My grandfather's mansion in Easton's Corners Ontario.

An Ottawa Citizen article about the Manor - September 14,1968.

My 5th birthday, 1956.

Members of my family with their dog Brandy - Lethbridge, Alberta 1972.

Eldon Hall Place in Kingston, Ontario was privatized.

   The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation created Eldon Hall Place during the early 1970's. In 1971 my family and I moved into a three-bedroom Eldon Hall Place townhouse. All the townhouses were subsidized housing units, otherwise my mother and her half a dozen children could not have afforded to live there. Eldon Hall is now private property.

Other Canada Mortgage and Housing properties:
Regent Park - Toronto
Willow Park - Winnipeg
Little Mountain - Vancouver
Habitat- built for Expo 67 and designed by Moshe Safdie.

The Calvin Park and Polson Park communities were built on Corrections Canada farm land:
     "The Federal Department of Justice owned one of the largest portions of institutional land in the city, the Penitentiary Farm. That farm, located in Kingston's west end would become the site of both Polson Park and Calvin Park." (From: (PDF) polson park and calvin park - 1954-1962, page 5/12.)

According to a document called Frontenac Institution Lands - Queen's University, 835 acres of Collins Bay Pen property may eventually be sold off:
     "Located in the urban boundary of the City of Kingston, the Frontenac institution Lands consist of 338 hectares (835.21 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."
    Many people are opposed to the privatization of prison farm land, myself included. I wrote the following letter to Member of Parliament Pierre Poilievre eight years ago:

1971 photos of me taken at Eldon Hall Place, which was built on the grounds of Collins Bay Institution.

New Westminster Federal Penitentiary in British Columbia.

          After the New Westminster Penitentiary was decommissioned, the walls and most of the buildings were demolished. The land was sold to builders of residential housing.

The Pen Cafe (Photo from FoodPages.ca)

(Photo from Global News)

                               

The Library and Archives Building in Ottawa has been sold.

The building is no longer listed in the Federal Directory of Real Property website.
I hope that 395 Wellington Street will not be flattened or converted into condos--- this magnificent property has marble stairs and high ceilings.
    The City of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission are involved in a joint venture, the construction of a super library on the grounds of the LeBreton Flats. The taxpayers of Canada will pay $70 million dollars for their share of the project. (See: "Council approves spending, selling and borrowing for super library" by Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, June 13, 2018.)   
  As I have said before, the National Capital Commission is permitted to keep the money from the sale of federal government land and buildings. And they have to be contacted whenever a Canadian government agency, Crown corporation or department decides to "dispose of" real property. I wonder how much money they raked in from the sale of the Archives.

The 130-acre LeBreton Flats, Ottawa.

   

The City of Kingston Official Plan (2010) has been amended.

     The Official Plan alterations will facilitate the massive redevelopment of the Kingston Penitentiary, Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, and the Psychiatric Hospital land.

The purple-coloured area is called a heritage corridor, where much of the intensification will take place. The arrows pertain to protected views of Lake Ontario. Views of the Lake will be blocked once the high-rises are built.

Amendment 
     The City's existing Centres and Corridors as shown in Schedule 2, are areas of mixed use and mixed buildings, including employment, residential, commercial and supporting uses and facilities.
     These will be the areas where intensification will be focused, and where greater densities of residential and non-residential development will be focused. 
     Intensification in the form of high density development proposed in a Centre or Corridor that is not subject to area specific planning policies included in Section 10, will be considered subject to the policies of Section 3.3. C of this Plan. (From: Page 68/569)
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The Ontario Realty Corporation is selling much of the Psychiatric Hospital land. The ORC is now called Infrastructure Ontario--- a provincial Crown corporation that privatizes publicly-owned land and buildings. Their holdings include the Rideau Regional Centre in Smiths Falls, Bowmanville POW camp, Guelph Reformatory and hospitals. Who gave gave the ORC the authortity to sell this property, it is a designated cultural heritage landscape. Plans are already underway to sell the land for residential and commercial development. High rises will block the views of Rockwood, the Villa and Lake Ontario.

