Parks Canada may be selling $8.3 billion dollars worth of Crown property.

"Internal Parks Canada report looks for ways to make money by selling, transferring assets." by Dean Beeby, CBC News, 4 days ago.
 Parks Canada property in total is worth $16.3 billion dollars, which means that KPMG is recommending that half of the entire portfolio be sold off.
Apparently 183 dams and bridges may be divested. The term "bridges" means:
highways
roads
trail bridges
structural culverts
(Google: Parks Canada-EVALUATION OF ASSET MANAGEMENT-PWGSC-2009.)
This massive fire sale of OUR roads, highways, trail bridges, dams and culverts must be stopped.

A Parks Canada 2017-18 Departmental Plan states that:
"..Parks Canada is responsible for ensuring that irreplaceable heritage buildings and structures are protected and passed on to future generations..."

A previous government permitted the sale of railway hotels in Canada to Fairmont, including:
Jasper Park Lodge - Alberta - CNR.
Banff  Springs - CPR.
Chateau Lake Louise - Alberta - CPR.

Why did the Government of Canada not buy the CPR hotels, when they had the opportunity to do so? Because they did not care about ordinary Canadians, about our sense of national pride and patriotism. Landmarks are worth fighting for, I cannot imagine France selling the Eiffel Tower of India selling the Taj Mahal to a foreign government. Our landmarks should not be owned by foreign royalty and New York City investors.
     For years the Fraser Institute has been calling for the privatization of federal Crown property:
CN Tower in Toronto.
Canadian Mortgage and Housing land and buildings.
Canada Post
Canada Place in Vancouver.

Fraser Institute report.

Fraser Institute report.

The Ontario government saved the Don Jail and Guelph Correctional Centre.

         The provincial government is planning to sell or demolish five abandoned hospitals in Ontario, including London Psychiatric Hospital.
 The Don Jail in Toronto was re purposed, and is currently an administration building for Bridgepoint Health. A Tom Cruise movie "Cocktail" and episodes of the tv show "Suits" were filmed at the Don. There are many alternatives to leveling former prisons and hospitals. A former Cornwall jail is a tourist attraction.
(work in progress)

Kingston Pen Rotunda.

Don Jail Rotunda.

The Canada Lands Company has encountered a bridge too far.

     Too many people are opposed to their plan to irrevocably change the Kingston Penitentiary.
Community Groups
Friends of Kingston Penitentiary
The Frontenac Heritage Foundation
The Coalition of Kingston Communities
Kingston Municipal Heritage Committee.

Chris Ball, a Kingston municipal election candidate for Portsmouth District, said:
     "The biggest thing that everyone's mentioned when I'm at their door is change, between all the redevelopment that has been happening in Portsmouth District; Kingston Pen, the Provincial Campus and the Prison for Women...There's a big concern about the changing character of neighbourhoods..."( From: A YouTube video, Google "Kingston Municipal Election Candidates: Portsmouth Village" by Elliot Ferguson, Whig Standard.)

 Bill Glover, a city councillor for the Sydenham District, told a Sun newspaper reporter:
     "It's not inconceivable that they could level the whole site." (From: "Group tries to get Kingston Penitentiary heritage status"  by Peter Hendra, Toronto Sun, September 2012.)

The Taylor Hazell Architects Report recommends that the entire site be given heritage designation, and local architectural historian Jennifer McKendry stated that ten irreplaceable limestone buildings at KP are slated for demolition. (From: "Concern Raised Regarding the Penitentiary Planning Process" The Coalition of Kingston Communities.)

Petitions
Save the Kingston Portsmouth Olympic Harbour and Greenspace
#ygk Challenge: Save Kingston Pen and the Regional Treatment Centre
ipetitions-Don't Erase History-Protect the Penitentiary.
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Opinion: Please keep Kingston Pen and Portsmouth Harbour as the historical sites they are for future generations.
     The Kingston Penitentiary with its beautiful buildings and the unique history should not fall prey to the seeming determination to fill it with yet another housing development, high rise condos and the introduction of roadways.
     Dream big! Keep the Penitentiary as it is externally with its beautiful setting, walls and buildings. Renovate the interior of the buildings for use by the public as almost all the proposals suggest...Do not remove the existing Penitentiary walls, it then loses all significance as a Penitentiary, this was already done at the Women's Pen. Once buildings and walls come down they are gone forever!
Sincerely
Dixie Dittburner, Portsmouth.
(From: SouthWesternOntario.ca November 2016.)
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MOTIONS
Consideration of Designation
THAT 525, 555 and 560 King Street West also known as Kingston Penitentiary be referred to the Historic Properties Research Working Group for consideration as a property of cultural heritage value.  Moved by Mr. Taylor, Seconded by Mr. Duerkop. CARRIED.
Mr. Downey asked that the wall around the building also be included as other designated buildings did not include the walls in the designation and now these walls have been removed such as what happened at the Frontenac County Court House.
(From: City of Kingston Municipal Heritage Committee Minutes - Meeting 11- 2012.)
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Haunted Walks calls for Kingston Penitentiary to Become "Alcatraz of the North".
     All Canadians can help preserve this National Historic Site by writing a short email to:
1.) Site Planning Consultants: portsmouthvisioning@planport.ca.
2.) Mayor Bryan Paterson: mayor@cityofkingston.ca.

Excerpts from a letter published by the Kingston Whig-Standard, from Haunted Walks Founder/CEO Glen Shackleton:
     "Although The Haunted Walk started in Kingston, we have also given tours of the old Ottawa jail for more than 20 years...Jail tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry worldwide...Condos are springing up all across the country, but there is only one Kingston Penitentiary."

