Sunday, April 28, 2019

The Kingston Pen in Portsmouth, England will be converted into 230 "homes".

Redevelopment of the Portsmouth prison in England.Is it a coincidence, that Kingston penitentiaries in Canada and England were both decommissioned in 2013?
"Built in 1877, Kingston Prison is a prime example of the radial prison design that found favour in the late 19th century. The idea was that prisons, housed in radiating cells, could be observed from a central rotunda...Closed as a prison in 2013, the building cell wings, chapel and infirmary will be remodelled for residential use, with new-build, low-rise apartment blocks located on the sides of the site." (From: Property for sale at 1877 Old Portsmouth Gaol.)
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The Canada Lands Company, the future owner of "The Big House" is not a Canadian Crown corporation:
1.)  The CLC had an interest in two London, England offices.
2.)  The Canada Lands Company-owned CN Tower is "non-federal owned."
3.)  The Canadian Crown corporation CN Rail was privatized in 1995, soon after British Rail was privatized. CN Real Estate, aka the Canada Lands Company, sold half a billion dollars worth of CNR real estate including the Scribe Hotel in Paris, France; CN Towers in London, Ontario; Edmonton, Alberta and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; the Spadina Toronto roundhouse; thousands of train stations, the Quebec Bridge and 100,000 acres of land (the government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau conducted an inventory of CNR real estate holdings in 1980.)
4..)  Canadian landmarks lose all heritage protection before they are transferred to the Canada Lands Company. Many "surplus"properties were National Historic Sites of Canada and Classified and Recognized Federal Heritage Buildings. And Canada's Maple Leaf Flag and Coat of Arms are stripped from government  buildings and towers when they are transferred to the CLC.
5.)  Canada Lands Company and Canada Post executive Moya Greene funnelled Canada Post properties to the Canada Lands Company, including 1500 rue Ottawa, next to Montreal's Lachine Canal. Then Moya Greene was appointed to the UK's Royal Mail; she ended up privatizing the Royal Mail and received the honourary title "Dame".



Thursday, April 25, 2019

The Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Pen in Laval, Quebec has been decimated.

The movie "Death Race" about a sadistic prison warden (played by Joan Allen) was filmed at the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul prison, Laval, Quebec.
To see a recent birds-eye view of the former prison, Google "3 Place J. Eudes-Blanchard, Laval."
Thanks a lot Canada Lands Company, you can add this property to the long list of Canada's heritage that you have ruined, so that you can add millions more dollars to your bank account:
-the Kingston, Ontario Outer Station on Montreal Street.
-Prison for Women, Kingston.
-the Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa, sold by CN Real Estate to the real estate arm of the Canadian Pacific Railway by the Mulroney government. Modern condominiums are being added to the Chateau-style hotel.
-Dominion Public Building next to Union Station, Toronto Ontario.
-armouries that resemble castles in Montreal, Windsor, and Ottawa (Wallis House.)
-Denison Armoury, Toronto.
-CFB Rockcliffe.
-the London, Ontario CN Tower.
-20 Strachan Avenue, Toronto - Central Prison Chapel.

Is some type of mind-control experiment or a psyop being perpetrated on the citizens of Canada? There must be a reason for the systematic destruction of Canada's prisons, lighthouses, post offices, armouries and train stations.People fight for what they love. I love Canada's architecture; our National Parks; my Maple Leaf Flag and the song "O Canada." I love to visit the Parliament Buildings; the Chateau Frontenac Hotel in Quebec City and the Citadelles in Halifax and Quebec City.
Symbols are important---they unite a country, and give the people a sense of nationalism, a sense of pride and continuity. I grieve when I see a National Historic Site demolished or neglected---a railway station; a prairie grain elevator; a lighthouse. I feel a sense of loss when Canada's Maple Leaf Flag and Coat of Arms are stripped from government buildings when they are privatized. I feel like Canadians are losing their sense of identity, their collective soul, when traditions become obsolete; when landmarks are divested.
When New York investor Carl Icahn and a Saudi Arabian Prince were fighting over the Fairmont Hotels I thought "How could this happen? How could a CANADIAN politician sell my hotels to the highest bidder?  Our descendents are the rightful owners of the Jasper Park Lodge, the Fort Garry Hotel, Hotel Macdonald, the Hotel Montebello and the Lodge in Banff."
How dare you, Canadian politicians, privatize "The People"s Railway" and talk about selling Canada Post, the CBC and Via Rail.