     By-laws were created to protect historical buildings and landscapes:
Section 7:
     "The City of Kingston is well-known for its cultural heritage resources, which play a key role in the City's identity, and contribute to its economic prosperity as well as to the cultural enrichment of its residents and visitors."
     "It is intended that the City's cultural heritage resources will be protected..." (Amended by By-Law Number 2017-157, OPA Number 50.)
Pages 352 to 359.
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Register of Significant Built Heritage Resources

     "The City will maintain a Register of Built Heritage Resources that are considered significant and have been publicly identified by one or more of the following means:

1. designated under the Ontario Heritage Act;
2. protected by a heritage conservation easement entered into under the Ontario Heritage Act;
3. designated by the National Historic Sites and Monuments Board as a National Historic Site or Park;
4. identified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site;
5. identified by the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office as a Classified or Recognized Federal Heritage Building;
6. endorsed by the Council of the Corporation of the City of Kingston as having heritage value or interest. (Amended by By-Law Number 2017-57,OPA Number 50)

Pages 352 to 359.

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I would not count on the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office to save anything, they approved the "disposal" of 1,000 government of Canada lighthouses, including Peggy's Cove; and they never intervened when Canadian National Railway train stations were sold off or left to rot.
The impending demolition of landmarks awakened me from my slumber. I cannot wrap my head around the fact that our most important landmarks are being privatized..A true Canadian, someone who loves this country, would never approve of what is happening in this community.
     Tourists do not flock to this country so they can see high rise condominiums.
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The City of Kingston Official Plan (2010) document mentions a huge residential project that will be built along Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard. The Correctional Services of Canada Regional Headquarters for Ontario are located at Union Street West, along Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard. The Corrections Canada campus at 443 Union Street will eventually be sold off, according to the 1997 document "Let the Future Begin" all federal properties in Canada will be transferred to the Canada Lands Company.
 Corrections Canada has already divested Kingston Penitentiary, the Prison for Women and
the St. Helen's complex on King Street.

The Ontario Staff College provides education and training for people who work in prisons. See the Global News video "New Correctional Service training academy coming to Kingston."
     There are plans to decommission the Collins Bay Institution, Joyceville and other Kingston area prisons, see my blog "Plans are already underway to divest the Collins Bay Penitentiary and to massively redevelop the prison's 835 acres of land".

The Union Street in Kingston Training Academy.

The Corrections Canada buildings and land are located at the corner of Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard and Union Street in Kingston .

This land will be untouchable if Kingston Ontario is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. All land and buildings pertaining to the theme "Kingston - The Penitentiary City" will be off limits to real estate developers including:

• Kingston Penitentiary
• the Prison for Women
• the Penitentiary Water Tower
• The Church of the Good Thief
• Stone Gables
• Rockwood
• Collins Bay Institution
• The Penitentiary Museum
• the Isabel McNeill halfway house.

Canadian writer Margaret Atwood and many other individuals protested against the closure of prison farms in Kingston and other communities, see the video "Til the Cows Come Home" (Official Trailer.)

Why Kingston, Ontario in Canada should be a UNESCO World Heritage City.

1. UNESCO can save the Kingston Penitentiary and the Prison for Women.
2. Future real estate development will obscure views of landmarks - the Prison for Women, Rockwood. and Collins Bay Penitentiary.
3. All the buildings listed below were constructed with limestone.
4. They were constructed by Kingston Penitentiary inmates.
5. The buildings are historic, and most of them share a common theme.

     The buildings in question are:

1. Kingston Penitentiary
2. The Prison for Women
3. Collins Bay Penitentiary
4. The Church of the Good Thief
5. Rockwood Asylum
6. The Penitentiary Water Tower
7. Stone Gables
8. Isabel McNeill House; the Deputy Warden's House; a half-way house for females.
9. The Warden's House - Now the Penitentiary Museum.

  Kingston, Ontario is known as "The Limestone City", "Canada's Penitentiary City" and the city's motto is "Where history and innovation thrive".
 The Australian Convict Sites are protected by UNESCO---because they served a common purpose; because inmates helped to build the prisons, and tunnels connected some of the buildings.In order to be nominated, the properties have to be already classified. All the before mentioned structures have been classified by either the federal, provincial or city governments:

• Kingston Penitentiary - A National Historic Site of Canada, Classified Federal Heritage Building,
• Prison for Women - Recognized Federal Heritage Building
• Collins Bay Penitentiary - The Administration Building is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building.
• The Church of the Good Thief - Designated by the City of Kingston under Part 1V of the Ontario Heritage Act.
• Rockwood Asylum - The entire property where Rockwood is located is a province of Ontario cultural heritage landscape, recognized through Section 7 of the City's Official Plan (2010). The properties are also designated under Part 1V of the Ontario Heritage Act.
• The Penitentiary Water Tower - In 1969 Queen's University bought 61 acres of land from Corrections Canada. A Kingston Penitentiary prison farm and a limestone quarry were located on the site. The Queen's University West Campus on Union Street is on the City of Kingston Heritage Register.
• Stone Gables - A Recognized Federal Heritage Building. 
• Isabel McNeill House - Part of the Kingston Penitentiary National Historic Site of Canada.
• The Warden's House - Part of the Kingston Penitentiary National Historic Site of Canada.

