Among the fourteen heroines of the Valiants Memorial, which commemorates leading figures from the military history of Canada, is a life-size bronze statue of Laura Secord. The artists Marlene Hilton Moore and John McEwen created all the five sculptures and the nine busts of the memorial, and Governor-General Michaëlle Jean dedicated it on November 5th, 2006. Laura Secord (1775-1868) was an American-born loyalist who moved to Upper Canada following the American Revolution. On June 21st, 1813, in the amid of the War of 1812 (a territorial conflict between the US and the United Kingdom and its British North America allies), Secord heard of plans for a surprise American attack on the British troops at Beaver Dams, which if succeeded would have furthered the American control in the Niagara Peninsula. To pass on the information, she risked her own life and went on 17 hours and 20 miles walk from her home in Queenston to the British headquarters in Thorold Township. As a result of her bravery and determination, the British and their Mohawk allies defeated the Americans. During her lifetime, Secord barely received recognition for her actions. She became famous by the late 1880s when feminist activists used her story to illustrate women’s fortitude. Since then, it has become a legend in Canada inspiring various books, poems, plays, and another statue of her. Secord’s statue depicts her in the era’s clothing while walking the long way to deliver the intel and help win the war. The second statue that honors a woman in the Valiants Memorial is the bust of Georgina Pope (1862-1938), a notable nurse and the first Matron of the Canadian Army Medical Corps. Read more...

By the end of WW1, the Canadian Association of Trained Nurses, now the Canadian Nurses Association, looked for a way and place to commemorate the army nurses who lost their lives during the war. Their memorial committee fundraised $38,000 from Canadian nurses, received government approval to place it on Parliament Hill, and chose the Canadian sculptor, George William Hill. Hill created the 6 tons relief sculpture from a single piece of white Italian Carrera marble in Italy and shipped it to Canada in 1926; it was unveiled on August 24th, 1926. The memorial presents the history of nurses in Canada, from the arrival of the sisters from France to found Hôtel Dieu in Québec City in 1639 to the end of the First World War. The memorial is the biggest piece hung on the Hall of Honour in the Centre Block, which resides between the House of Commons and the Senate. The plaque at the base of the memorial, which is also called the Nurses of Canada Memorial, reads: “Erected by the nurses of Canada in remembrance of their sisters who gave their lives in the Great War, Nineteen Fourteen-Eighteen, and to perpetuate a noble tradition in the relations of the old world and the new. Led by the Spirit of Humanity across the seas woman, by her tender ministrations to those in need, has given to the world the example of heroic service embracing three centuries of Canadian history.” Also on Parliament Hill is the monument Women Are Persons, commemorating the Famous Five, who led the campaign for equal voting rights for women in Canada in general and the fight to allow women to get elected to the Canadian Senate in particular. Read more about it here. Read more...

Unveiled on July 1st, 1992, by Queen Elizabeth herself, the statue is the first equestrian statue of Her Majesty in the world and it was dedicated in honor of her 40th year of ruling and Canada’s 125th anniversary. The statue stood till 2019 on the east side of Parliament Hill. Due to archeology and other work, it was temporarily relocated to the roundabout in front of Rideau Hall’s main gate, the official residence of the Governor-General, the queen representative in Canada. Made by sculptor Jack Harman, the 4-meter statue stands on a 3.7 meters tall granite base. It depicts Queen Elizabeth riding astride on her horse Centenial, whom she received as a gift from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in commemoration of their 100th anniversary. Queen Elisabeth II (1926) was born Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary to the Duke and Duchess of York. In 1936, her father succeeded the throne, and the 10-years-old princess became second in line to rule the kingdom. As a member of the royal family, she took on various royal duties, and during WW2, she volunteered in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, serving as a mechanic and driver. After her father died in 1952, she became the Queen of Great Britain, head of the Commonwealth, and the queen regnant of the seven independent Commonwealth countries, including Canada. On August 2nd, 1973, on her visit to Canada, Her Majesty was invited to select a horse from the RCMP stables. The chosen horse, then named Jerry, stayed with the RCMP for a few more years, and on May 15th, 1977, the horse was presented to the Queen at Windsor Castle and was renamed Centenial. To this date, it was the second of eight horses that were presented to the queen by the RCMP. Also located on Parliament Hill are the Queen Victoria statue, which was unveiled in 1901, and the monument Women are Persons which commemorates the Famous Five group who fought for Canadian women voting rights. Read more...

