Take the LRT plaques down?

This is a slightly expanded version of the story that appeared in the October 2023 print edition.

Alayne McGregor

At Ottawa’s LRT stations, the city has affixed bronze plaques honouring the LRT’s opening in 2019 and those responsible, including then-Mayor Jim Watson, then-City Manager Steve Kanellakos, and then-OC Transpo General Manager John Manconi.

Given the major problems with the system since, and Justice Hourigan’s criticism of those individuals’ behaviour in his LRT inquiry report, should the plaques remain?

Local activist Jane Keeler says no. She is asking citizens to write their city councillors asking that the plaques be removed. She passed out flyers saying “Take it down” at the recent transit rally, and said she is working with a few other people to promote the idea.

“The last thing we need to do is to thank Jim Watson, John Manconi, and Kanellakos in public – the people who have cheated our city. And we’re still paying, and we’ll be paying a long time. We still can’t get a good ride.

“I like to ride the bus. I like to ride the train, but not when it doesn’t work. I was scared to get on it for many years.

“The legacy of those three and their many confederates and subordinates, henchmen, etc. is one of shame for the city, not glory and honour. We were misled, duped, and cheated out of a working transit system.”

Keeler said she was inspired by another citizen who put a sticker on one of the plaques criticizing those honoured on it. But she realized that stickers could be considered vandalism, and so chose asking to remove the plaques completely, “as the first step in acknowledging guilt.”

She also told The BUZZ that this “reinforces the foolishness of naming public structures, buildings, institutions, parkways, etc. after prominent individuals whose unspoken negativity and secretive decisions may be revealed to be far from honorable, or reassessed as societal values change.”