A tunnel connects the Kingston Penitentiary to the Prison for Women. Criteria that applies to the nine buildings that should be protected by the United Nations:

1.) Definition of Cultural and Natural Heritage
Article 1
For the purpose of this convention, the following shall be considered as "cultural heritage";
      groups of buildings, groups of separate or connected buildings which, because of their architecture; their homogeneity or their place in the landscape, are of outstanding value from the point of view of history, art or science. (From: Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.)



The Prison for Women was built by Kingston Penitentiary inmates, see the document below:

Staff at the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office in Gatineau, Quebec mailed this report to me.

Canada's Penitentiary Museum is located in the former Kingston Penitentiary Warden's House at 555 King Street West. I visited the museum a few years ago:

Fort York in Toronto.

     Condominiums were built on the grounds of Fort York in Toronto Ontario, the Condos of Fort York. In the year 1903 the government of Canada gave 143 acres of Fort York land to the Canadian National Exhibition.  Promises were made, that the land would always be public. Instead, companies like Molsons and the Weston corporation annexed the property. The Gardiner Expressway was constructed on Fort York.



.
 

Is Canada really a democracy.

     The word democracy is derived from the Greek word demokratia, meaning "rule by the people."

Federal property worth billions of dollars is being divested via Privy Council Orders in Council. Former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker thought Orders-in-Council were undemocratic because they bypass Parliament.
     A speech Prime Minister John Diefenbaker gave to the Empire Club, Royal York Hotel, October 27 1949:  "Without an Opposition, discussion would end and be supplanted by virtual dictatorship, for governments prefer to rule by orders-in-council to Parliament, and bureaucrats prefer to be uncontrolled by Parliament or the courts."
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     During the year 1985 Canadians owned land, buildings and landmarks worth $60 billion dollars. (Read the book "On the Take" by Stevie Cameron---interview with former Minister of Public Works Erik Nielsen.)  By the year 1997, 20 billion dollars worth of Crown property had been sold. (See the document "Let the Future Begin").Why do Crown corporations operate at arms length from the government, from the people. They are not arms-length from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, our national treasury.

People of Kingston, your Martello Towers will be sold off.

     The Martello Towers in Kingston are National Historic Sites of Canada, but that means nothing. Parks Canada designated the Kingston Penitentiary a National Historic Site of Canada, and now half of  the Pen is facing demolition. They also failed to protect the de Havilland building at Downsview in Toronto, hundreds of CPR and CNR train stations; the Laval Federal Penitentiary and the New Westminster Federal Penitentiary.
 As I have said before, the Fraser Institute is calling for the devolution of the National Parks in British Columbia to the province of B.C. The document " Let the Future Begin" by Jean Charest reveals the fact that all federal properties in Canada will be transferred to the Canada Lands Company.

Government leaders in Great Britain privatized many Martello or Napoleonic towers and sold them to real estate developers. They also denationalized council flats, and many episodes of the television show Location, Location, Location feature council or subsidized housing flats that are now worth $100,000 dollars at the very least.
Lighthouses, train stations, prisons and armouries---property that was collectively owned by the citizens of Great Britain---are gone.
Canada is following Great Britain's lead. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation subsidized housing complexes like Benny Farm and Regent Park are gone.

 The Windsor Ontario armoury was sold to the University of Windsor.
     British Rail was privatized in 1994, while the Canadian National Railway was sold off in 1995.
The British Transport Hotels were denationalized in 1982, while the Government of Canada waited until 1988 to transfer our railway hotels to Canadian Pacific Hotels. The CNR and CPR hotels were eventually bought by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.
     Over 1,000 lighthouses were declared "surplus" by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
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     The Royal Mail in England and Canada Post properties were privatized by the same person, Dame Moya Greene(Canada Lands Company executive).

