Architect Renée Doust and her team have won what is rightfully theirs: a $3.5 million contract to design and build a memorial in Ottawa to commemorate Canada’s mission in Afghanistan. He said he is considering legal action to obtain it.
Last June, Daust and her team learned that although they had won the jury-based competition, they would not be awarded the contract to build the monument.
Since then, the team has sought to gain support in the cultural sector, given media interviews and appeared before parliamentary committees in an effort to pressure the government.
One member of the team, former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbor, even raised the topic directly with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a private phone call.
The Doust team is now considering taking Ottawa to court to either win the contract or receive more compensation than the $34,200 the federal government offered last year.
“This is not the route we wanted. It’s taking too long, so we might consider it again,” Daust said in an interview at Daust Lestage Risotto Stecker’s Montreal office. .
“There are many people who were deceived as part of this project.”
Daust acknowledged that a legal battle with the federal government would be “David vs. Goliath,” but said the company may have no other choice because of Ottawa’s refusal to engage in meaningful dialogue. Stated.
Daust said she is seeking justice for the team, Arbor and artist Luka Fortin, because the contract process was influenced by politics.
“We’re very concerned because this would set a very dangerous precedent for Canada in terms of competitions, public art competitions, architecture competitions, etc.,” she said. “There was political interference and I don’t want something like this to happen again.”
More than 40,000 Canadians served in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2014, mostly military personnel, but also government employees and humanitarian workers. Of these, 158 Canadian military personnel and seven civilians died during the conflict.
The Daust team won the 2021 jury competition that was supposed to select the monument design team. However, on the morning of June 19, 2023, the federal government notified the Daust team that it would not award the contract.
At a press conference hours later, the government announced that another team, led by Western Indigenous artist Adrian Stimson, had provided the winning design.
Ottawa explained its decision by citing an online survey conducted in 2021 that found the Stimson design was a favorite among military personnel, veterans and their families.
The Bloc Quebecois and the Conservative Party of Canada criticized Ottawa’s decision in the House of Commons.
Liberal MP Joel Lightbound also worked behind the scenes, unsuccessfully trying to change the government’s decision. He is now publicly supporting the Daoust team, saying there are “procedural flaws” in the federal process.
Rightbound said he believes the government is just trying to respect the wishes of veterans, but the current situation is unsustainable.
A group of Quebec architects who were first chosen and then rejected to build Canada’s National Monument to Afghanistan Veterans are threatening to sue the government unless they are awarded the full contract.
“I think the road to hell is sometimes paved with good intentions, and in the process of trying to achieve those good intentions and good intentions, we don’t respect the rules that the government itself has set,” he said. Quebec City Liberal MP riding Louis Hébert.
“From the moment the jury makes a decision and decides that’s the rule, to me it goes without saying that it should be respected.”
Documents released to a parliamentary committee show the government ignored its own legal advice when awarding the contract to the Stimson team.
Lawyers told the government there were only two options: award the Daoust team the contract or cancel the competition, according to the documents.
Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas-Taylor told Radio-Canada that the government’s 2021 consultations do not amount to “scientific research.”
She said she is hearing loud and clear from members of the military community who want the Stimson plan to move forward.
“Overwhelmingly, they said the Stimson concept really represents the loss, sacrifice, and courage of the men and women who served in Afghanistan,” Petitpas-Taylor said.
He said the government hopes to have the design completed by next year.
“We really want to make sure the construction of this memorial is completed in a timely manner. Veterans have said they have been waiting a long time and would certainly like to have the opportunity to have a place to reflect. ‘We will carry out the mission alongside their children and grandchildren,’ she added.
Stimson is currently working on finalizing the monument’s design, but said he did not want to comment on the controversy surrounding the selection process.
Arbor called the federal government’s process for choosing the final design “un-Canadian.”
“Instead of having the Canadian government, 20 years later, apologize for defaming the people it wanted to honor through a process that was not appropriate, it should reverse its decision,” she said.
The former Supreme Court justice recently said he educated Trudeau about the contract process in a private phone call.
“I said it’s very important that we follow the rules. If you have a procurement process to spend Canadian taxpayer money, you’re expected to follow the rules,” she said.
She said she believed the government could reach a compromise by allowing the Daust team to build on the memorial site and paying the Stimson team to build elsewhere.
“If a veteran wants to build another memorial that better reflects their contribution to this mission, we can build another memorial elsewhere because Canada is a big country,” she said.
“But here, instead of desecrating this monument with an undemocratic process where the rules weren’t followed, which I think will always be a disgrace to the people we want to honor, they did it. We need to make it right. We have time.”
