm house is the oldest Kingston Pen building surviving outside of the prison walls.

3.)  The Penitentiary Stone Quarry - 181 Mowat Avenue is three minutes away from "The Big House". A baseball diamond and a park now inhabit the site where Kingston Pen inmates worked for years, excavating limestone. A plaque was recently unveiled in Garrigan Park, see the YouTube video "Project Book Canada: Unveiling of 'The Convict Lover' plaque' .In the video Hugh Christopher Brown sings "The Prisoner's Song" and author Merilyn Simonds reads from her book "The Convict Lover"---a book that is based on correspondence between a penitentiary inmate and a Village of Portsmouth woman during the year 1919.

The Penitentiary Stone Quarry - 181 Mowat Avenue.

4.)  Tunnels - a tunnel connected "The Big House" to the nearby Rockwood Asylum. Rockwood was built to accommodate inmates who could not tolerate living in the prison. A tunnel also connected the penitentiary to the Prison for Women. Actress Sarah Gadon took a photograph of the tunnel during the filming of "Alias Grace", a novel by Margaret Atwood.

A scene from the television program "Alias Grace". Grace is being escorted to the "Governor's House", 555 King Street West. The building is a Corrections Canada museum, open to the public. Photo is from: The kingstonherald.com.

The tunnel connecting Kingston Penitentiary to P4W  across the street. Photo by actress Sarah Gadon, from the kingstonherald.com.

The following buildings can be saved by the United Nations.

A United Nations agency called UNESCO has the power intervene when heritage buildings and landscapes are threatened by war, development pressures and the adaption of existing buildings that would threaten their authenticity. The following properties are located in the city of Kingston, Ontario Canada:
The Kingston Penitentiary - 560 King Street West.

Corrections Canada - 443 Union Street.

The Penitentiary Museum - 555 King Street West.

The former Prison for Women - 40 Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard.

The Isabel MacNeill Halfway House - 325 King Street West.

The Church of the Good Thief - 743 King Street West.

The Rockwood Asylum - 8 Gable Lane

Ontario Regional Headquarters, 440 King Street West.

Former Portsmouth Community Correctional Centre - 508 Portsmouth Avenue

Who is receiving billions of dollars from the sale of Crown property?

Are the people of Canada profiting from the sale of federally-owned real estate? Or is a foreign entity on another continent receiving billions of dollars from the divestiture of landmarks, buildings and landscapes.
 Why were eighteen Agriculture Canada experimental farms were sold off.
Why did Department of  Fisheries and Oceans abandon 1,000 lighthouses.
Why were 14 military bases decommissioned and sold to real estate developers or municipal governments.
Why are Canada's Maple Leaf Flag, Coat of Arms and the names of prominent people stripped from GOC buildings when they are privatized.
Why did the Mulroney government sell thousands of Canada Post Dominion Buildings and strip the word "Canada" from mailboxes, trucks, etc:

A comment by Toronto Member of Parliament Dennis Mills in the House of Commons, Ottawa. From: Hansard - House of Commons Debates- May 15, 1992.

Why do Canadians not own the CN Tower, and why there were attempts to remove the words "Canada" and "Canadian" from the word mark CN Tower.
I understand why Moya Greene was the head of  CN Real Estate, Canada Post and the United Kingdom's Royal Mail.
Why is Parks Canada thinking of privatizing $8.3 billion dollars worth of infrastructure in our National Parks.
Why are the CBC radio and TV archives being transferred to the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Why did the CBC privatize 650 transmission towers, transmission sites and thousands of transmitters.