Many of these Canada Post properties in Toronto were sold to condominium builders.

Canada Post building at 685 Danforth in Toronto - now a Dollarama.

704 Spadina - sold to the University of Toronto.

1075 Queen Mary East - now a condo.

50 Charles Street East - condominium.

162 Queens Quay - now a condo.

2384 Yonge Street - condominiums.
772 Dovercourt Road is a commercial building.

Canada Lands Company demolished a massive Canada Post mail sorting plant at 1500 rue Ottawa Street in Griffintown Montreal to make way for residential development.

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The Official Flag for the City of Kingston features a Martello Tower. And the logo for the Original  Hockey Hall of Fame Museum located at 1350 Gardeners Road in Kingston has a Martello Tower image.

The Official City of Kingston Flag.

     The Smith Robinson building in Kingston was a government of Canada Crown asset. But Veteran's Affairs declared the building surplus.

The denationalization of federal property in Canada.

   "Crown land is the term used to describe land owned by the federal or provincial governments. Authority for control of these public lands rests with the Crown, hence their name."(From: The Canadian Encyclopedia.)
The City of Kingston planned to build a housing complex on "surplus" federal land in Barriefield:
     "We, the undersigned, who are not residents of Barriefield, wish to register our displeasure at the intent of Kingston City Council to build a housing project on "buffer land" attached to the Village.(From: Kingston City Council meeting, October 20, 2009.) The Village of Barriefield is a Heritage Conservation District of Ontario, to save the area from real estate development similar to what is now engulfing the Village of Portsmouth.

National Parks
 Parks Canada is involved with the plan to monetize our National Historic Sites and parkland, which will leave little public land for future generations. One of the most traumatic events in my life happened in 1963, when a woman who bought my grandfather's mansion in Easton's Corners, Ontario told me, my grandmother and my mother to "Get off my property". Our grandchildren will hear that phrase many times, thanks to apathetic Canadians who let the global corporation General Electric buy CPR land; who let a global corporation buy our railway hotels. Foreign oil and gas companies operate on Crown land, for example the Suffield DND base in Alberta.

Canadians do not own the CN Tower.

And they never will.
 The CN Tower was a Canadian National Railway real estate asset. When the railway was privatized in 1995, all the real estate owned by the Crown corporation was transferred to the Canada Lands Company.

     "In Canada, Crown corporations, within either the federal or provincial sphere, are owned by the Monarch as the institution's legal shareholder...This follows the legal premise that the Crown, as an institution, owns all the property of the state."(From: Wikipedia - Crown corporations). I would like to decipher what that paragraph means exactly. The CLC is called an agent of Her Majesty. Why is federal property in my country called Crown property?
Who exactly is profiting the billions of dollars that Canada Lands Company receives from the sell-off of public land and buildings?  Only a fraction of the money is deposited into the Consolidated Revenue Fund. The CRF is the national treasury of my country. The Dominion Public Building across the street from Union Station in Toronto was recently sold for $275 million dollars by Canada Lands. And a sailing group offered to buy Kingston Penitentiary.

 During the early 1980's I was a cleaning lady at the Conference Centre, a federal building which is across the street from the Chateau Laurier Hotel. I had to wear a uniform, a name tag, and I had to swear an Oath of Allegiance to the Sovereign before a commissionaire. I could never afford to buy a house, but I and millions of other Canadians actually owned the former train station.

 UNESCO is called upon to save many of Canada's National Parks and and National Historic Sites. Parks Canada is not saving our national landmarks, the agency approved the impending demolition of  Kingston Penitentiary and the conversion of the Prison for Women in Kingston into housing.
 The CLC is currently selling at a frenzied pace:
Vacant land along Carling Avenue and Gladstone Avenue, which are part of Ottawa's Little Italy.

Health Canada laboratories

Fisheries and Oceans marinas

Government buildings

Prisons
 mail sorting plants

 Years ago there was an attempt to remove the words Canadian and Canada from the word mark CN Tower. A statue called "The Universal Man" was wrenched from the base of the CN Tower, then the statue was face down in the the mud and snow for years, while the Skydome was being built on CLC land.

The Universal Man by Gerald Gladstone is now standing in a Yorkdale Mall, Toronto parking lot.

The CLC  will profit immensely from the ruination of a beautiful city in Ontario, Kingston. They have no respect for Canada's prison, military, railway or maritime history.

