Afghanistan Mission Monument | Trudeau’s office took a close interest in the file in 2022

(Ottawa) The office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau intervened on at least two occasions in 2022 to examine the options available to the federal government for granting the design of the National Memorial to Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan to a group which had not been selected by a jury of experts.

Documents obtained by the Bloc Québécois under the Access to Information Act and transmitted to The Press demonstrate that a first meeting involving an emissary from the Prime Minister’s office to discuss this matter took place on May 31, 2022, approximately six months after a jury had selected the project submitted by the Daoust team from Quebec.

The name of the employee in the Prime Minister’s Office was redacted from the documents that were released on the grounds that they were personal information. However, the identities of other participants in this meeting, notably those from the Privy Council Office, the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Department of Veterans Affairs, have been revealed.

In these approximately 300 pages of documents submitted to the Bloc Québécois, we lift the veil for the first time on the intervention of the Prime Minister’s office in this matter. Obviously, he was closely interested in this issue which plunged the Trudeau government into controversy after The Press revealed that he ignored the rules of the competition by awarding, last June, the $3 million design contract to a group other than the Daoust team.

“That was my assumption from the beginning of this case. We now have the proof,” added Bloc MP Luc Désilets.

Faced with the obvious discomfort of officials from the Department of Canadian Heritage in going against the jury’s decision and the slowness of this department in endorsing the government’s controversial decision to set its sights on another concept, the Prime Minister’s office requested in July 2022 for an update.

“I return to the news about the Afghanistan monument. Has anything new happened since the ADM level meeting? [sous-ministres adjoints] which was held between AC [Anciens Combattants] and PCH [Patrimoine canadien] last week ? The CPM [cabinet du premier ministre] asks us if things are moving forward,” wrote Alyssa Phillips, from the Privy Council Office, in an email sent to a colleague from the Department of Canadian Heritage, July 14, 2022.

The prime minister’s office did not respond to requests for comment from The Press about these documents as of this writing on Sunday.

A survey that changes everything

Remember that at the end of a design competition launched in 2019, a jury selected the Daoust team, made up of the artist Luca Fortin, from Quebec, the architecture firm Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker, from Montreal, and of Louise Arbour, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to carry out this project.

In a memo to the Minister of Canadian Heritage at the time, Pablo Rodriguez, on November 24, 2021, we mentioned the idea of ​​announcing the jury’s choice in December 2021.

But from the start of 2022, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Privy Council Office raised the possibility of awarding the contract to another team, despite the jury’s decision, following a survey of veterans .

Officials from the Department of Canadian Heritage then stressed that the federal government could be subject to legal recourse, in addition to being open to criticism, if it took this route. In the following months, the Justice Department prepared legal opinions explaining the consequences of awarding the contract to another group.

Ultimately, on June 19, the Minister of Veterans Affairs at the time, Lawrence MacAulay, informed the winners, two hours before the official announcement, that the Government of Canada, “after careful consideration”, had decided to select the concept developed by another team, the Stimson team. This team was made up of visual artist Adrian Stimson, an Armed Forces veteran and member of the Siksika First Nation in Alberta, the MBTW landscape architect group, from Toronto, and LeuWebb Projects, public art coordinators, also of the Queen City.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, which is now led by Ginette Petitpas Taylor since the cabinet shuffle that took place last July, justified the decision by saying that the Stimson team’s design concept was the one that best reflected the comments formulated by veterans, their families and other participants in the mission in Afghanistan, according to a survey carried out on the five finalist design projects.

Echoes

Since The Press revealed in August that the Trudeau government had flouted its own rules by acting in this way, it faced a barrage of criticism from opposition parties, artists and design experts. The affair even got coverage in certain foreign magazines.

The same documents show that the Department of Veterans Affairs expected journalists to ask questions about the role of the Prime Minister’s Office in a series of questions and answers proposed by officials.

“Did the CPM participate in this matter? What was discussed with the CPM? », we ask in a question.

“The Government of Canada has made this decision,” is the only response offered.

During her appearance before the Veterans Affairs Committee on October 31, Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor offered exactly this response when Bloc MP Luc Désilets questioned her about the role of the Prime Minister’s office. minister.