Why did the agency that sells Crown property have a leasehold interest in two London, England offices.
Why did Gordon Campbell sell the Macdonald House embassy in London, England for half a billion dollars.
Why did the National Capital Commission have no qualms about potentially demolishing Ottawa's Union Station, now the Conference Centre, see the website "NCC Watch".
 Why is the National Capital Commission so determined to wring as much money out of LeBreton Flats as it can instead of creating a national park or building museums on the land. The NCC does not have to deposit the proceeds from the sale of land into our national treasury, the Consolidated Revenue Fund. So where does the money end up National Capital Commission? We're talking about money from the sale of:
 the Gamelin Experimental Farm in Gatineau, Quebec;
 the Greenbelt Research Farm in Nepean;
 CFB Rockcliffe property,
 Moffat Farm
 the land near the Byward Market that the American Embassy now inhabits
The Daly Building
The Mackenzie King Bridge
The Laurier Avenue Bridge...the list goes on...
Senator Anne Cools and the Moffat Farm Citizens Coalition wanted to see the 86- acre Farm located between Prince of Wales Drive and the Rideau River near Mooney's Bay preserved as parkland. But you said the land was "surplus" to the needs of the federal government, National Capital Commission. The NCC has been criticized by Senate committees for behaving as private developer rather than a guardian of public property, you even appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board if anyone challenges your plans to funnel property to real estate entities. Ordinary people cannot challenge you  at the Ontario Municipal Board, NCC, because you have a bottomless pit of taxpayer money at your disposal, it's like David fighting Goliath.
     The actions of the National Capital Commission have created a lot of resentment and bitterness in Ottawa:
---the NCC has the power to expropriate land from ordinary citizens, property that is eventually sold to real estate companies.
--- the Greenbelt is nothing more than a cash cow, according to the NCC's official plan 18,600 acres are currently earmarked for residential and commercial development. Jacques Greber created the Greenbelt as a living memorial for Canadians who died fighting in foreign wars.
---the NCC ignored former Ottawa Mayor Charlotte Whitton's decree that no buildings in the downtown core would be higher than the Peace Tower at the Parliament Buildings.
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Why is all federal Crown property in this country being sold off---read Let the Future Begin(1997).

A Fraser Institute document. The think tank also wants to see the devolution of all National Parks in British Columbia to the provincial government of  BC.

Federal Real Property Act - 1992.
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I think I understand why Crown property is called Crown property.
Why my country is always facing a national debt crisis or a national deficit---despite the fact that property worth billions of dollars is being divested. Is money from the sale of national real estate  being deposited into the Consolidated Revenue Fund?
Why were the Kingston Prison in Portsmouth, England and the Kingston Prison in Ontario both decommissioned in 2013,
Why do oil and gas companies have drilling rights on CFB Suffield Alberta land?
I know why CFB Chibougamau, in Quebec was decommissioned--- the base was sitting on top of the Chibougamau Goldfields, and the Mulroney government sold it to a mining company through a Privy Council Order-in-Council.
I wonder why CFB Falconbridge near Sudbury Ontario was decommissioned.
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Is the Canadian government selling the Ontario Staff College on Union Street in Kingston?

During the year 1971 my family and I lived in a brand-new townhouse at Eldon Hall Place, Kingston. 

     This will not be the first time that Corrections Canada has "divested" property in the City:
St. Helen's and Stone Gables - 440-442 King Street West. - 2014 - Canada Lands Company.
Prison for Women - 40 Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard - 2007. Canada Lands Company.
Kingson Penitentiary - 560 King Street West - The title will be transferred to the Canada Lands Company. According to the Federal Directory of Real Property website the Pen is still Crown property. However, that information may be out of date. The Pen was decommissioned in 2013, the same year that the Kingston Penitentiary in Portsmouth, England was shut down. Canada Lands Company will be transforming the Pen and Portsmouth Olympic Harbour into another Distillery District, with residential towers, townhouses, restaurants and a hotel.
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The government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau never funneled Corrections Canada property in Kingston to private real estate developers.
In 1969, Queen's University bought prison farm land and a limestone quarry near P4W to create another campus. The Penitentiary Water Tower is still located on the property.
During the early 1970's, a subsidized housing development called Eldon Hall Place was created on Collins Bay Institution land. Eldon Hall Place was eventually privatized by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Another CMHC property that was privatized was located on 780 Division Street:

The Kingstonian Apartments located at 780 Division Street were sold a few years ago. The classified ad is from the Globe and Mail newspaper.

Why I believe the Ontario Staff College is being sold:
1.)  Every other Correctional Service of Canada property in the vicinity has been decommissioned except for the museum at 555 King Street West---P4W, the Isabel MacNeill Halfway House, the Pen, Stone Gables, St. Helen's and the Portsmouth Community Correctional Centre, located at 508 Portsmouth Avenue.

