Tuesday, July 31, 2018

The Kingston Penitentiary cannot be altered, redeveloped or destroyed.

     The penitentiary is included in the City of Kingston, Ontario's Heritage Properties Register:
Address
560 King Street West
Name
Kingston Penitentiary - Main Complex, Main cell block, West workshop, North Lodge, East.

National Heritage Site - Yes
Federal Heritage Building - Yes
Listed Property of Cultural and Heritage Value - Yes

(Read: "(PDF) City of Kingston Heritage Properties Register").
_____________________________________________________
Many other Corrections Canada properties in the city, former and current, are also included on the register:
Address
1455 Bath Road
Name
Collins Bay Institution

Federal Heritage Building - Yes
--------------------------------------------
Address
440 King Street West
Name
St. Helen's
Former Regional Headquarters for Correctional Service of Canada.

Federal Heritage Building - Yes
Part 1V Designated - Individual properties protected under the Ontario Heritage Act - Yes
Interior Designation - Yes
----------------------------------------------
Address
462 King Street West
Name
Stone Gables
Former Regional Headquarters for Correctional Service of Canada.

Federal Heritage Building - Yes
Part 1V Designated - Yes
Interior Designation - Yes.
Stone Gables at 462 King Street West, a mansion constructed with limestone.

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The Isabel McNeill House at 525 King Street West, located directly across the street from the Prison for Women and Kingston Pen.

Address
525 King Street West

Name
Residence of the Deputy Warden of Kingston Penitentiary
The Isabel McNeill House (The minimum security women's prison was decommissioned a few years ago.)

National Historic Site - Yes
Federal Heritage Building - Yes
Listed Property of Cultural and Heritage Value - Yes.
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Address
555 King Street West

Name
The Warden's House
Canada's Penitentiary Museum

National Historic Site - Yes
Federal Heritage Building - Yes
Listed Property of Cultural and Heritage Value - Yes.

An image of the Warden's House, 555 King Street West, sent to me by staff at the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office in Gatineau, Quebec.
I visited the Penitentiary Museum a few years ago:



-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address
40 Sir John a. Macdonald Boulevard

Name 
Prison for Women
Part 1V Designated - Yes
Interior Designation - Yes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE CITY OF KINGSTON - OFFICIAL PLAN - SCHEDULE 9: HERITAGE FEATURES AND PROTECTED VIEWS:

The yellow-coloured areas on the map are Heritage Character Areas:
1.) Lower Princess Street
2.)Portsmouth Village
3.)St. Lawrence Ward
4.) Alamein Drive
5.) Cataraqui Drive
6.) Village of Westbrook
7.) Kingscourt
8.) Former psychiatric hospital
The pink-coloured area is a Heritage Corridor Area.
The orange-coloured places are Heritage Conservation Districts:
1.) Market Square
2.) Barriefield
3.) Old Sydenham



The City of Kingston Official Plan - Page 368/569 - Potential Heritage Conservation Districts- May 1 2018

7.3.C.6. The City intends to investigate areas for designation as heritage conservation districts including but not limited to:
b.) King Street West from Portsmouth Village to Barrie Street.
c.) Portsmouth Village.

What it means to be a Heritage Conservation District in Ontario:
    The immediate benefit of an HCD designation is a planning process that respects a community's history and identity.
 Character of heritage conservation districts: (From: Page 10, Heritage Conservation Districts- Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport website)

  • A concentration of heritage buildings, sites, structures; designed landscapes, natural landscapes that are linked by aesthetic, historical and socio-cultural contexts or use.

The Penitentiary Water Tower, made of limestone, is located at 244 Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard in Kingston, Ontario. 
The Penitentiary Water Tower is an 87-foot high structure that was built by Kingston Penitentiary inmates in 1895. Prison officers and their families rented the apartments beneath the water tower. Queen's University now owns the building and surrounding land.



Canada Lands Company and Canada's First Nations jointly own a Department of Fisheries and Oceans property in Vancouver.