 All the evidence that the Prison for Women was a prison is being removed and relocated to the Penitentiary Museum or Kingston Penitentiary.

Canada Lands Company acquisitions during the years 2016-2017.

1.) 401 LeBreton Street, part of Little Italy, Ottawa. The land was owned by the National Capital Commission and Public Works and Government Services Canada. The NCC has to be informed whenever a Government of Canada Crown corporation, agency or department plans to "dispose of" a real property.

2.) 933 Gladstone, Ottawa - The site is part of Little Italy. Canada Lands Company sold the land for $7 million dollars; a couple of thousand people will live on the 7.26 acre site which was bought by Ottawa Community Housing.

3.) 3139 and 3151 Oxford Street in Halifax - RCMP Headquarters in Halifax. The CLC is also selling the an RCMP property in Vancouver, the Fairmont Training Academy.

4.) 305 Rideau Street, Ottawa - The Constitution Building at the corner of King Edward and Rideau Street.

All Federal Government of Canada property will be privatized by Canada Lands Company.

Updated

"Let the Future Begin" March 1997.

Corrections Canada Crown assets that were privatized by CLC:

Federal Penitentiaries - Kingston Penitentiary, Prison for Women in Kingston; Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Penitentiary in Laval Quebec.

A half-way house - Isabel McNeill House, Kingston

Corrections Canada Headquarters - 440-442 King Street West, Kingston
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Fisheries and Oceans Canada- Portsmouth Olympic Harbour , Kingston; Port Credit Marina land in Mississauga; the West Vancouver Laboratory;

(Petition - Save the Kingston Portsmouth Olympic Harbour Greenspace and Character
  Despite consistent widespread community opposition to the sale of the Kingston POH  park and the  DFO greenspace at the north end of the harbour, the decision plans still include consideration of the sale of these valuable public lands for the purpose of building new private housing.)
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DND - Jericho lands - Point Grey, Vancouver; Downsview in Toronto; Rockcliffe, Ottawa; Shannon Park in Nova Scotia; Shearwater; Nova Scotia; Pleasantville Newfoundland;CFB Chilliwack; CFB Saint Hubert; CFB Calgary.

Dominion Buildings in Lethbridge Alberta; Toronto, Ontario and Charlottetown PEI.

Hotels - Chateau Laurier, Hotel Macdonald, Jasper Park Lodge, Bessborough, Nova Scotian, Fort Garry Hotel, Queen Elizabeth Hotel.

Canada Mortgage and Housing - In April of 1998 the residential land holdings of CMHC worth over $62 million dollars were transferred to CLC.
Approved September 1999 - Order-in-Council-1999-1565- Transfer to Canada Lands Company CLC Ltd. of the title to some 42,909 square metres of waterfront land in Montreal, Quebec known as Parc de la Cite du Havre. (The Gateway to Expo 67.)
     Land next to CMHC Headquarters, 800 Montreal Road Ottawa.

1976 Montreal Olympics -

2014 Vancouver Olympics

1984 Vancouver Expo

Veterans Affairs - National Defence Medical Centre on Smyth Road Ottawa; Senneville Lodge in Quebec

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - Most of the real estate is gone, the CBC has been delisted from the Directory of Federal Real Property.

Canada Post - Dame Moya Greene was involved with the denationalization of Canada Post and Royal Mail Crown assets. She was also the head of a Crown corporation that sold Canadian National Railway real estate called Canada Lands Company/CN Real Estate.

Natural Resources Canada- Booth Street Complex,Ottawa

Canadian National Railway - was Canada's first Crown corporation. The CNR, "The People's Railway" owned irreplaceable Crown property - hotels that were bought by Fairrmont; train stations; land; the CN Tower; land beneath the Skydome/ Rogers Centre; bridges...Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau commissioned a report to find out the value of CNR  land, buildings, roundhouses, CN Towers in London, Ontario, Edmonton and Saskatoon....
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau also tried to return CPR land to Canadians, see my blog with that title and "Facts about Marathon Realty". Marathon eventually sold the real estate portfolio to the global corporation General Electric. Marathon Man Gordon Campbell was a premier of British Columbia and High Commissioner to the United Kingston. Gordon Campbell ended up selling a Canadian embassy in London, England to a Mumbai-based developer for $530 million dollars.

My mother, niece and a friend are walking towards the CPR High Level Bridge in Lethbridge Alberta - May of 1990.