2.)  A new Training Academy and a new Community Correctional Centre are being built on the grounds of Collins Bay Institution.

3.)  443 Union Street West was significantly renovated to provide a temporary  location for the Training Centre:
     "Although the interim location situated at the Correctional Services offices at Union Street West will serve as the current facilities, a new permanent academy was announced Friday. It will be built on the grounds of Collins Bay Institution...Significant renovations were done on the interim location to prepare it for opening...with a total cost of $7.4 million dollars." (From: Mark Gerretsen announces permanent correctional services academy in Kingston" by Alexandra Mazur, Global News---June 29, 2018).
Why is 443 Union Street a temporary location and not a permanent one? I am sure that City politicians  have had their sights on this parcel of land for a while, apparently there is a shortage of affordable housing in the community.

4.)  443 Union Street West is prime real estate and several residential towers and townhouses could be constructed on the 14.544 acres of land. This land should be green space in perpetuity.

Corrections Canada Ontario Staff College, 443 Union Street West, Kingston Ontario.

The City of Kingston and the loss of Corrections Canada properties.

Eleven Kingston Penitentiary buildings are slated for demolition, and the Prison for Women will be converted into student housing, high end condos on the top floor and commercial businesses on the ground floor. The large green space encompassing the nearby Training Centre on Union Street may be the focus of residential housing. I lived in Kingston during the 1960's and early 1970's, and it fills me with despair when I see what is happening to a beautiful, unique, historic city. Local politicians have no vision, they are on the wrong side of history, they cannot comprehend how much damage they are inflicting on the community.
A Cautionary Tale  
I lived in Toronto, Ontario 40 years ago and during the summer I spent a lot of time at the waterfront because I did not have air conditioning in my stifling Parkdale living space and I enjoyed being outdoors. There were miles and miles of green spaces, trees, playgrounds, beaches that were staffed by lifeguards, pavilions, picnic areas with tables and hibachis, horse trails...I saw people riding horses.
Everything is gone now. The Toronto waterfront now resembles Hong Kong. I have no desire to visit Toronto or Vancouver because they are concrete jungles.
     In 1972 the government of Pierre Trudeau created a Crown corporation called "Harbourfront". Harbourfront was established to revitalize 100 acres of waterfront land in Toronto, to turn the former CPR and CNR railway lands into green space and cultural attractions. The Crown corporation now owns 10 acres of land, because most of the land was taken over by condominium builders. Political leaders and many other people halted the demolition of Union Station, the Windsor Station in Montreal, Summerhill Station in North Toronto and the Conference Centre in Ottawa.

From the Globe and Mail newspaper.

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Many politicians, historical societies, tourism agencies and ordinary citizens are opposed any destruction of Kingston Penitentiary. The Big House or The Pen has dominated the waterfront for almost 200 years---if left alone, the Pen will define the skyline thousands of years from now, because it was created with limestone. The limestone Great Pyramid of Giza is 4,000 years old.
The Kingston Pen, Prison for Women, Isabel MacNeill Halfway House and Penitentiary Museum cannot be replaced. People from all over the world will not visit Kingston Ontario so they can see commemorative plaques or photographs of these buildings.

The former Warden's House, now the Penitentiary Museum, ca 1900. The photo was sent to me by the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office in Gatineau, Quebec.

The Natural Resources Complex in Ottawa will not be preserved.

     Once a federal building is transferred to a Crown corporation the building loses all heritage designation and protection. The Mulroney government  privatized thousands of Dominion Buildings that housed Canada Post, Manpower and Immigration, Canada Customs and the RCMP. The new owners had carte blanche, free reign to demolish the properties, or to convert them into high end condos.The Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office has absolutely no power to save historic buildings. I know, because years ago I contacted FHBRO to try to prevent the destruction of CFB Downsview aircraft hangars and the de Havilland factory. The factory was re purposed and Centennial College established a new campus there. To see an Earth Cam live video of the construction Google: "Campus development|Downsview campus".
FHBRO was unable to preserve:
1.)  The Veteran's Affairs Senneville Quebec property.
2.)  The Spadina Roundhouse--- demolished to pave the way for the Skydome/Rogers Centre, Toronto.
3.)  An Art Deco mail processing plant in Toronto, now the Air Canada Centre.