4165 Marine Drive, West Vancouver British Columbia.
The 5 acre vacant parcel of land is worth $11.587 million dollars.
"The land will be used for significant new residential and industrial development". (From: wesellvancouver.ca, June 26 2017.)
 Remember this, people of Kingston, when you lose the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, a Department of Fisheries and Oceans Crown asset.
Canadian  federal Crown property is collectively owned by all Canadians. When Crown land is privatized, ordinary citizens lose all control over how the property will be transformed.

Politicians and members of the public were instrumental in saving:
Most of the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa. -During the Mulroney area, 91 acres of the farm were privatized, the Clyde/Merivale lands; the Central Park housing project was built on the property.
The Upton Farm and Ravenwood Farm in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
Ottawa's Conference Centre, across the street from the Chateau Laurier Hotel.
 Prison Farm Lands in Kingston, Ontario.
The Dominion Observatory on the grounds of the Central Experimental Farm.
The Kitsilano Coast Guard Station in Vancouver, reopened in the year 2016.
__________________________________________________________
Petition - Save the Kingston Portsmouth Olympic Harbour Greenspace and Character
"Despite consistent widespread community opposition to the sale of the Kingston Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, Park and the DFO greenspace at the north end of the harbour, the design plans still include consideration of the sale of these valuable public lands for the purpose of building new private housing."
____________________________________________________________
"The Big House" will be irrevocably damaged:
"Selective demolition of the Main Walls can provide entrances for automobiles and buses." (Page 74,  City of Kingston - Projects - Kingston Penitentiary and Portsmouth Olympic Harbour - Opportunities and Constraints.)
Removal of  substantial sections to permit pathways, roads, new construction, views and public access to the water.

Strategic Perforation
Holes are cut into the prison walls rather than removing them completely.






Sunday, July 29, 2018

Plans may be underway to divest the Collins Bay Penitentiary and to massively redevelop the prison's 835 acres of land.

Canada Lands Company wants the prison farm lands.
See the following report:
Frontenac Institution Lands - Queen's University.

     "Located in the urban boundary of the City of Kingston, the Frontenac Institution Lands consist of 338 hectares (835.216 acres) of land currently operated by the Correctional Services of Canada as a penal farm...It's diverse landscape consists of prime agricultural lands, forest, wetlands and floodplains..."
     "Currently, Corrections Services of Canada, a custodial department of the Federal Government, owns the Frontenac Institution Lands, and, if divested, the uses of these lands could be constrained by decisions made by the Canada Lands Company."

Planning Decisions 
Pages 71, 72, 73 and 74
6.3.1 - Residential 
6.3.2 - Neighborhood Commercial
6.3.3 - Community Facilities
6.3.4 - Agriculture
6.3.5 - Protected Areas and Open Space
6.3.6 - Transportation

Page 117 of the report Frontenac Institution Lands - Queen's University:
    "The possibility of a change in ownership to the site allows for the exploration of the opportunities the site presents."

City of Kingston Official Plan May 1 2018 - Page 49
Special Planning Areas
2.2.12
The Special Planning Area lands include the Collins Bay Institution property and a portion of the Canadian Forces Base Kingston. Both of these areas could be subject to further development in the future, but are currently being used for Federal Government purposes,

Collins Bay Institution in Kingston and all the other "aging" federal penitentiaries in Canada should be declared surplus to the needs of Corrections Canada, according to the document "A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety".
A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety
"Yesterday's infrastructure does not meet today's needs".

Recommendation 98 - The Panel recommends that CSC pursue undertaking capital and operating investments in a new type of regional penitentiary complex that responds to the cost efficiency and operational deficits of the current infrastructure.

Recommendation 100 - The Panel recommends that in the interim, CSC institute clear criteria to minimize authorization of retrofit projects.
_______________________________________________________________

According to the October 2007 report "Strengthening Public Safety - Report of the Correctional Service of Canada Review Panel: 
1.A huge new prison will be built in Kingston, Ontario and "the complex would be populated from the consolidation of existing institutions":
Pittsburgh
Joyceville
Warkworth
The Regional Treatment Centre
Kingston Penitentiary
Millhaven Penitentiary
(From: Page 198 of the Report) Prisons that that outlived their usefulness will be decommissioned.