My father George Shaw and Governor General of Canada Roland Michener.

Las Vegas, Nevada and Juarez, Mexico - 1973.

Juarez, Mexico. The horse was not real.

The Landmark Hotel can be seen in the distance. 

The Landmark Hotel.

Las Vegas airport.

Las Vegas airport.

Update-Kingston Penitentiary redevelopment plans.

Workshops Dome.

  The Main Rotunda is being preserved, the Workshops Dome and buildings are not.
Parks Canada
South Workshop Recognized Federal Heritage Building - Constructed from 1842-1849.
Description of Historic Place
"The South Workshop, also known as Building C-1-C-6, at Kingston Penitentiary is an impressive 19th century, industrial building with a temple facade and a Greek cross plan. This solid, stone building is made up of four large wings radiating from a central rotunda."

The Main Dome is building B-01, while the South Workshop buildings are buildings C-01 to C-05.(From: (PDF) Opportunities and Constraints Report-City of Kingston-Page 9/140.)

"Heritage re-use is expensive and risky, difficult to break even (unless subsidized.)" (From: City of Kingston-Projects-Planning-Kingston Penitentiary June 2017-Page 23/59). The Pen is one of the most historic, famous landmarks in the world--- Canada's Eiffel Tower and Taj Mahal. Yet plans are already being made to level buildings and remove walls to permit the construction of housing, new pathways and roads. Will Kingston be a tourism mecca, when the Pen, Prison for Women, Stone Gables, Isabel McNeill House, Collins Bay Institution and Rockwood Asylum are gone? Collins Bay Institution is known as "Disneyland North". Rockwood is on a list of 135 "ghost buildings" that Infrastructure Ontario is either selling or demolishing.  The Big House, Prison for Women, Isabel McNeill House and Stone Gables were divested by Corrections Canada.

The Government of Canada wanted the property surrounding the Pen to remain public:
     "After the environmental site assessment and risk assessment were completed,clean-up options were presented to CSC. The option chosen was to excavate and replace the impacted soil, so that the land would be revitalized and restored to green space. The re mediated 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!"

All the land within the red lines will remain public, according to the document "Kingston Penitentiary Harbour property-Correctional Service of Canada" 2015.

The purple coloured area will be the focus of most of the re purposing and residential and commercial development. That is where Buildings C-1 to C-6 are located.

The Central Rotunda or Main Dome of the Pen.

The London, Ontario Psychiatric Hospital is on the market.

     Infrastructure Ontario is selling one of its "ghost buildings" for $694,000 dollars. The hospital is a Registered Heritage Building, but apparently that means nothing.
Heritage Value
The London Psychiatric Hospital, established as the London Asylum for the Insane between 1869 and 1870, is an impressive symbol of the innovative and humane programs encouraged by the Hospital's two supervisors, Henry Landor and Richard Maurice Bucke. (The top 3 photos were taken in 2017.)

The London Infirmary, 850 Highbury Avenue, London. 

The Chapel of Hope, London Psychiatric Hospital. 

The 162 acre landscape is similar to the Kingston Provincial Campus, which Infrastructure Ontario plans to sell. Rockwood Asylum is located on the Provincial Campus.

LPH photo is from a real estate website.

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Dr. Richard M. Bucke was a world famous psychiatrist and mystic, he wrote the following books:

Cosmic Consciousness-A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind.

The Cosmic Consciousness of Walt Whitman.

Man's Moral Nature - an essay.

The Cosmic Consciousness of Jesus the Christ.

The Cosmic Consciousness of Honore De Balzac.

The Cosmic Consciousness of Francis Bacon.

The Cosmic Consciousness of St. Paul.

Infrastructure Ontario does not care about the fact that Dr. Bucke was a pioneering psychiatrist; that hospital patients built the Chapel of Hope; that the Infirmary was a Victorian building; that the City of London, Ontario thought the buildings were historic.

Just as they don't care about the fact that Penitentiary inmates built the Rockwood Asylum; that the hospital was constructed with limestone and could last for a thousand years; that the hospital was a registered heritage property, according to municipal and provincial records; that William Coverdale designed Rockwood and many of the most historic buildings in Canada:

Kingston Ontario landmarks designed by William Coverdale
St. Helen's Complex
Sydenham Street United Church
Roselawn National Historic Site of Canada
St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church.
Kingston Penitentiary (where Willam Coverdale was also a master carpenter.)
Portsmouth Community Correctional Centre
Prince George Hotel
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The Canada Lands Company was involved in the divestiture of St. Helen's Complex in 2015:
Federal Notice of Surplus 440-442 King Street West, Kingston
     "The sale of the property to any public or private purchaser would be subject to the negotiation of a purchase price approved by the Canada Lands Company..." (Google: Report COU-15-213 City of Kingston).

Rockwood Asylum will either be flattened or sold off.

     The government of Ontario is planning to divest all "ghost buildings" in the province.
"The government agency in charge of provincial buildings, Infrastructure Ontario, plans to sell about 80 per cent of the vacant buildings and demolish the rest." (From: Mike Crawley, CBC News December 8, 2017.)