Ottawa's "Mile of History" is now dominated by foreign embassies and the Old War Museum was sold. I would not be surprised if the Canada Lands Company privatizes the Connaught Building, the headquarters of Revenue Canada, and the Royal Canadian Mint.

Who will fight for Canada, when the Canada Lands Company  privatizes all federal government buildings and military bases. Who will feel patriotic, when foreign billionaires, royalty and the Canadian provinces own the National Parks. I frankly could not care less about trips to outer space, because I believe that the super-rich want to colonize other galactic dimensions. I care about my own country, my fellow Canadians; our wildlife and environment; I care about saving and documenting my country's history, traditions and symbols.
The barbarians are still at the gates, and they want more and more---more Crown corporations; more Crown property and more natural resources.

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The former Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Penitentiary in Laval, Quebec---a National Historic Site of Canada now mostly gone from the face of the Earth:
See the YouTube video "Vieux Pen".
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Benny Farm in Montreal was a Canada Lands Company housing project, while the Vieux Pen (what is left of it) is the property of Canada Lands Company. (The article is from the Montreal Gazette newspaper, July 11, 2010. By David Johnston@thegazette,canwest.com.)
Another "Death Race" photo. The Vieux Pen was constructed with limestone.




The evolution of Kingston, Ontario's "Mile of History".

 Convert the area into another "Upper Canada Village"but featuring all of the Corrections Canada landscapes, towers and buildings; the local pubs; Garrigan Park; the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes, etc. Apparently the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes is being relocated to the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana are dressed in Klondike outfits during a visit to Fort Edmonton, Alberta in 1983.

1.) Celebrate the accomplishments of prison reformer Agnes Macphail, who was Canada's first female Member of Federal Parliament. Agnes Macphail visited the Kingston Pen after a riot, and made 88 recommendations that humanized/improved conditions in the prison.

2.)  Recognize the role of Kingston Pen inmates in the creation of the Village of Portsmouth.

3.)  Snow globes.

4.) Create a buffer zone around the Pen, P4W, Rockwood Asylum, Church of the Good Thief, St. Helen's, and the Corrections Canada buildings on Union Street so that views will not be obstructed. Ban the construction of residential housing and commercial establishments on buffer zones., including the 100-acre Provincial Campus where Rockwood Asylum is located.

5.) Preserve all of the perimeter walls and guard towers at the "The Big House." According to the document "Kingston Visioning":
-at least one perimeter wall at the Pen will be demolished, to facilitate views of Lake Ontario; and the guard towers will be knocked down if they get in the way of residential construction.
According to the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office document pertaining to "The Big House":
THE WALLS AND TOWERS
The walls and towers at Kingston Penitentiary are essential and defining functional elements of the institution...The walls and towers constitute the aspects of the prison best known to the public, but they may not be buildings in the judgement of the FHBRO assessment committee...the walls averaged 25 feet in height and consisted of roughly dressed blocks of limestone from the yard quarries...The towers, all of similar design, were of the circular or bastion, type and were derived from 17th and 18th century military prototypes. They featured umbrella-shaped roofs (that of the west tower was crowned by a stone ball, smooth stone surfaces marked by decorative work at the openings, and narrow window slits which provided views (and a gun-sight)bof both the yard and the walls. (From: Page 52, Federal Heritage Building Review Office report on Kingston Penitentiary.)
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6.) Maps

7.) Save the Workshops Dome and connected buildings that are part of KP:
The Workshops Dome and connected buildings will be the focus of extensive redevelopment.
8.)  The Federal Government of Canada and Corrections Canada have banned all residential and commercial construction on land surrounding the Kingston Penitentiary:
Portsmouth Olympic Harbour and Penitentiary land---now.
The Penitentiary land within the red lines will remain public, Google the article "Kingston Penitentiary Harbourfront Property-CSC-SCC."..."After the environmental 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 could be revitalized and restored to green space. The remediated area will no longer be leased for boat slips or for long-term boat storage, so the refreshed space will be open for the public to have access to and enjoy!" June 29, 2015.