2.) Joyceville and Pittsburgh farmland could be worth $2 million dollars, while the sale of the Regional Headquarters could net $17 million dollars. The Regional Headquarters are located on 440 King Street West and 462 King Street West in Kingston. (From: Page 208)

3.) Warkworth Penitentiary will be demolished, the Kingston Pen will become a heritage site and Corrections Canada will maintain ownership of Millhaven Penitentiary.








Stone Gables, Kingston Ontario.

Google: "Kingston Penitentiary surplus" ---go to "(pdf) Navigate the Disposal Process - Real Property Institute of Canada - November 18 2015" Page 12. Canada Lands Company owns the Laval penitentiary.
_______________________________________________________________

Canada Lands Company decided not to redevelop the Correctional Services of Canada Regional Headquarters in Kingston, Ontario because "Heritage by-laws and public purpose interest did not leave any room for CLC to add value". (Read:" Navigate the Disposal Process - Real Property Institute of Canada - November 18 2005" Page 15).
Plans were made to transfer the Regional Headquarters to Parks Canada, Queen's University and the City of Kingston.

Stone Gables at 462 King Street West in Kingston, Ontario, once owned by Corrections Canada.

Kingston Mayor Paterson:
     "I think there is some prime waterfront property there" Patterson said. "What's critical, in my view, is that we can encourage and facilitate redevelopment of these properties that would incorporate public access to the waterfront". (From: "City has interest in St. Helen's property" The Kingston Whig Standard, March 22 2015.)
Stone Gables is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building. The Council of the Corporation of the City of Kingston is trying to save 462 King Street West:
       PUBLIC NOTICE
 Notice of Intention to pass a Bylaw to Designate 462 King Street West also known as Stone Gables to be of Cultural Heritage Value and Interest - November 25 2014.
      Pursuant to the Provisions of the Ontario Heritage Act (R.S.O. 1990, Chapter 0. 18.)

A letter I wrote to The Hon. Pierre Poilievre, Federal Member of Parliament, on July 27 2010, regarding the closure of the prison farms:



Saturday, July 28, 2018

"Condos are springing up all across the country, but there is only one Kingston Penitentiary".

From a March 14 2017 letter to the Kingston Whig-Standard newspaper, by Glen Shackleton, Founder/CEO, Haunted Walks Inc.
Quote:
     "Jail tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry worldwide."

Thursday, July 26, 2018

The Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Penitentiary ---the ultimate gated community.


Photo by Richard-Pierre Vidal.
     Canada Lands Company planned to sell the former prison in Laval, Quebec to developers, or to simply demolish the complex.
Similarities between the Saint- Vincent- de- Paul Penitentiary and Kingston Penitentiary:

1.) The media uses the same terms to describe the prisons: KP and the Laval Pen are notorious."What to do with the grim fortress?" (See: "From place of dread to home sweet home" by Albert Warson, Globe and Mail, September 2005.)

2.) Canada Lands Company owns Kingston Pen and the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Pen. What a coincidence, the properties were offered to all the Canadian federal agencies and Crown corporations, but only the CLC was interested. I am surprised that Parks Canada did not try to save the prisons, because they are both National Historic Sites of Canada.

3.) People claim that the Kingston Pen and  Laval Pen are both crumbling. "We're just keeping the buildings alive".
(See: "From place of dread to home sweet home", Globe and Mail.) That is a lie. The prisons are not crumbling. As I have said before, buildings that are constructed with limestone can potentially last for thousands of years. The foundation of the Parthenon in Greece, and the Great Pyramid of Giza are made of limestone.
____________________________________________________________
Canada's Top 10 Endangered Places - National Trust for Canada 2016
     Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Penitentiary - Laval, Quebec. 
I nominate the Kingston Penitentiary and the nearby Prison for Women as 2018 Endangered Places in Canada.
The following individuals and agencies are responsible for the impending destruction of Portsmouth Village, The Big House and the Prison for Women:
Canada Lands Company - an arms-length federal Crown corporation that privatizes federal land and buildings. That specializes in real estate development and keeps all the money from the sale of former Government of Canada land and buildings---post offices, museums, experimental farms, Veterans Affairs properties...