Infrastructure Ontario Business Plan - 2017-20
Part Two - Strategic Directions - Page 10/23
The government will continue to derive further administrative efficiencies and maximize revenues by selling properties and demolishing buildings that are no longer required and have ongoing costs and liabilities. Since 2007, 598 buildings have been sold or demolished, and 12,484 acres of land have been sold. However further opportunity exists to reduce the portfolio."
    And who will benefit from this "opportunity to reduce the portfolio"? Not the people of Ontario, who actually own these Crown assets. I'll tell you who will benefit from this windfall. The global real estate company C.B.Richard Ellis, a company that was hired by Infrastructure Ontario..foreign billionaires, who have already profited from the sale of Canadian public property, including Bill Gates, American President Donald Trump and royalty.
     Infrastructure Ontario is now working with lawyers to "remove barriers" to the disposition of so-called ghost buildings. I think the "barriers" are federal, provincial and municipal heritage laws. Heritage laws were created to preserve buildings, to protect them from entities and Crown corporations that care more about money than history. It is time for the United Nations to become involved, UNESCO was created to save heritage buildings from wrecking crews....UNESCO has already save prisons, Robben Island in South Africa where Nelson Mandela was a prisoner; and the Convict Sites in Australia. I received a letter from Parks Canada, essentially telling me that the Kingston Pen is no longer a National Historic Site of Canada or a Classified Federal Heritage Building.

I find it worrisome that Ontario Premier Doug Ford appointed Gordon Campbell to review Ontario's finances. Gordon Campbell privatized CPR, British Columbia and Canadian Embassy property.
     Is the Liquor Control Board of Ontario on the "hit list"? The LCBO generates billions of dollars in revenue, for the citizens of Ontario. But Infrastructure Ontario has already divested LCBO property, for example the Head Office lands at 55 Lakeshore Boulevard East, Toronto. A former CPR train station is also a provincial Crown asset:

The North Toronto LCBO store was a CPR train station. (Photo by Richard Pilon.)

The Great Mosque and Hospital in Divrigi, Turkey is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The hospital was called A House of Healing.

Newly elected city councillor will try to save Kingston Pen.

     Yesterday, Bridget Doherty was elected the Portsmouth District Councillor in Kingston, Ontario.
In an October 19, 2018 interview, Bridget Doherty signaled her intention to save not only the Kingston Pen, but the many other endangered heritage buildings and landscapes in Portsmouth Village:
     "...I also believe it is our responsibility to preserve historic sites for future generations and ensure there are physical reminders from all aspects of the lives of those that came before us." (From: "Kingston association of museums, art galleries and historic sites.")
     Ms. Doherty was a lead organizer of the Save Our Prison Farms campaign in Kingston:

A letter I wrote to Member of Parliament Pierre Poilievre regarding the prison farms---July 27, 2010.

The Rockwood Asylum, Rockwood Villa and the 122-acre Kingston Provincial lands are also endangered sites. Infrastructure Ontario is selling the Provincial Campus for residential and commercial development, despite the fact that the land is a designated cultural heritage landscape.
The Canada Lands Company is a federal Crown corporation that plans to wreck the Kingston Pen and sell Fisheries and Oceans property at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour.
The CLC and Infrastructure Ontario were partners, they jointly owned a CMHC property in Cornwall, Ontario; and they both owned CFB Downsview Toronto land. If the Ontario government sells Rockwood Asylum to the CLC the hospital will lose all heritage protection and designation. Federal laws supersede provincial and municipal heritage laws.
     The owner of the Kingston Prison for Women has approached City Hall to change zoning laws pertaining to  the landmark on Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard. The proposed residential towers will block the views of P4W. If the Village of Portsmouth becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the construction of high rises will be banned on the grounds of P4W. A protected heritage building has a "buffer zone", so that views of the landmark are not obstructed.

The Ontario Realty Corporation.

     The Ontario Realty Corporation, now called Infrastructure Ontario, owns billions of dollars worth of provincial land and buildings in the province. Actually, the people of Ontario own these Crown assets.
     During the year 2000, the agency compiled a list of 168 properties that could be sold. Included on the list:

• Psychiatric hospitals in Kingston, St. Thomas, Toronto, London, Whitby and Thunder Bay.
• The Princess Margaret Hospital building on Sherbourne Street, Toronto.
• part of  CFB Downsview, Toronto.
• Guelph Correctional Centre.
• Don Jail, Toronto.
• Perth jail.
• Niagara Falls casino.
• Several OPP detachments.

(From: " Ontario to consider property sell off Hospitals, casino among 168 assets under review" by Richard Brennan, Queen's Park Bureau, Toronto Star November 10 2000.)

The following words were used to describe Ontario Realty Corporation transactions:

scandal

criminal investigation

police are investigating

taxpayers were bilked

shady deals

audit

taxpayers swindled

stench

bid rigging

evidence of wrongdoing

criminal behavior in the ORC
(From: The Democratic Reporter)

Infrastructure Ontario is now selling the 122 acre Provincial Campus in Kingston, Ontario. Politicians in the City are anxious to preserve the buildings on the property, including Rockwood Asylum, Rockwood Villa and the gazebo.

Rockwood Asylum is featured on the front page of an Infrastructure Ontario booklet.

Rockwood Villa, located on the grounds of the land being sold off/privatized..

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Politicians Gordon Campbell and Silvio Berlusconi also compiled lists of government property that could be privatized.
Silvio Berlusconi was a prime minister of Italy. During his tenure, an 800-page list was prepared of  treasures that could be sold off, including:
The Island of Pinosa
The San Vittore Prison in Milan.
Villa Jovis
military barracks
office buildings
beaches
Palazzo Barberini
Tuscan islands.
150 hectares of coastline on Costa Smeralda.
(From:" The Colosseum is not (yet) for sale". The Economist.)