Tunney's Pasture Complex - Ottawa

National Capital Commission - 584 Wellington Street at the corner of Albert and Booth Streets in Ottawa; 550 Albert Street in Ottawa.
Possible sale of land at the southwest corner of West Hunt Club Road and Woodroffe Avenue in Ottawa, with buildings:
     "As of March 31, 1998, the Greenbelt Research Farm, which covers 1,200 hectares of land (2,695 acres) bordered by Hunt Club Road, Woodroffe Avenue, Fallowfield Road and Greenbank Road, ceased to function as an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Centre. (From: Greenbelt Master Plan, Consultation Report, Phase 1 - Step C- Land use concept - Prepared for the National Capital Commission.)

Map from Library and Archives Canada.

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When the Hon. Erik Nielsen was Minister of Public Works, the people of Canada owned property worth $60 billion dollars, see the book "On the Take" by Stevie Cameron.Between the years 1985-1997, 20 billion dollars worth of land and buildings were sold.
 There was a massive sell-off of  Dominion Buildings, where Canada Post, Revenue Canada, Manpower and Immigration and other national departments were located.
 Many Dominion Buildings featured a clock tower, and they were built in almost every city and town in Canada. There is a reason why Canada Post substations are located in pharmacies and convenience stores. Where employees do not even wear a Canada Post name tag or uniform; where Canada's Maple Leaf Flag is not proudly displayed, where employees do not have to swear an Oath of Allegiance to the Queen.
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The Parliament Buildings in the Nation's Capital are federal real estate assets. Are they being sold?    What about the Banff National Park, or Waterton or Mount Revelstoke?

Government leaders in Great Britain have been denationalizing public property for decades. Train stations, prisons, public housing,armouries and even Martello Towers were sold to real estate entities.

Is it a coincidence, that the head of the Canada Lands Company Dame Moya Greene privatized the Royal Mail in England and much of Canada Post.

The Governor-General of Canada is the Queen's representative in Canada. Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada was a Canada Lands Company executive.

My country is known as The Dominion of Canada. The Latin word "dominium" means property, ownership, authority, or territory subject to a king or ruler".
Do Canadians actually own Crown property. Canada Lands Company is an agent of Her Majesty.
Is Canada a colony of the United Kingdom?

Canada's history.

     The Fairmont Academy in Vancouver, British Columbia was a military hospital and an RCMP Training Academy. Now the Canada Lands Company and a First Nations group are planning to either demolish or approve the relocation of the building.
     The following comment appeared in the Vancouver Courier, May 11 2018 - "City going ahead with 2,500 home plan on Heather Lands" article written by Joannah Connolly:

     " It's amazing how your Canadian government will do anything to erase every vestige of European cultural history in your city...This handsome building should remain in situ and made into a museum for a city that has hardly any museums. Shame on you Vancouver council and the Canadian and Provincial governments for giving in once again greedy developers. If this building isn't retained it will just give me one more reason not to visit your city, which once was one of the most beautiful in the world. It is now just another ugly North American city that has been destroyed by culture-less, greed-driven Phillistines!"

Fairmont Academy in Vancouver (Photo from thetyee.ca)

The Higginbotham Building in Lethbridge is for sale.

     The Higginbotham Building currently houses Canada Post, Revenue Canada and Corrections Canada. The Mulroney government privatized many Dominion Buildings, which were located in practically every city and town in Canada.

     When a Dominion Building, prison, armoury or  Experimental Farm is denationalized, Canada's Maple Leaf Flag and Coat of Arms are removed from the property. The flagpole at Kingston Pen is still there, but not the flag.
 The Lethbridge Government of Canada property is apparently worth $7,950,000 dollars. During the 1970's a federal employment agency called Manpower was located here, as well as Canada Customs.

I am on a loading dock at the Higginbotham Building, second from left - 1973.

The City of Kingston and federally-owned buildings.

 The demolition of the Kingston Penitentiary will negatively affect the City's tourism industry and collective morale.