Parks Canada - What is the point of being designated a National Historic Site of Canada if that means nothing. Once the Canada Lands Company acquires a property, the building loses all heritage designation and protection. The Air and Space Museum at Downsview found out about that convenient loophole, when they were trying to save the de Havilland Aircraft Factory. Canada Lands Company turned the de Havilland building over to Centennial College of Toronto. The Air and Space Museum had a replica of the Avro Arrow, and an original Avro Arrow may be buried at Downsview.

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A city's built history, known throughout the world, will soon be rubble, thanks to:
Insatiable greed
privatization
apathy












Wednesday, July 25, 2018

The Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was not dynamited so that high rise condos could be built on the site.

Leave the Kingston Penitentiary alone. It is a National Historic Site, a landmark.
Alcatraz Island is an American National Historic Landmark, and a very popular tourist attraction.

Clothing, jewelry, mugs and playing cards are sold at the Alcatraz gift shop:
A brass key ring.
       












_____________________________________________________________

Shutdown of Kingston Pen clears path for Alcatraz North:
     "The shuttering of Canada's oldest prison has opened up the possibility of turning the Kingston institution into a tourist destination comparable to Alcatraz." by Carys Mills, Globe and Mail, April 22 2012, updated May 8 2018.                     

Peter Hennessy, author of "Canada's Big House: The Dark History of Kingston Penitentiary":
     "The Kingston Penitentiary should be kept more or less intact as an educational institution - a museum/library, a research centre for students of criminology, a facility for high school students doing background study in citizenship education, a place for penal reformers to gather and exchange ideas, a tourist attraction."
________________________________________________________________
Prisons that were preserved:

The Carleton County Jail at 75 Nicholas Street in Ottawa is now the Ottawa Jail Hostel.

The Ontario Government is preserving the Don Jail in Toronto.

 Ontario Realty Corporation, now Infrastructure Ontario, is saving the Guelph Reformatory buildings and grounds because:
     "Guelph Correctional Centre is a very important cultural heritage landscape." (From: Amec Foster Wheeler Project, March 2017, presented to the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.)

The Cornwall, Ontario jail is a tourist attraction:




Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta in the year 1990.

My Mother and I.

Wild animals that wander into populated areas of Waterton cannot be harmed, thanks to law enforcement officials and vigilant townspeople. The Prince of Wales Hotel can be seen in the background.


Waterton Lakes National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site,an International Peace Park and a World Biosphere Reserve.
The Prince of Wales Hotel is a railway hotel:
My sister.

Monday, July 23, 2018

How to prepare the people of Kingston for the demolition of two landmarks.

The landmarks in question are the Kingston Penitentiary and the former Prison for Women, located directly across the street.
1.) Demonize the Kingston Pen and the Prison for Women:
"A notorious piece of Kingston Ontario's history could soon be in for a major transformation." (From: Developer eyes Kingston's shuttered women's prison" by Kristy Nease, CBC News.)

" Kingston Pen: 7 things to know about Canada's notorious prison" by Daniel Schwartz, CBC News.

2.) Pretend that local residents actually have a voice, have any input into how the properties will be redeveloped. 

3.) Use mystical phrases like "visioning exercise" and "exploration illustration" to cover up what will actually happen to the Kingston Pen. Do not say:
    "We will use wrecking balls to destroy an irreplaceable part of Canada's history---the guard towers, walls and buildings within the prison."
    "KP is a National Historic Site of Canada that could last 4,000 years, because it was constructed with limestone and designed by world-famous architects. But we're taking it down anyway, because we want to see 25-storey condos and townhouses on the site."
     "Our lawyers are working with city councillors to change zoning laws on this property, from "institutional" to "high-density residential","commercial" and "recreational".