Gordon Campbell was a premier of British Columbia. During his time in office he promised to sell provincial courts, jails, office buildings, and wilderness campsites. He sold a profitable Crown corporation called BC Rail to CN Rail for $1 billion dollars cash, and Gordon Campbell privatized a Crown corporation called BC Ferries.

The 924.7 acre Canadian Forces Base Shearwater was transferred to Canada Lands Company.

CFB Shearwater joined a long list of National Defence properties obtained by the Crown corporation that privatizes federal land and buildings.
CFB Downsview
CFB Rockcliffe
CFS Albro Lake
CFB Pleasantville
CFB Chilliwack
CFB Jericho Beach
CFB St. Hubert
Moncton Garrison
CFB Calgary
Griesbach Barracks, Edmonton
Wolseley Barracks, London Ontario
Kapyong Barracks, Winnipeg
Dartmouth property, Nova Scotia

Constitution Building - Rideau Street and King Edward, Ottawa

The Federal Government was uneasy about handing over Downsview Park to Canada Lands Company.

     "Secret memo urged minister to steer Downsview Park plan to avoid a sell-off" by Rachel Mendleson, Toronto Star Investigative Reporter - April 18, 2014.
     "Some critics question what a company with expertise in selling Crown land had in store for the surplus military base, which Ottawa had trumpeted as 'Canada's first national urban park". Public Works Deputy Minister Michelle d'Aurdy remarked in a secret memo that "Canada Lands Co. is  commercially oriented toward the disposal of certain properties for profit."
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Downsview Park was still Crown land during the year 2011.

Downsview Park and the Old Port of Montreal were transferred to Canada Lands in the year 2012. There were concerns that the Old Port of Montreal would also be commercialized and privatized. The concerns were justified:

Petition e-1667  Initiated by Linda Collette from Montreal, May 23, 2018.
(COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF LAND)
Petition to Justin Trudeau
Whereas:

• The Canada Lands Company (CLC) presented a "Preliminary Master Plan for the Revitalization of the Old Port of Montreal";
• This plan profoundly changes the use of the Clock Tower Quay, which runs along the river and is home to the Clock Tower, a historic and iconic monument of Old Montreal;
• This plan provides for the construction of a number of buildings that would block one of the rare views of the river and increase the amount of concrete and heat islands;
• This plan involves handing over a large portion of the Clock tower Quay to the private sector for businesses, restaurants, a hotel and a multi-level parking garage, which will create serious traffic and safety problems.

We, the undersigned Citizens of Canada, call upon Member of Parliament Justin Trudeau to order;

1. That CLC not be allowed to privatize the use of the Clock Tower Quay area;
2. That CLC revise its plan to better integrate it with the City of Montreal, particularly as regards planning and safety;
3. That CLC showcase the Clock Tower Historic Monument.
4. That the Clock Tower Quay area become a harbourfront pedestrian park that maximizes views of the river and green spaces while giving priority to public transit; and
5. That any redevelopment be done according to sustainable development principles.

(Petition presented to the House of Commons October 5, 2018.)

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Defence Minister David Collenette and the Department of National Defence never wanted CFB Downsview to be decommissioned.

      "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 that 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 Collenette.)

     "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.)

   

The Canada Lands Company and Ontario Realty Corporation were partners.

  The City of Kingston,Ontario may be significantly affected by any partnership between the CLC and  the Ontario Realty Corporation.
The Rockwood Hospital could be destroyed.
Infrastructure Ontario (the former Ontario Realty Corporation) is a provincial Crown corporation that privatizes land and buildings. Canada Lands and the ORC were the owners of a Canada Mortgage and Housing property in Cornwall,Ontario, at Marleau Avenue and Glenview Boulevard.

If the Canada Lands company buys Rockwood Asylum from the Ontario government, Rockwood could be demolished. After the Canada Lands Company buys a heritage building, the building loses all heritage designation and protection. And federal heritage laws supersede provincial and municipal heritage laws. The Asylum is located on prime real estate, next to Lake Ontario and Lake Ontario Park. If Canada Lands is willing to destroy the Kingston Penitentiary (which they are) they would not hesitate to bring down the Rockwood hospital. And a federal government of Canada Minister told Kristen Connor (who tried to save the Upton Experimental Farm) that the government cannot interfere in the operations of the CLC "under any circumstances."
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     "If social forces can become involved before federal property is transferred to Canada Lands there is a greater likelihood of influence over the ultimate disposal, since it remains in the sphere of public demands upon government. Once Canada Lands Company has title the issue shifts to a business model, Canada Lands must operate according to commercial principles." (From: Sites of Governance: Multilevel governing and Policy Making in Canada" by Robert Young and Martin Horak-2012-McGill-Queen's University Press.)
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Canada Lands and the Ontario Realty Corporation were both involved with selling CFB Downsview, Toronto real estate. The television program "Suits" is filmed at Downsview.
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Kingston Penitentiary is no longer protected by federal heritage laws, see the recent letter that I received from Parks Canada:

A September 18, 2018 letter I received from Parks Canada, saying that "The Big House" is no longer a heritage property. 

Infrastructure Ontario is selling the almost 100-acre Kingston Provincial Campus.
The City of Kingston has already been approached to change zoning laws, to facilitate the residential and commercial development of the site.
     "The subject property is located between King Street West and Lake Ontario, east of Lake Ontario Park". (PDF) Report PC - 16-073- City of Kingston, Page 3/47.)