George Hood is part of a group that wants to buy the Kingston Penitentiary.
     "Along we come with an offer to buy a moribund, dormant federal asset, use our money to do do it, and its not going to cost them a cent". (From jailing to sailing? Feds asked to sell Kingston Pen site for redevelopment - Jordan Press, the Canadian Press, December 18 2016).
The word moribund means "not active or successful""being in a state of dying." The Pen is far from dying. Public tours of the site are very popular. And the prison was constructed with limestone; therefore the walls, guard towers and buildings will last for thousands of years. Don't worry, Canada Lands Company will gladly take your money they are a self-financing federal Crown corporation, meaning they keep all the money from the privatization of federal land and buildings. Another federal Crown corporation involved with real estate, the National Capital Commission, is also allowed to keep the money from the sale of Crown property, most notably Greenbelt land. The Greenbelt that surrounds Ottawa was created by Jacques Greber to honour Canada's war dead, not to line the pockets of developers or the NCC.

The city councillor for the Village of Portsmouth wants to see the area transformed into another Distillery District, which is located in Toronto. "Over the years, one after another condominium has appeared leaning right over the Distillery District and it hasn't interfered with the functioning and the beauty of the area." (From: Redevelopment a huge opportunity - Elliot Ferguson, Kingston Whig Standard July 7, 2017)
High rise condominiums along the waterfront and on the grounds of P4W will drastically change the character of the area. Fifty one years ago I attended a summer school at KCVI, and the bus drove by P4W and the Pen five days a week. Half a century later, the area is basically the same.

  The Ontario government is privatizing the nearby Provincial Lands,where Rockwood is located. And the City recently approved the sale of land that surrounds the Church on the Good Thief on King Street West and the construction of houses will result the the loss of trees and green space.

The future of Kingston Penitentiary?

Mayor of Kingston Bryan Paterson:
     "Kingston is a city with a lot of history, and we've embraced the idea of telling the stories of that history."( From: Beyond the bars: Former inmates at the Kingston Prison for Women return in fight for recognition - by Elizabeth Renzetti, Globe and Mail - 15 hours ago).

 You can save the  history of the Portsmouth Village Mayor Paterson, save the landmarks that were built by inmates at The Big House.. KP prisoners also built the Penitentiary Water Tower, Isabel McNeill House, the Church of the Good Thief and Rockwood. The Village of Portsmouth is currently being besieged by potential real estate developments that will block views of Lake Ontario and have a negative effect on tourism.
More than one million people a year visit Alcatraz, according to Laurie Armstrong,Director for Media Relations for the San Francisco Travel Association. (Listen to the Haunted Walks podcast.)
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 A closed door meeting was held by the City of Kingston to discuss the future of publicly-owned Corrections Canada property at 440 and 442 King Street West. We, the people of Canada, owned these properties:

Committee of the whole "closed meeting"
March 24, 2015

That Council resolved itself into the Committee of the whole "closed meeting" to consider the following item(s):
b.) The proposed or pending acquisition or disposition of land by the municipal or local board -440-442 King Street West.
City Council of Kingston - March 24, 2015

Executive Summary
The federal government has provided notice that the former Ontario Regional Headquarters located at 440-442 King Street West (the Site) is surplus to its requirements. Public Works and Government Services Canada will be launching a disposal of the site on behalf of Correctional Services Canada. The process will be guided by the federal government process for a strategic disposal which provides for a limited amount of time for the City of Kingston to provide a written notice of any public purpose interests in the Site within 30 days of the circulation of the notice, or by March 27, 2015.

A limestone former Corrections Canada building, Stone Gables,King Street West..

St.Helen's, King Street West..

In-camera or private meetings are becoming quite unpopular:
"Kingston to review closed door meeting policy" - The Kingston Whig Standard, 23 hours ago.
"Kingston councillors pass motion to review transparency issues for closed door meetings" - by Alexandra Mazur, globalnews.ca August 8 2018.)

The controversy dates back to 2015 (the same year Canada Lands offered to sell 440-442 King Street West to the City) when a closed-door meeting contravened sections of the Municipal Act, regarding another property.
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How many high-rise condominiums will be constructed on the Prison for Women land?
ABNA Investments recently bought the prison. The following document is enlightening:
Heritage Properties Working Group - June 26, 2018:
Prison for Women (P4W)

-Greg noted that staff have not yet taken a position on the conceptual development plans for the former P4W site as presented by ABNA Investments. The report to Council is requesting direction on:
1.) Taller buildings on the site.
2.) Community benefit considerations for the restoration to the heritage buildings; and
3.) Reviewing the heritage attributes of the current designating by-law.