     "Your low-key Village of Portsmouth will morph into the City of Portsmouth, and there will be an increase in crime, environmental pollution, vehicle traffic, noise, a need for more infrastructure like sewers and traffic lights..." An unremitting nightmare is the real vision that awaits you, because you trusted the wrong people.
     
4.) Pretend that walls and buildings are being removed for the benefit of the public, not to create more space for residential towers:

     "In order to create a residential community that is open, accessible and connected to the waterfront, removal of the wall and many existing buildings is required in the southern part of the former penitentiary." (Portsmouth Visioning, Page 17.)
The character of Portsmouth Village will be irrevocably changed by the presence of residential towers that block the view of Lake Ontario; by the mutation of the Prison for Women and KP; by the construction of a new road and pedestrian pathways.
Participatory democracy means that citizens have the power to veto political decisions that negatively impact the quality of their lives--- their environment, their history and habitat.

5.) Do not tell local residents that tourism will be affected by the loss of the two prisons. A preserved Penitentiary and Prison for Women offer massive opportunities for tourism. Open up the tunnel that connects the Pen and P4W, put telescopes in the guard towers, sell t-shirts and postcards that promote the city and its irreplaceable history. Line the walls with works of art painted by former prisoners. Do not deny your history...the prisons will always be part of your  collective consciousness, people of  Kingston. They are magnificent symbols that you should be proud of.Parts of the movie "Alias Grace" by Margaret Atwood were filmed at Kingston Penitentiary.,and the last scene in the first "Superman" movie.

6.) Do not mention the fact that many signs will be posted on the site: private property, access denied, no trespassing.

Former Canadian military properties.

From: My father George Shaw's magazine "Canadian Armed Forces Review" May/June 1969.
Several military properties were transferred to a federal Crown corporation that privatizes federal land and buildings:
ONTARIO
CFB Rockcliffe Ottawa - Canada Lands Company.
CFB Downsview, Toronto - Canada Lands Company. The original Denison Armoury was demolished by Canada Lands Company.
CFB London - Wolseley Barracks - Canada Lands Company


BRITISH COLUMBIA
CFB Chilliwack - Canada Lands Company
RCAF Station Jericho Beach, Vancouver - Canada Lands Company

MANITOBA
CFB Winnipeg - Kapyong Barracks - Canada Lands Company

ALBERTA
CFB Calgary - Currie Barracks - Canada Lands Company
CFB Edmonton - Griesbach Barracks - Canada Lands Company

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
CFS Summerside - Sold for $1 dollar (One Dollar) to a private, profit making company, see the Stevie Cameron book "On the Take".

NOVA SCOTIA
CFB Shearwater - Canada Lands Company. The federal government then paid the Crown corporation so that CFB Shearwater could be returned to the federal inventory.

Shannon Park in Dartmouth - Canada Lands Company
Naval Radio Station Albro Lake, Dartmouth - PMQ's were transferred to Canada Lands Company.

NEWFOUNDLAND
CFS St. John's, Pleasantville - Canada Lands Company

QUEBEC
CFB Saint-Hubert - Canada Lands Company

CFB Chibougamau - located on top of the Chibouagamau Gold Fields. Sold during the Mulroney era via a Federal Order-in-Council, to a gold mining company.



My Dad at the American Thule Air Force Base in Greenland, 1968. The base is 1,207 km north of the Arctic Circle,and 1,524 km from the North Pole.
Thule Air Force Base, Greenland.

Saturday, July 21, 2018

People who are trying to save Kingston Penitentiary.

The Honourable Mark Gerretsen, Federal Member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands:
   "At the municipal level, Kingston Mayor Mark Gerretsen said he wants the site to be preserved, but he's more focused on what the closing means for prison workers". (From: "Ottawa puts $17.6 million dollar price tag on Kingston Penitentiary" by Carys Mills, Globe and Mail, May 20 2012.)