The City is trying to save a number of buildings and a gazebo on the property. But we know how successful they were in trying to save the train station, the Prison for Women and the Kingston Penitentiary. Local politicians actually approved of the so-called redevelopment of  The Pen. They also want to flatten a building that was created for the 1976 Olympics, and sell off a park at Portsmouth Harbour that was a gift from the taxpayers of Ontario during the 1976 Olympics.
Buildings at the Kingston Provincial Campus  that the City wants to preserve:
Rockwood Asylum
The Rockwood Villa
Leahurst
Beachgrove
South Cottage buildings.
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Kingston Provincial Campus  
     "The property is currently owned by Infrastructure Ontario and contains significant heritage structures as well as a cultural heritage landscape through the centre of the site."
Commercial and residential construction is banned in cultural heritage landscapes, according to provincial laws in Ontario. Yet:
     "In the north east corner there will be low, medium and high density residential development."
People will not even be able to see Lake Ontario and Rockwood, if 18-storey buildings are blocking their view.

If I still lived in Kingston, I would ask the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport; my member of provincial parliament and local politicians the following questions:

1. Do the people of Ontario have the power to veto any privatization of provincial Crown property?
2. If not, why not? The people of Ontario collectively own the former prisons, mental hospitals, POW camps, office buildings...
3. Is the Rockwood Asylum being maintained, or is it being neglected. Inmates at Kingston Penitentiary built the hospital with limestone, so Rockwood could last for thousands of years. The hospital was originally built to house inmates who were considered to be too insane to be incarcerated at the penitentiary. The former mental hospital could be converted into a museum or a hotel; tourists can be given guided tours of the complex, through Haunted Walks.
4. Will Rockwood or the Villa ever be sold to another Crown corporation?
5. Will trees and shrubs on the 100-acre site will be sacrificed, to permit the building of roads, bicycle paths, strip malls, residential towers...

During the year 1968 I visited a person who was incarcerated in Rockwood Asylum. The nearby Kingston Psychiatric Hospital was a House of Healing for a teenager who wanted to escape from intolerable living conditions in her own home. There were parties in the recreation room; movie nights; the teens appeared on a CKWS tv show called "Dance Party"; they continued their education through Ontario Department of Education correspondence courses, with the help of two full-time teachers. The Rockwood Hospital was reserved for people who were "certified" or considered dangerous  and young people were sheltered from them at KPH, then known as "The OH".There are personal reasons why the Provincial Campus buildings are close to my heart. I know people who lived in the now demolished KPH and Rockwood, and their stories, their history, their memories are far more important than residential towers.

History should not be paved over because of greed or apathy.  Many people who spent time in "psych wards" during the 1960's seemed to be perfectly normal in my opinion; perhaps they were suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a normal reaction to devastating events that rocked their world. The survival instinct is a very powerful force.

November 1967.

Rockwood Asylum in Kingston, Ontario is one of the Ontario Realty Corporations most important and potentially lucrative properties.  The complex was featured on the front page of an information brochure.

Kapuskasing Experimental Farm was decommissioned.

 The 845-acre Kapuskasing Experimental Farm was "disposed of", just as: Upton Farm in Prince Edward Island, the Vegreville Research Farm near Edmonton, Alberta, Gamelin Virus Laboratory in Gatineau,the Delhi Research Farm, Alberta's Fort Vermilion Farm, and the Cereal Research Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba were sold.
   All the Kapuskasing Experimental Farm livestock was sold to a nearly Mennonite colony, and the land was bought by the town.
The federal government received $555,000 for Alberta's Fort Vermilion Experimental Farm during the year 2014. Pretty soon, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada will be delisted from the Federal Directory of Real Property website. The CBC has already been delisted.

The Kapuskasing Beef Research Farm - gone.

The 150-acre Delhi Research Farm, Ontario-gone. "Divested" during the year 2013. 

91 acres of Experimental Farm Ottawa land - gone.

A 1975 front page Ottawa Journal article about the Experimental Farm, Ottawa. Agriculture Ministers Eugene Whelan and Bud Olson refused to sell one acre of the land. And more recently, the Ravenwood Experimental Farm was saved by Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.

Ottawa's Farm, before 91 acres of land were sold.

Who profited from the sale of federal property in Canada.

Trizec Hahn Corporation
Current American President Donald Trump - The Trump organization built a residential tower near The Stump at Bay and Adelaide Streets, Toronto. The Trump Tower was built on Canadian National Railway land sold by the Canada Lands Company/CN Real Estate.

History of the Stump - 

Movie studios - were built at the St. Hubert Military Base, Quebec; former Downsview Base in Toronto; CFB Calgary.
Larco Investments
Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
Bill Gates
Prince al Waleed Bin Talal
Delta Hotels
CN Rail - A multinational railway company that removed the word "Canadian" from the word mark Canadian National Railway to distance itself from any connection to the word Canada.
Hong Kong developer Li ka Shing - built TV Tower 1 and TV Tower 2 condominiums on CBC Vancouver land.
Ontario Realty Corporation - a provincial agency that privatizes land and buildings; they obtained the title to a World War 11 POW camp called Bowmanville.
C.B. Richard Ellis - a multinational real estate corporation based in Newport Beach, California.
The Skydome and Skydome Hotel - Toronto.
The developer who created a subdivision from 91 acres of land annexed from the Experimental Farm, Ottawa.
Air Canada Centre - Toronto.
Toronto's Rochdale College - the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation financed the College; later transferred to the Toronto Community Housing Corporation.
Ottawa's Rochdale College - 160 Chapel - now owned by Morguard.
Canada Place in Vancouver - built for Expo 86,
The American amusement park corporation Six Flags bought Expo 67's La Ronde:

My stepmother in front of Expo 67's La Ronde.