    ABNA is trying to remove any evidence that the Prison for Women was a prison:
City of Kingston Report to Council
June 26, 2018
"...ABNA has also indicated that it is willing to work with the City to ensure that interior heritage attributes that are not functional to the adaptive re-use of the building be displayed either in the Prison Museum or integrated into the Kingston Penitentiary tours."

(A letter to me from the Hon. Peter Milliken, Member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands. The letter points out that the Administration Building and cell block will be preserved:

         The City planned to designate the Prison for Women a heritage site under Part 1V of the Ontario Heritage Act, however

"The City received an objection to the notice of intent on September 26 2006 from the then property owner, Correctional Services Canada/Canada Lands Company. A withdrawal of the objection was received by the City on April 29 2008. An important aspect of the withdrawal was the City's inclusion of a provision within the designation by-law stipulating that the by-law would not be in force and effect while the site was federally owned." The Portsmouth Visioning document points out that the City of Kingston Official Plan (2010) will be amended in order to change zoning restrictions. The Official Plan (2010) has already been changed.

 The one remaining stone wall at 40 Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard is in disrepair, according to this June 26, 2018 report.

The redevelopment of the Fairmont Academy property.

        The 21-acre Heather Street Lands will see the construction of 2,500 housing units, and they will range from 3 to 24 storeys. Construction of a new neighbourhood commercial street within the plot of land has been approved, with a pharmacy, medical offices and a grocery store located on the site.
 A heritage building, the Fairmont Academy, is standing in the way of this enormous project, so the building is going to be demolished. (From: City going ahead with 2,500 home plan on Heather Lands - by Johannah Connolly, Vancouver Courier May 11, 2018.)

The former RCMP lands in Vancouver.

The Dorchester jail goats.

Photo from CTV Atlantic.

     An entrepreneur in New Brunswick turned an old provincial jail into a Bed and Breakfast. Now bureaucrats are telling the owner to relocate his three goats. A Facebook page has been created for the goats - "Save the Dorchester Jail Goats".
The B & B features a paved basketball court and
-original cells
- A SECURE FENCED YARD
-lots of metal
-special tours of the prison
-unlocked cells
-jail doors

The Prison for Women in Kingston could be transformed into a museum. Plans are underway to try to remove all the elements that made the Prison for Women a prison, including locking mechanisms and the bars on the windows.

Do not take the prison out of the Prison for Women.
Do not take the village out of the Village of Portsmouth.

Prison for Women, Kingston Ontario.

Canada Lands Company is developing Port Credit, Mississauga's "Village on the Lake".

     The land for the 19-acre project was obtained from Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

To see a YouTube video describing the project, Google: "Inspiration Port Credit-February 4, 2016".
The historic buildings in the Village of Port Credit cannot be flattened, because many years ago the area was designated a Province of Ontario Heritage Conservation District.

"The Village on the Lake" Port Credit Mississauga harbour.

The Canada Lands Company plan for the Booth Street property in Ottawa.

      Canada Lands Company privatized the Federal Government of Canada's Natural Resources Complex in the Nation's Capital.
Half a dozen high-rise buildings will be constructed on 2.5 hectares or 6.5 acres of land:

CBC Photo

(Read: "Proposal for Booth complex seeks removal of height limits and interior setbacks" by Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, July 20 2018).

The Kingston Penitentiary is another former Crown asset that the Canada Lands Company wants to capitalize. Imagine how many residential towers can be built on 21 acres of land. Of course the Pen will have to be reduced to rubble , to get rid of the perimeter walls, guard towers and the buildings. I believe that the entire Kingston Pen will be flattened, because only half of a penitentiary with gaping holes in the remaining wall will be an eyesore.
 The New Westminster Federal Penitentiary in British Columbia was wrecked, only the Gate House and a few buildings remain. The land was sold to real estate companies who built condos and townhouses. Even before the BC Pen was decommissioned, all the prison farm land that the inmates harvested was sold, to the City of New Westminster.
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CityPlace in Toronto, a Canada Lands company project

The former Canadian National Railway lands on the Toronto waterfront were transferred to Canada Lands Company. Now the CLC owns the CN Tower, land beneath the Skydome/Rogers Centre and the Railway Lands.
The largest development in Toronto's history was created on 44 acres of CNR land.
Over 5,000 residential units were constructed at CityPlace, the condominiums range in height from 6 storeys to 49 storeys with the majority of condos ranging from 28 to 40 storeys.

CityPlace on the Toronto waterfront.