Dr. Jennifer McKendry, Kingston Architectural Historian (Read: Still Standing: Looking at Regional Architecture with Jennifer McKendry--LIMELIGHT, Newsletter of the Kingston Historical Society April 2016, Page 5).

Floyd Patterson, Frontenac Heritage Foundation:
"The federal government has the power to demolish them...However, we concluded that would be absolutely atrocious, grievous, scandalous...for the federal government to ever attempt to do that." (From: Group tries to get Kingston Penitentiary heritage status" by Peter Hendra, Sun Media.)

Ed Grenda, Frontenac Heritage Foundation.

Bill Glover, Councillor for Sydenham District.

Glen Shackleton, Founder/CEO, Haunted Walks Inc.

Petition Don't Erase History - Protect the Penitentiary - Help preserve the National Historic Site of Kingston Penitentiary-
Comments
1.)It's so important to keep Canada's history alive. Nothing compares to seeing and touching our past first hand. Kingston Penitentiary is not a glamorous historical landmark but it is a place where men, women and for a time children , served their time.

2.) Being such  a huge part of our Nation's history we should preserve it. Let's look at the possibilities for the city of Kingston making a profit by leaving our history intact.

3.) This prison deserves to be preserved as one of Canada's historical sites!



Friday, July 20, 2018

Photographs taken in Nova Scotia.

The BLUENOSE in Lunenburg. The image of the schooner is featured on Canada's dimes.
Peggy's Cove Lighthouse, Nova Scotia.
Lunenburg, a UNESCO World Heritage City.
Halifax

The Canada Lands Company is destroying the de Havilland Aircraft Building in Downsview.

 The completely gutted heritage building will be a satellite campus for Centennial College in Toronto. 
Downsview Park is a Canada Lands Company subsidiary.

The Government of Canada never wanted to "dispose of " Canadian Forces Base Downsview to a profit making Crown corporation that collects millions of dollars from residential and commercial real estate entities.
1.) "A number of Senators wanted to obtain some information on Parc Downsview Park...usually when the federal government declares a land surplus, it is turned over to Canada Lands Company Limited...However ND did not want to divest itself of the Downsview military base"(Google: Journals Issue 97, November 22 2005.).

2.)  "When we closed those bases, in particular Downsview, we said that the land would be retained in perpetuity for future generations, primarily as a unique, open, recreational green space. The reason we put primarily in there is that other ongoing uses would still be permitted...It was always intended for a portion of the land to remain in the title of National Defence so that if,God forbid, we were in an emergency situation whereby that land would be required for emergency defence operations, it would be there". (Google: Points of Order - June 11, 2001- Downsview David Collenette.)






Monday, July 16, 2018

The desecration of Kingston Penitentiary.


Are you serious? The Kingston Penitentiary is a National Historic Site of Canada, a former Classified Federal Heritage Building complex, and a famous landmark known throughout the world. A landmark that could last 4,000 years, because it was built with limestone.
But heritage apparently means nothing to Kingston Mayor Paterson or Councillor Liz Schell.

Canada Lands Company has been liquidating Canadian federal property for decades.

The 100,000 acres of Canadian National Railway land, owned by the people of Canada, were privatized.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has been delisted from the Federal Directory of Real Property.

RCMP Headquarters at 3139 and 3151 Oxford Street in Halifax were transferred to Canada Lands for disposal.

In April of 1998 all residential land holdings of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, worth $62 million dollars were transferred to Canada Lands. That includes Benny Farm and Regent Park.
Vacant land next to CMHC Headquarters at 800 Montreal Road in Ottawa was recently sold.

One thousand lighthouses were declared "surplus" by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. And a Coast Guard Base in Kingston, Ontario has to relocate so that Canada Lands Company can sell the land to high rise condominium builders.

Dozens of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada experimental farms are gone.