(work in progress)

The Confederation Heights Government Buildings in Ottawa.

The Canada Lands Company will be involved with another "strategic disposal" of government property, this time in Confederation Heights, Ottawa. The arms length Crown corporation has already  taken over the Booth Street and Tunney's Pasture complexes in the Nation's Capital, now it's time for the destruction of:
The Sir Charles Tupper Building, 2720 Riverside Drive now owned by PWGSC; and the Taxation Data Centre, located at 875 Heron Road, a Revenue Canada Building.
(The Sir Charles Tupper and Taxation Data properties were going to be sold in February of 2007, according to an Ottawa Citizen article.)

From: Federal Directory of Real Property book-1994.

Several other government properties may also be flattened, including the Sir Leonard Tilley Building and the former Canadian Broadcasting Company National Headquarters. According to one document I read, other uses may be found for the relatively new Canada Post Centre.
Documents that pertain to the redevelopment of the Confederation Heights government office complex:
Google: 7.0 -Confederation HeightsI City of Ottawa.
Google: (PDF) confederation heights - 1950-2050 (Queen's University)
The land encompasses 104 hectares.
PWGSC and the National Capital Commission are apparently involved with this project, which will include intensive residential development. And the former CBC Ottawa landmark may be a Classified Heritage Building, but that means nothing; once the Canada Lands Company acquires a property, the building loses all heritage designation ---see what happened to the Kingston Prison for Women; the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Penitentiary; the Dominion Public Building in Toronto; the Spadina roundhouse; the London, Ontario CN Tower; the Canada Post Distribution Centre in Toronto that became the Air Canada Centre...
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War has been declared on the Kingston Penitentiary.

 During times of war enemies of a nation will deliberately destroy all architectural sites and buildings of importance to a city--- the definition of this wartime destruction is called a "scorched earth policy". A country's built heritage helps to define the character of a city or town; helps to create a sense of morale and pride in the citizens; provides money from tourists from around the world. The United Nations is aware of how important a nation's landmarks are, they created UNESCO to help save endangered sites. Parks Canada has now removed all heritage designation and protection from the Kingston Penitentiary, see the letter Parks Canada wrote to me, below:

Who can forget about Kingston's irreplaceable history; and the history of KP (Charles Dickens and Ernest Hemingway visited and wrote articles about the prison.) The collective  morale of Kingstonians is more important than Canada Lands Company financial statements and income.

Collins Bay, the Prison for Women, the Big House and Joyceville are part of the City's DNA , their heart and soul, their identity. Kingston is "The Limestone City" and "The Prison Capital of Canada". In what universe is a high rise condo more important than a building that is older than  Confederation; a building that defines a skyline; a building that citizens point to with pride when they show relatives and visitors around the city. "The Big House" will last for thousands of years, because it was constructed with limestone. If I see a video of "The Big House" crumbling after being assaulted by wrecking balls, part of my soul will die.

Tourists will not visit Kingston so they can see the townhouses, hotels and sailing club that were built on the grounds of a demolished Kingston Penitentiary. You are tearing the life and soul out a out a community that was Canada's first Capital city. Show us that you respect our history, architecture and feelings, Canada Lands Company---in your Corporate Reports  and Senate Hearings you say that you realize how important heritage buildings and community acceptance are. Prove it, and walk away from the Kingston Penitentiary and the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour.

A recent letter to me from Parks Canada.

The Canadian National Railway survived the Great Depression and Two World Wars.

But Canada's first Crown corporation could not survive globalization and insatiable corporate and political greed. Canadians lost almost a billion dollars worth of real estate, including the CN Tower and the transmission tower infrastructure; thousands of miles of railway tracks, a large part of it's sovereignty and national pride, and a transportation network that connected this country from coast to coast.
CNR real estate was worth $400 to $600 to $700 million dollars in 1995. (See:"House of Commons Debates - Bill C-89-CN Commercialization Act" - May 29 1995.)
There was a discussion about selling the CN Tower in Toronto:
Mr. Guimond:" What criteria should the government use in selling the assets other than the railway? What criteria should it use in selling the CN Tower for example? How much do you think its worth?"
The Chairman: "Get the most you can get for it."
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Canada Lands Company did not sell the real estate at fair-market value, in my opinion.
Special Examination Report- Canada Lands Company May 30, 2006.
The Corporation's operating divisions. (Pages 8 and 9 of 32)
17. Real Estate Division

"When it was reactivated in August 1995, Canada Lands acquired through its subsidiaries, the Corporation,the non-operating real estate assets of the Canadian National Railway Company. The Corporation recorded these assets at an estimated fair market value of $341 million including the CN Tower at $65 million."(Actually, CNR real estate was sold at fire sale prices---$341 million dollars is less than half of what the property was worth, $700 million, during the year 1995. Real estate in cities such as Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton does not depreciate, especially if the property is located in prime locations---the waterfront, inner city...).
"By 30 September 2005, the Corporation had sold $248 million (or 90%) of the original inventory (excluding the CN Tower.)"
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The Canada Lands Company complained about the slowness of land transfers from Canadian federal Crown corporations, agencies and departments:
     "The Corporation views the slowness in land transfers a significant risk in its ability to achieve its mandate. The Corporation recognized that there have been improvements in the land transfers process in recent years and intends to continue to apply pressure in the system to facilitate land transfers." (Special Examination Report - Canada Lands Company May 30 2006.)
The mandate of the Canada Lands Company is to privatize all federal property in Canada:

"Let the Future Begin" 1997. Canada Lands company has now connected the company's land holdings database, to integrate it with the Treasury Board of Canada's Directory of Federal Real Property.