Tuesday, April 23, 2019

The City of Kingston Ontario's" Mile of History."

The streets---King Street West; Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard; Union Street.
Landmarks---Kingston Penitentiary; Portsmouth Olympic Harbour; Prison for Women; Isabel MacNeill Halfway House; Correctional Services Museum; Penitentiary Water Tower; Rockwood Asylum; Rockwood Villa; St. Helen's; Stone Gables; the 100-acre Provincial Campus on Gable Lane; Church of the Good Thief.

The UNESCO Guidebook that will help me designate the Village of Portsmouth in Kingston, Ontario a  UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Site. I am also receiving help from a Federal Member of Parliament, a Provincial Member of Parliament (MLA); heritage groups and Library and Archives Canada on Wellington Street in Ottawa.
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In order to be designated a UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Site, all of the buildings within that site have to be classified as "historic" by either the federal, provincial or local governments. All of the Village of Portsmouth "Mile of History" buildings comply to that criteria:
Name of the Building            Address                                     Federal ID  Provincial ID  Local ID
Former Women's Prison        40 Sir John A. Macdonald Blvd.    7584
Building A3 - P4W               40 Sir John A. Macdonald Blvd.    10239

Church of the Good Thief    743 King Street West                                       10402

Kingston Pen/East Workshop                                                     10242
Kingston Pen/National Historic Site of Canada                         13265
Kingston Pen/ Main Cellblock                                                     3309
Kingston Pen/North Lodge                                                          3656
Kingston Pen/Penitentiary Towers                                             16724
Kingston Pen/ South Workshop                                                 10243
Kingston Pen/West Workshop                                                   10241

Elmhirst House                     443 Union Street                         19617

Former Warden's Residence 555 King Street West                  10217

Stone Gables                        462 King Street West                  4710
Red Cross Lodge                 440 King Street West                  6220
St. Helen's Complex            440 King Street West                  16462
St. Helen's                           440 King Street West                   4712

                 
(All information is from "List of Historic Places in Kingston, Ontario" Wikipedia.)
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525 King Street West, the Isabel MacNeill Halfway House for Women, is a Federal Government of Canada heritage building.

752 King Street West, the former Rockwood Asylum, is designated under Part 1V of the Ontario Heritage Act. The 100-acre Provincial Campus, where the Rockwood Villa and Asylum are located, is a "Cultural Heritage Landscape" under Section 7.3.D.5 of the City of Kingston Official Plan (2010).

244 Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard, the Penitentiary Water Tower, is protected by Part 1V of the Ontario Heritage Act.
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 Ottawa Ontario's "Mile of History" is located on Sussex Drive. Landmarks located on Sussex Drive:
Earnscliffe - the Ottawa home of Canada's first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald.
Chateau Laurier Hotel.
A building that resembles a castle, the Revenue Canada Building.
The Lester B. Pearson External Affairs Building.
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I am on the steps of the National Archeological Museum in Athens, Greece in 1979. 
I am at the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, 69 km Southeast of Athens 1979.




Why the Village of Portsmouth in Kingston, Ontario should be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Most of the Kingston Penitentiary will be flattened to facilitate the construction of condominiums, townhouses, a hotel, restaurants and tourist venues.

Residential construction will obstruct views of the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour and Lake Ontario.

A private developer plans to remove bars and locking mechanisms from the interior of the Prison for Women; remove walls because the cells are too small to be converted into condominiums; and build a residential tower on the 8-acre grounds of P4W.

