On August 8th, 2021, the Dutch Canadian Club Edmonton dedicated the statue of Anne Frank. It is a replica of the 1960 sculpture by Dutch sculptor Pieter d’Hont which was the first statue of Anne Frank ever created. The unveiling ceremony was attended by Dutch representatives, veterans, public officials, and Jewish community members. It was live-streamed to the Netherlands, where a bell tolled for 2 minutes at the same time as Edmonton. Tulips and other flowers from the Netherlands surround the sculpture, and next to it are two informative plaques. The statue pays tribute to the Holocaust victims and Canada’s role in liberating the Netherlands from Nazi tyranny in 1945. Edmonton’s Light Horse Park is named after the South Alberta Light Horse Regiment, which fought during World War I and II. The park went through a makeover in 2011, intending to create a place for those who have been affected by war or conflict. Anne Frank (1929-1945) was a teenage girl when her family went into hiding following the Nazis’ invasion of the Netherlands. During that time, she documented her life in a notebook she got on her 13th birthday. In August 1944, the German police discovered them, sending them all to Auschwitz. Anne and her sister Martha died in a concentration camp only a few weeks before the war ended. Her father, Otto, was the only family member to survive. After the war, he returned to Amsterdam and received many papers a friend was able to save for him. Among them was Anne’s diary. In 1947, The Diary of a Young Girl was published and became one of the most famous depositions of life under the Nazi regime. Click here to see all the statues of Anne Frank in the world. Read more...

At St. Albert Public Library stands a bronze sculpture commemorating Lois Hole – businesswoman, author, community supporter, education advocate, and politician who was the 15th Lieutenant Governor of Alberta. The city of St. Albert commissioned the statue and unveiled it at the city hall on May 14th, 2009, officially proclaimed Lois Hole Day. In the future, it will relocate to Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park. The statue, titled A Legacy of ‘Love and Learning,’ depicts Hole sitting on a bench hugging a child who holds a book. According to sculptress Barbara Paterson, who is famous for her sculptures of the Famous Five in Calgary and Ottawa, the statue pays tribute to Hole’s love of children and learning and commemorates her as her nickname Queen of Hugs. Lois Hole (1929-2005) was born in Buchanan, Saskatchewan, and at 19, moved to Edmonton, Alberta. Two years later, she met Ted Hole. After their wedding, the couple moved to a farm near St. Albert, where they ran a market garden that became Hole’s Greenhouses & Gardens Ltd, one of the largest retail greenhouse operations in western Canada. In 1993, at 64, she published Vegetable Favorites, followed by 15 more gardening books and an autobiography. She was an active community member, served as a trustee of various schools, and promoted educational initiatives, such as the Lois Hole Library Legacy program. In 2000, 71 years old Hole was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Alberta. She died while in office at the age of 76. Read more...

A bronze bust of Nellie McClung stands along the Heritage Trail of the Victoria Promenade in Edmonton, commemorating one of Canada’s most prominent women’s rights activists who lived in Edmonton from 1914 till 1923. Nellie Letitia McClung (1873-1951) was a social reformer, leader of the Canadian women’s rights movement, legislator, and author. Following her husband’s job, the family moved to Edmonton. They already had four children, and she was already a famous author, a leader, and a spokeswoman for women’s right to vote. She partnered with the prominent women’s rights leader Emily Murphy to continue fighting for Canadian suffrage. A partnership that also got the Canadian women their right to serve in the Senate in the famous Person Case in 1929. In Edmonton, she joined the Red Cross and the Canadian Patriotic Fund and campaigned for several causes, including property rights for married women, mothers’ allowances, and medical care for school children. She published several books and essays and embarked on lecture tours throughout Canada and the United States. In 1921, 48 years old McClung won the Liberal seat at the Alberta Legislative Assembly, serving in this position until 1926. In 1923, following her husband’s job, they moved from Edmonston to Calgary. In 1927 she joined Emily Murphy’s fight to allow women to serve in the Canadian Senate. Alongside Henrietta Muir Edwards, Irene Parlby, and Louise McKinney, the five women who became the Famous Five filled a petition to the Supreme Court of Canada questioning if women are considered persons in the law. After the court ruled that women were not qualified persons, they appealed to the British Privy Council, and in 1929, they won the case, known as the Person Case. McClung’s bust was created in 1990 by the Edmonton artist Danek Mozdzenski. Her short biography and achievements are inscribed on the bust’s pedestal. It stands alongside Maude Bowman (1877-1944), the initiator, first president, and director of the Edmonton Museum of Arts, Abraham Cristall (1868-1944), an entrepreneur and a community leader, and Judge Lucien Dubuc (1877-1956). Read more...

At the Olympic Plaza in Calgary stand in a circle five larger-than-life bronze statues of Emily Murphy (1868-1933), Henrietta Muir Edwards (1849-1931), Irene Parlby (1868-1965), Louise McKinney (1868-1931), and Nellie McClung (1873-1951), also known as The Famous Five. The Famous Five was a group of five Canadian suffragists who fought for the legal right of women to be appointed to the Senate in what became to be known as the Person Case. In 1927, they petitioned the federal government to allow women to run for the Senate. The Supreme Court ruled that women cannot be elected since they are not included in the word ‘persons’ in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867. The Famous Five appealed to the highest court of appeal in the British Empire, and on October 18th, 1929, the Privy Council declared that women are “qualified persons.” In celebration of the 70th anniversary of this historic event, the Famous 5 Foundation commissioned, with the help of generous female donors, the placement of two monuments honoring the Famous Five. The Canadian sculptress Barbara Paterson designed the sculptures and depicted the Famous Five in the moment of their victory celebration. Nellie McClung holds the newspaper with the October 18th headline; they clap and toast teacups. Next to Emily Murphy, the suffragist who led the fight, is an empty chair, inviting visitors to join them and make the world a better place in their generation. The monument was unveiled on October 18th, 1999. It is a replica of the statues that were dedicated a year later, on October 18th, 2000, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Another statue of the ‘famous five’ by Helen Granger Young stands on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature in Winnipeg. Read more...