The 27 Veterans Affairs hospitals were declared "surplus" including Senneville Lodge and the Rideau Veterans property on Smyth Road next to CHEO and the Ottawa General Hospital. Submission on Canada Lands project - 363 Smyth Road, Ottawa:
     "It is apparent that the consensus from the residents in the surrounding communities was overwhelmingly negative. The only beneficiaries will be Canada Lands and the developers who are contracted to do the development...This totally unnecessary and unwanted project has now been approved over our heads by the city." 
     The National Defence Medical Centre on Alta Vista Drive  in Ottawa will eventually be transferred to the Canada Lands Company.

Save the Greenbelt! Ottawa plans to turn 1/3rd of the Greenbelt into subdivisions---Ottawa.
Keep Ottawa's Greenbelt Green---Ottawa.

Now its time to sell off the entire portfolio of "aging" Corrections Canada prisons, including the Prison for Women, Kingston Pen, the Canada Lands Company owned St. Vincent de Paul Penitentiary, Collins Bay, Saskatchewan Pen, Beaver Creek in Muskoka...

Then it will be time to sell off the Environment Canada/Parks Canada properties, the National Historic Sites and National Parks.The Citadels in Quebec and Nova Scotia. Fort Henry in Kingston. Don't laugh, this has been their plan all along. As I mentioned before, the Fraser Institute is calling for the transfer of all National Parks in British Columbia to the Province of British Columbia. The Fraser Institute document outlining their recommendations called "Introduction When a Country" was removed from the Internet.
Let the Future Begin 1997.
According to the above document "Let the Future Begin" all federal property in Canada will be transferred to the Canada Lands Company. That includes the National Parks in Alberta....Banff National Park, Jasper National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park.

Canada Lands Company privatizes Government of Canada real estate, and keeps all the money from the sale of property to developers and other entities.

Sunday, July 15, 2018

The Government of Canada supports UNESCO's Heritage Emergency Fund.

     "We recognize the role that heritage plays with regard to identity, cultural diversity, peace and security, as well as the importance of international cooperation to preserve it..." The Honorable Melanie Joly, Canadian Federal Minister of Heritage, in the year 2017.

UNESCO Heritage Emergency funds are provided to already designated World Heritage Sites that are at risk, because of urban development, weather conditions, vandalism...

1.) The UNESCO Historic City of Vienna - endangered because of new high rise projects.

2.) The UNESCO Liverpool-Maritime Mercantile City - endangered due to the proposed redevelopment of historic docklands, called Liverpool Waters.
Liverpool Waters, a massive redevelopment of the city's waterfront, that will probably never get off the ground because of the city's designation as a world heritage site.

    Either the entire city of Kingston, Ontario or the Village of Portsmouth should be proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site. That will save the Pen from being flattened.
And the beautiful murals depicting angels, clouds and unicorns that were painted on the Administration Building vestibule walls were probably whitewashed.
 The City of Kingston, Ontario already has a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Kingston Fortifications:
Fort Henry
Fort Frederick
the Murney Tower
the Shoal Tower
the Cathcart Martello Tower

One of the nightmare scenarios for The Big House.

_____________________________________________________________________
Mahatma Gandhi once said:
        "A nation's culture resides in the hearts and the soul of its people".

Kingston, Ontario is known as "The Limestone City" where history meets innovation. Queen's University, Fort Henry, the Royal Military College, the Martello Towers, the limestone Prison for Women and The Big House and many other buildings and complexes are part of the city's DNA, it's heart and soul.



Saturday, July 14, 2018

My father loved beautiful buildings and landmarks.

Postcard- Cathedral Haupstadt in Berlin
The following photographs were taken in Germany during the 1960's.







               

Postcard-Westphalen, Germany
Postcard- The oldest town of Westphalia Historic Site.
Postcard - Soest

Many people in Kingston, Ontario are opposed to waterfront development plans.