Property from Crown corporations, agencies and departments that the Canada Lands Company has already "disposed of":
Corrections Canada 
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
RCMP
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Old War Museum - Sussex Drive Ottawa.
Canada Post
Natural Resources Canada
Tunney's Pasture - Atomic Energy of Canada and Eldorado Nuclear.
Department of National Defence
Revenue Canada (the Ralston Building in Halifax was a Revenue Canada Building, and many of the 1,900 employees who were evicted from the Dominion Public Building in Toronto worked for Revenue Canada.)
Public Works and Government Services Canada properties - countless Dominion Buildings have been privatized since the Mulroney government was in power. Dominion Buildings were located in almost every Canadian town and city; they were designed by Canada's Dominion Architects, and many buildings featured Clock Towers---for example, the Higginbotham Government Building in Lethbridge, Alberta which is currently for sale. The buildings housed departments such as Canada Customs, Manpower, etc. The CLC and PWGSC signed a Memorandum of Understanding during the year 2002, read the CLC Corporate Report.
Veteran's Affairs 
Environment Canada - Canada Lands Company exchanged the Gamelin property in Gatineau - (owned by Agriculture Canada, Environment Canada and PWGSC) for a National Capital Commission Greenbelt property in Ottawa. The subdivision is called Deerfield Village.
Canadian National Railway
CNR Hotels - CN Real Estate/Canada Lands Company sold the railway hotels to the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1988; then the CPR and CN hotels were sold to multinational corporation Fairmont. The properties included:
Chateau Laurier Ottawa
Bessborough - Saskatoon
Hotel Macdonald - Edmonton
Nova Scotian
Hotel Vancouver
Fort Garry Hotel - Winnipeg
Jasper Park Lodge - Alberta
Newfoundland Hotel
Queen Elizabeth Hotel - Montreal.
Hotel Beausejour - Moncton

Who convinced Prime Minister Jean Chretien to sell the CNR? His friend and golfing buddy Bill Clinton, who was the President of the United States in  1995? Bill Clinton was also a good friend of Bill Gates, who became the majority owner of the privatized CN Rail. In the year 2008, the Clinton Foundation received millions of dollars from Bill Gates. And a WikiLeaks document proved that Hillary Clinton wanted Bill Gates to be her Vice-President.
German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber alluded to a massive conspiracy to bring down Canada's railways, especially "The People's Railway" that operated a passenger rail service--- to turn the Canadian owned CNR into a multinational, foreign owned giant:
He told Der Speigel :" It benefited the Europeans and the Americans to stop the train industry in Canada."

Royal Canadian Mint CNR Coin.

Why were Canada's Dominion Observatories decommissioned or sold off.

     The Gonzales Dominion Observatory in Victoria, British Columbia was sold in 1992. Environment Canada  decommissioned the building before the federal government sold the observatory and land to a BC provincial Crown corporation called the Capital Regional District. The "disposal" of the property was facilitated through a Privy Council Order-in-Council.

The former Gonzales Observatory, located on Denison Road in Victoria, British Columbia.

During the year 1965, my school mates and I visited the Experimental Farm in Ottawa(as it was known then) during a field trip. I vividly remember looking through the Dominion Observatory telescope, a telescope that was removed from the Observatory in 1970. Thousands of school children are being denied the opportunity to look at space through massive, publicly-owned telescopes. Canada's astrophysical observatories are just as beautiful as the Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles, which was immortalized in the James Dean/Natalie Wood movie "Rebel Without a Cause". I cannot imagine the Americans selling off the Griffith Observatory, or their SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in New Mexico. The Jodie Foster movie "Contact" was filmed in New Mexico and Arizona.

A UFO experience:
 During the year 1956, most of the residents of the village of Eastons Corners, including my grandparents and my mother, were mesmerized by an object hovering in the sky. I was confused about the fact that my neighbours were wearing their pajamas and housecoats---in public. And they were looking up at something in the sky and pointing. Then I looked up at the sky...
 I later read  books by Jung (dealing with the collective unconscious); Gurdjieff , Robert Anton Wilson and mystics, to try to understand the events.
I read articles about NASA astronaut  Edgar Mitchell and American President Jimmy Carter, who saw unidentified flying objects. During my college years, I interviewed an astronaut, see my blog on savecfbrockcliffe, "My interview with Apollo Astronaut James Irwin."

Royal Canadian Mint UFO coin.

Former Canadian Minister of Defence Paul Hellyer believes in the existence of UFO's and non-human races.

Canadian Defence Minister Paul Hellyer is pictured on the left; my father George Shaw is on the right.

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The following photographs are from the Internet blog "Library and Archives Canada Blog":

The Ottawa Dominion Observatory.

Telescope at Gonzales.

                                           

The Old Port of Montreal is not a Walt Disney theme park.

