Canadian federal landmarks that were privatized.

Dominion Public Building in Toronto, sold in the year 2018.

Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa.

Fort Garry Hotel Winnipeg

Bessborough Hotel Saskatoon

Prison for Women, Kingston (From:kingstonherald.com)

Hotel Macdonald in Edmonton.

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Fraser Institute
"Properties such as the CN Tower and others held by Canada Lands could also be sold. The fact is Canadians would benefit tremendously from a sweeping privatization of Crown assets". (From: Time to privatize: Government should begin selling off assets.)
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Let the Future Begin - March 1997

"All remaining federal real estate assets" includes the properties owned by :
Corrections Canada
Fisheries and Oceans Canada - One thousand federal lighthouses were denationalized.
Canada Mortgage and Housing
Parks Canada - The Fraser Institute is calling for the devolution of all the National Parks in British Columbia to the provincial government of B.C.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Canada Post
Health Canada
Natural Resources Canada
PWGSC - Public Works and Government Services Canada.
National Capital Commission

I am standing in front of the privatized Peggy's Cove Lighthouse in Nova Scotia.

Canadians are traumatized, when national landmarks are demolished.

     Half of the Kingston Penitentiary may be flattened.The Pen is a National Historic Site of Canada; a former Classified Federal Heritage Building; a landmark that could last 4 thousand years because of the construction materials used and fine workmanship.
The Kingston Penitentiary Proposal
     "The proposal...recommends preserving roughly half of the existing federally owned penitentiary grounds as is for 'tourism and heritage purposes'. The other half of the grounds-mostly the southern portion, closer to the waterfront - could be re purposed for commercial or residential development, including towers as high as 25 storeys".
(From:" Sailing Centre, waterfront park touted for Kingston Penitentiary redevelopment" - written by Trevor Pritchard, CBC Radio's All in a Day, 2017).
Are you people insane? I don't even live in Kingston, yet I would feel demoralized if I saw a video showing the Kingston Pen imploding, I would probably break down and cry.
 How do you think the people of Kingston will feel, when they see and hear the explosions that level the southern portion of the Pen? You are tearing the heart and soul out of this community.

The President of the Frontenac Heritage Foundation Floyd Patterson said: "The federal government has the power to demolish them. (the KP buildings) However we concluded that would be absolutely atrocious, grievous, scandalous". (From: "Group tries to get Kingston Penitentiary heritage status" written by Peter Hendra, Toronto Sun.)
     The word "nationalism" is defined as:

1.) loyalty and devotion to a nation; especially: a sense of national consciousness.
1.c) exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups. (Miriam-Webster)

The international agency UNESCO protects endangered archaeological sites, heritage buildings, land masses, military fortifications, former prisons.
It's time to get UNESCO involved. Canada's cultural history is more important than  25-storey high rise buildings. Our collective morale, our sense of pride as a country are more important than real estate developments. Symbols unite us---our Maple Leaf Flag, Coat of Arms, Dominion Buildings, National Anthem O Canada and landmarks, including the Kingston Pen, the Prison for Women and Collins Bay Pen.

Kingston Penitentiary (Photo is from Wikipedia)

The entire City of Kingston Ontario should be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the year 2007, the Rideau Canal and Kingston Fortifications were inscribed as Cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The Kingston Fortifications
Fort Henry
Fort Frederick
Cathcart Tower
Shoal Tower
Murney Tower

 In order to be nominated as a World Heritage Site, the buildings within that city have to already  be classified.
Bellevue House, the home of Canada's first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald is a National Historic Site of Canada.
The Kingston Penitentiary was a Classified Federal Heritage Building of Canada complex, and is currently a National Historic Site of Canada. Kingston Pen would have to be dynamited to remove  perimeter walls, guard towers and buildings---so that high rise condos and townhouses could be built on the property.
The final scene in the 1978 movie Superman, and Alias Grace were filmed at the Pen.

The Prison for Women, located opposite the Pen, was a Recognized Federal Heritage Building in Canada. There are currently plans to destroy the interior of P4W to create space for high-end housing, student housing and commercial entities. And the politician who represents the Village of Portsmouth wants to see a high rise on the land that surrounds P4W.

Old Kingston Post Office - National Historic Site of Canada.

Another federal penitentiary in Canada may be decommissioned and sold to developers

Photo from 650 CKOM.

Photo from paNOW.

See the article "Feds should consider replacing 'old and outdated' Saskatchewan Penitentiary--John Howard Society" by Alex Macpherson, Saskatoon Starphoenix, November 2, 2017.
Acccording to the 2007 document "A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety"...

                      "Yesterday's infrastructure does not meet today's needs". 
Recommendation 98: The Panel recommended that CSC pursue undertaking capital and operating investments in a new type of regional penitentiary complex that responds to the cost efficiency and operational deficits of the current infrastructure".