Petition to Conserve the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour (POH) Greenspace and Character
WE DO NOT WANT TO GIVE UP THIS GREAT WATERFRONT PARK TO DEVELOPMENT

Comments
1.) This is our park, it should not be for sale, as well as the Kingston Pen. They olympic harbour is already there for use by the sailboaters. AS well...the City urgently needs stable revenue...use the Kingston Pen as a tourist attraction! don't tear down the walls!

2.) Developing this beautiful space would be an absolute travesty.

3.) Kingston needs to hold on to its green spaces.

4.) Taking beautiful space from the people of the community is just another example of the greed of people and politicians. It's a great shame.

5.) I believe in preserving our green space and park lands - they are irreplaceable. You can build anywhere...else.
_____________________________________________________________________

Petition Don't Erase History - Protect the Penitentiary
Help preserve the National Historic Site of Kingston Penitentiary

Comments
1.) It's so important to keep Canada's history alive. Nothing compares to seeing and touching our past first hand. Kingston Penitentiary is not a glamorous historical landmark but it is a place where men, (wo)men and for a time children, served their time..

2.) Being such a huge part of our Nation's history we should preserve it. Let's look at the possibilities for the city of Kingston making a profit by leaving our history intact.

3.) This prison deserves to be preserved as one of Canada's historical sites!

______________________________________________________________________

Frontenac Heritage Foundation - "The Importance of Kingston Penitentiary" 
A November 2016 meeting.

Friday, July 13, 2018

Destroying a country's built heritage is indefensible.

  "Destruction of cultural heritage is an attack on people and their fundamental rights" - United Nations expert. 
  Plans are underway to demolish half of the Kingston Penitentiary, so that residential towers, a hotel and townhouses can be built on the site. Much of Canada's railway and military history is gone, thanks to out-of-control federal Crown corporations:

1.) The Spadina roundhouse in Toronto was removed to make way for the Skydome/Rogers Centre.
2.) The Kingston Ontario CNR train station...gone.
3.) The National Capital Commission planned to demolish the CNR train station in Ottawa, now the Conference Centre - read "NCC blunders".
4.) the Parkdale and Sunnyside train stations in Toronto - gone.
 Many federal Crown corporations in Canada are permitted to keep all the money from the sale of land and buildings to developers.

PUBLIC LAND THAT IS OWNED BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE

The Portsmouth Olympic Harbour in Kingston, Ontario is a Department of Fisheries and Oceans property. Canada Lands Company plans to buy the site.
In Richmond, British Columbia there was tremendous opposition to the proposed massive redevelopment of a Fisheries and Oceans Canada property the Garden City Lands:
1.) Petition Update - Garden City Land GRAB
2.) Save Garden City - the Coalition request to Canada Lands Company.
The 136.5 acre Garden City Lands were eventually purchased by the City of Richmond, and the entire parcel of land is a public park.

The Upton Farm in Charlottetown Prince Edward Island is now green space, thanks to federal, provincial and municipal politicians:
Federal Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz, who also saved the Ravenwood Experimental Farm in Charlottetown.
Prince Edward Island Premier Pat Binns
Prince Edward Island Premier Robert Ghiz
Member of Federal Parliament Shawn Murphy
Conservative Candidate Tom DeBois
Charlottetown Mayor Clifford Lee
City MLA's
The song "Help Save Old Upton Farm" is on YouTube.
The 246-acre parcel of land was bought by the province of PEI, Upton Farm is a public park.
The 246-acre former Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Experimental Farm.
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The Old Town of Lunenburg and the Historic District of Old Quebec are UNESCO World Heritage sites in Canada. It is time for Kingston, Ontario to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
 To keep the Kingston Pen and Prison for Women from being dynamited out of existence. To save Rockwood and the Portsmouth Harbour.

Former American First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and many other people helped to save Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Letter from Jacqueline Kennedy to Mayor Beame:
              Dear Mayor Beame: Is it not cruel to let our city die by degrees, stripped of all her proud moments, until there is nothing left of all her history and beauty to inspire our children? If they are not inspired by the past of our city where will they find the strength to fight for our future? Americans care about their past, but for short term gain they ignore it and tear down everything that matters.