The real estate arm of the Ontario Government, called Infrastructure Ontario, is currently selling the Rockwood Asylum and several hundred more "ghost buildings" including the Perth Jail and Guelph Reformatory.

The Marine Museum of the Great Lakes was sold by the Canadian government in January of 2016, see the Globe and Mail article by Canadian historian J.L. Granatstein "Why is Ottawa sinking Kingston's Marine Museum of the Great Lakes?" The irreplaceable property is located on 55 Ontario Street, only 2.7 km from the Penitentiary Museum of Canada, 555 King Street West.

 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau most likely derailed plans by the Canadian Pacific Railway to demolish Windsor Station in Montreal; Union Station in Toronto and Summerhill Station in North Toronto---the head of the CPR Ian David Sinclair was appointed to the Canadian Senate by Prime Minister Trudeau after Ian David Sinclair refused to demolish the landmarks. And J.L. Granatstein wrote the 1970 book "Marlborough Marathon---One Street Against a Developer" about the CPR's real estate arm Marathon Realty.
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The Ontario Regional Headquarters were transferred to a federal Crown corporation that profits from the sale of "surplus" federal property, the Canada Lands Company.
A Prison for Women jail cell.




Why the Historic District of Old Quebec is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Landmarks
Le Chateau Frontenac - was one of Canada's grand railway hotels, before the real estate arm of the Canadian Pacific Railway sold the CPR hotels to a multinational corporation Fairmont.

Site of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

La Citadelle.





Why the Old Town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Landmarks in Lunenburg
Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic.
(work in progress)

A replica of the world-famous schooner Bluenose 11.
My family and I visited Lunenburg, Nova Scotia a few years ago.



Wednesday, April 10, 2019

More documents and books that could save irreplaceable buildings in Kingston, Ontario.

The buildings that are endangered:
Kingston Penitentiary
Prison for Women
Church of the Good Thief
Rockwood Asylum
Isabel MacNeill Halfway House
Penitentiary Museum
St. Helen's Complex
Penitentiary Water Tower

Corrections Canada Complex on Union Street.
Collins Bay Institution - The interior of Cellblock Building B-1 at Collins Bay is being demolished. Cellblock B-1 is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building according to the Federal Heritage Building Review Office. (Information about the demolition of the former training centre is from "Volume 111, Section 4, Acquisition of land, buildings and works-March 26, 2019."
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Photographs and an audiovisual inventory are publicly available at Library and Archives Canada. Documentaries about the Pen, Prison for Women, Prison Farms during the 1960's, etc. were filmed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, National Film Board, TV Ontario...the list goes on.
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I received the above-mentioned documents on April 8, 2019.



A PhD dissertation and books written by Dr. Jennifer McKendry:
1991 - "William Coverdale and the Architecture of Kingston from 1835 to 1865." (PhD thesis , Department of the History of Art, University of Toronto, 1991. The document is stored at Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa.)
Architect William Coverdale designed:
Kingston Penitentiary
Portsmouth Community Correctional Centre
St. Helen's Complex
the Rockwood Asylum

1993 - "An ideal Hospital for the Criminally Insane? Rockwood Lunatic Asylum, Kingston Ontario."

1995 - "With Our Past Before Us -Nineteenth Century Architecture of the Kingston Area."

1996 - "Historic Portsmouth Village, Kingston".

2005 -  "Portsmouth Village, Kingston - an Illustrated History."

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Tourism Kingston and city partners have identified the Kingston Penitentiary as a key tourism asset in the city.
Statistics
2018 - 68,000 visitors.
2017 - 100,000 visitors.
2016 - 60,000 visitors.

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The United Nations Agency called UNESCO would have to know the present condition of the former prisons, the museum, halfway houses, church and asylum. Most of the KP buildings are in good condition because they were created with limestone, and the craftsmanship was superb.


The Kingston Pen was a National Historic Site of Canada and a Classified Federal Heritage Building. Most of the other Corrections Canada holdings in the City of Kingston were also federally and provincially designated.