Recommendation 100: The Panel recommends that in the interim, CSC institute clear criteria to minimize authorization of retrofit projects".
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The Don Jail in Toronto was preserved. The prison was featured in the television show "Orphan Black" and the Tom Cruise movie "Cocktail"; the jail was The Cell Block Bar in the film.

The Honourable Mark Gerretsen, Member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands, wants to see Kingston Penitentiary preserved.

The Globe and Mail

Ottawa puts $17.6 million price tag on Kingston Penitentiary 

by Carys Mills, Published May 20, 2012---Updated April 30, 2018

"At the municipal level, Kingston Mayor Mark Gerretsen said he wants the site to be preserved but he's more focused on what the closing means for prison workers."

The Kingston Penitentiary could be standing thousands of years from now because the buildings were constructed with limestone. The limestone Great Pyramids of Giza are 4,000 years old.

The Village of Portsmouth should be designated a Cultural UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Kingston Penitentiary and Prison for Women are located in Portsmouth Village, Kingston, Ontario in Canada.
The owners of the penitentiary are planning to demolish the perimeter walls, guard towers and several historic buildings in the complex. See the following documents on the Internet:

Kingston Penitentiary and Portsmouth Olympic Harbour-City of Kingston
City endorses heritage and housing vision for Kingston Penitentiary and Portsmouth Olympic Harbour

KP is on the right.

Dynamite or nitroglycerin would be necessary to destroy the walls and buildings at the Pen.
If the Village of Portsmouth becomes a World Heritage Site, plans to decimate the Pen will not proceed. And any type of residential or commercial development on the grounds of P4W would be banned.
Canada joined the UNESCO  Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1972.
 (Criteria that pertains to the Village of Portsmouth below--ASC, creator of this blog)
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.
(See: Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and National Heritage.)

The word homogeneity means:
                                    "the quality or state of being of a similar kind or of having a uniform structure or composition throughout".
Kingston Pen and the Prison for Women were  constructed with limestone. And they were federal penitentiaries for many years.
To be selected as a World Heritage Site, buildings within that site must have  already been classified...
The Kingston Penitentiary was a Classified Federal Heritage Building of Canada, and the Prison for Women was a Recognized Federal Building of Canada. KP is now a National Historic Site of Canada.

The Australian Convict Sites - are protected because they are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Fremantle Prison Tunnels were dug into limestone. A tunnel connected The Big House and Prison for Women.

A book that documents the history of Portsmouth: City of Kingston, Buildings of Architectural and Historical Significance (1975) Volume 3, "History of Portsmouth Village".
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Cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Canada
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in South-Western Alberta
Historic District of Old Quebec in Quebec City
Landscape of Grand-Pre in Nova Scotia
L'Ase aux Meadows National Historic Site - Newfoundland and Labrador
Old Town of Lunenburg in Nova Scotia
Red Bay Basque Whaling Station in Newfoundland and Labrador
Rideau Canal in Ontario
SGang Gwaay Llanagaay on the Northern Coast of British Columbia

Individuals and groups can contact the World Heritage Centre about endangered historical sites:
World Heritage Centre
UNESCO
7, place de Fontenoy
75352 Paris 07 SP
France
Tel: 33 (01) 45 68 18 71
E-mail: wh-info @ unesco.org
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During the summer of 1967 I attended a summer school in Kingston, the school bus drove by the penitentiary five days a week. P4W and The Big House are part of the city's DNA.
Alcatraz Island on San Francisco Bay is an American National Historic Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.
A Steve McQueen movie Papillon was filmed at Devil's Island, French Guiana. Devil's Island is a popular tourist attraction, just as the Kingston Pen is a popular tourist venue.

People of Kingston, protect your heritage buildings.

Limestone is known as "The Nation's Building Stone" in the United States because so many historic buildings and landmarks were created from this material:

The Lincoln Memorial
The Washington National Cathedral
The Empire State Building
Rockefeller Center
Grand Central Station in New York City
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
Ellis Island

  Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act gives municipalities the ability to designate heritage conservation districts. Districts are areas whose cultural heritage value contributes to a sense of place far beyond their individual buildings, structures and landscapes.

Why is the Portsmouth Village not a Heritage Conservation District?

Two very historic Canadian properties are located in Portsmouth Village, the Prison for Women and Kingston Penitentiary.
According to the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Sport website, only 3 properties in Kingston are Heritage Conservation Districts:
Market Square
Barriefield Village
Old Sydenham

Designation as a Heritage District would interfere with plans to build high rises, hotels, townhouses, parking lots and roads on KP and Olympic Harbour property.
Most of the buildings at KP are in good condition, they could be standing for thousands of years because they are limestone properties.

                                       

The foundation of the Parthenon is limestone.

I am in front of the Parthenon in 1979.