     There is a proposal to convert The Old Port of Montreal into a Canadian version of Disneyland, according to a recent document.
Silo Number 5 will become a ride for thrill seekers, with "a six-kilometer loop that culminates in a breathtaking view from the top of Silo number 5." The Clock Tower Pier will be "transformed into a special site for cultural, social and recreational tourism institutions."
What exactly does that mean? Will Cirque de Soleil perform acrobatic stunts in front of the Clock Tower?
Will magician David Copperfield make the Tower disappear, just as he made the Statue of Liberty disappear? And will he telekinetically change the hands of time on the clock when it reappears?
Will the Clock Tower be illuminated with lights at night, so that the lights transform into different colours during special occasions, for example blue when a male royal baby is born and pink when a female royal baby is born.
The heavy metal band Metallica played at the Plains of Abraham when I visited Quebec City a few years ago. The tour bus operator said too many people were waiting in line to see Metallica, so I could not leave the bus and walk on the landscape. It does seem a little disrespectful for people to be dancing on a battlefield where soldiers died at the Plains of Abraham.
The Clock Tower is a "Sailor's Memorial Clock", a symbol that should be respected.

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The Sir Richard Scott Building in Ottawa was a Government of Canada building.

     I know that for a fact, because my husband was part of the cleaning staff at the Richard Scott Building in 1982 and 1983, and he had to show ID to the Commissionaires at the front desk every time he showed up for work. My husband was a federal employee just as I was a government employee when I worked as a cleaning lady at the nearby Conference Centre.
   The office tower at 191 Laurier Avenue West in Ottawa is now owned by a company that plans to buy the Ottawa Public Library which is attached to the building.
Once the Ottawa Library is demolished, the owner will inevitably build high rise condominiums because they a own the air rights.
     Canada Lands Company and the real estate arm of the Canadian Pacific Railway were permitted to build skyscrapers on railway land on the Toronto waterfront, because they owned the air rights. Duff Roblin, head of the CPR's Marathon Realty even proposed demolishing Union Station to facilitate the construction of high rises.

Am I missing something here?
Does the Queen of England own L'Esplanade Laurier in downtown Ottawa?
A maintenance request from Public Works and Government Services Ottawa:
     "Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada is the owner in fee simple of the property (the "Property") municipally known as 171-181 Bank Street, 140 O'Connor Street and 300 Laurier Avenue West, in the City of Ottawa, and commonly referred to as "L'Esplanade Laurier". (Rehabilitation of "L'Esplanade Laurier - PWGSC-June 22, 2017.)

The term "Fee simple" means "A permanent and absolute tenure of an estate of land with the freedom to dispose of it at will, especially in full fee simple absolute, a freehold tenure, which is the main type of land ownership".
If the Queen owns L'Esplanade Laurier why are the commoners, the taxpayers of Canada, paying for the refurbishment of the complex?  Does the Queen own the Conference Centre in Ottawa, is that why I had to swear an Oath of Allegiance to Her Majesty, before a Commissionaire in 1982?
Do the occupants of a foreign country own our National Parks, the Royal Canadian Mint and Crown corporations. Who is pulling the strings at the Canada Lands Company, the Crown corporation that privatizes federal property, from the CN Tower to Tunney's Pasture to the Natural Resources Canada complex, Canada Post buildings and experimental farms.
A true Canadian would never authorize the demolition of Kingston Pen, the Prison for Women, the Saint Vincent de Paul Pen and New Westminster Pen---and the sale of prison farm land. Collins Bay Institution owns more than 800 acres of land.
A true Canadian would never evict thousands of federal employees from government buildings.
A real Canadian would never privatize the Canadian National Railway and convert the historic Canada Post Headquarters in Toronto into the Air Canada Centre.

My niece and I on the steps of 557 Laurier Avenue West, Ottawa- 1982. My husband and I lived in the building so that we could walk to work; in my case the Conference Centre. The apartments overlooking the Technical High School grounds no longer exist.

Canada Lands Company properties.

Public Works Canada - National Wildlife Research Centre - 100 Gamelin Blvd., Hull Quebec - 6.14 ha.
AGR - Animal Virus Laboratory - 100 Gamelin Blvd., Hull Quebec - 0.66 ha.

Public Works Canada - Tunney's Pasture - Scott Street Ottawa-46.0 ha. or 113 acres-Canada Lands Company demolished the Atomic Energy of Canada Building on Goldenrod; and flattened the Virus Laboratory and Eldorado Nuclear Building.

Department of National Defence - Medical Centre, Smyth Road Ottawa-18.53 ha.

Department of National Defence- CFB Ottawa North (Rockcliffe) - 326.22 ha. or 806 acres.

CMHC Vacant Lands - Boyer Road, Orleans, Gloucester-75.60 ha.

Canada Lands Company is selling off another Experimental Farm.

Jean-Charles Chapais Experimental Farm, Levis Quebec.

     Jean-Charles Chapais was a Canadian Father of Confederation and this country's first Minister of Agriculture. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is now seeking a new location for the experimental farm, just as-
1,900 Federal Government workers had to be relocated when the Canada Lands Company sold the Dominion Public Building, Toronto.
A new veteran's hospital had to be built in Alta Vista, Ottawa, after the CLC demolished Veteran's Affairs buildings near Smyth Road,and plan to take over the National Defence Medical Centre.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada is seeking a new location near the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour in Kingston, Ontario, after it was announced that the harbour and Kingston Pen would be massively redeveloped.
Revenue Canada employees at the Ralston Building in Halifax were displaced after CLC obtained title to the government building.
The CANMET Laboratory at the Natural Resources Complex on Booth Street Ottawa was relocated to a Hamilton, Ontario business park.

This is what Wikimapia said about the Jean-Charles Chapais Experimental Farm:
A place with historical importance
"Located in the Saint-David sector in Levis, which was the first animal quarantine station in the country. The quarantine station was closed in 1981 and transformed into an experimental farm. With its 40 hectares of land and a superb arboretum, a small specialized botanical garden; the site also houses two stables, a pigsty, a kennel and several buildings."