On the west side of Parliament Hill stands a monument honoring Queen Victoria, who reigned the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for 63 years (1837-1901). The monument was created by sculptor Louis-Philippe Hébert and was dedicated on September 21st, 1901, by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (the future King George V and Queen Mary). Canadian soldiers who served in the Boer War in South Africa received medals at the unveiling ceremony. In the monument, Queen Victoria is standing on a granite pedestal wearing her royal attire, gazing at the city. Two bronze figures stand below her; one is of a lion, a symbol of strength, who guards the country, the flag, and national honor. The other is of a young woman who represents Canada; she wears simple clothing, a mural crown on her head, and a Gorget of armor around her neck. She looks upward toward the queen while handing her a laurel wreath. Born Alexandrina Victoria, Queen Victoria (1819-1901) was the daughter of Prince Edward, the fourth son of King George III. In 1837, at 18, she inherited her uncle, King William IV, and ascended the throne, becoming the queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. At 21, she married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and later their nine children married into many royal families across Europe, for which she gained the title of the grandmother of Europe. Throughout her reign, Queen Victoria supported the development of the Dominion of Canada, and in 1857, when it was time to select the capital of the province, it was her that chose Ottawa over other cities, including Montreal, Toronto, Quebec, and Kingston. Also on Parliament Hill is the monument Women Are Persons, which honors the Famous Five: Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby, Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, and Nellie McClung. The group fought to enable Canadian women to get elected to the senate. They petitioned to change the legal term of ‘persons’ in Canada, since until October 18th, 1929, it had not considered women as such. Their fight granted women eligibility to run for the Canadian Senate. Read more...

Amid the fourteen statues at the Valiants Memorial, commemorating leading figures from the military history of Canada, stands the bust of Georgina Pope, a notable nurse and the first Matron of the Canadian Army Medical Corps. The statue was created by Marlene Hilton Moore and John McEwen and unveiled at the memorial dedication on November 5th, 2006. Georgina Pope (1862-1938) was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. At 19, she traveled to NYC to study nursing. After completing her training, she was appointed superintendent of the Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington, DC, and founded a new nursing school. In October 1899, on the outbreak of the Second Boer War, she returned to Canada to volunteer for the nursing service and serve as the commander of the first group of Canadian nurses to go overseas, in charge of operating the military hospital. For her accomplishments and distinguished service in the field, she received the Queen’s South Africa Medal and became the first Canadian to be awarded the Royal Red Cross. In 1908, at 46, she was appointed first Matron of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, training civilian nurses to operate in the field in case of war; her work was credited with creating the position of military nursing as a fully-integrated role for women. Pope’s enterprise proved critical when WW1 broke out, and Pope’s nurses were dispatched to the European battlefields. In 1917, at 55, she joined her crew of nurses and ran field hospitals in England and France until the war ended. On her return to Canada, she retired from the service. She died at the age of 76. Read more...

This monument commemorates the local women murdered between 1990 and 2000, many by their partners. Following the brutal murder of Pamella Behrendt, who was decapitated with a chainsaw by her husband in 1990, and the Montreal massacre in 1889 where 14 women died, the Women’s Urgent Action Committee was founded with a mission to commemorate the women and raise awareness of abuse and violence against women. The artist C. J. Fleury created the monument (she also sculpted the Dorothy O’Connell Monument to Anti-Poverty Activism), and Mary Leigh Faught designed the landscape. Monument consists of a 2-meter-long (6.6 ft) uncut granite stone. The inside oval shape has an inscription in English and French that reads: “TO HONOUR AND TO GRIEVE ALL WOMEN ABUSED AND MURDERED BY MEN ENVISION A WORLD WITHOUT VIOLENCE WHERE WOMEN ARE RESPECTED & FREE.” More ancient feminine symbols are incorporated on the stone, expressing that violence against women is an old problem, like the triskele spiral that signifies continuity and refers to traditional feminine divinity. Around the granite stone are smaller tombs like stones, bearing the names of the women who murdered. “Enclave: The Ottawa Women’s Monument” was dedicated on December 6th, 1992, on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women and three years post the Montreal massacre, and since then, it has been a gathering space on International Women’s Day, remembrance, and vigil days and more. Since 2000, when the name of Sandra Campbell got replaced by the general name Jane Doe, due to legal issues, the Committee has dissolved. Since no group has taken over, no more names have been added, although many wish to commemorate their loved ones. Read more...

This monument honors the work and legacy of the anti-poverty activist Dorothy O’Connell and the fight against poverty in Ottawa. Dorothy O’Connell (1939-2020) was a writer and social activist who raised awareness and fought to end poverty in Canada. When she lived with her spouse and five children in public housing, she co-founded the Ottawa Tenants Council and the first legal aid clinic. The poor conditions living experience inspired her book, which its chapters she was reading on the radio. She also co-founded the Ottawa Council for Low-Income Support Services and Ottawa’s first women’s credit union. The monument has been on the South Lawn of the City Hall since its dedication ceremony on October 17th, 2004, on the UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The artist C.J. Fleury designed the monument in the shape of a slice of bread with a hole in the middle in the shape of a house to express the struggle of poor people between shelter and basic food. Inside the wall, there is a quote by O’Connell: “Poverty stops equality/Equality stops poverty.” Another social-change-monument by C.J. Fleury is the Women’s Monument against Violence, which commemorates the women murdered and abused by men in Canada. It was dedicated on December 6th, 1992, Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. Read more...

‘Women Are Persons!’ is a monument dedicated to the ‘famous five’ – Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby, Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, and Nellie McClung, who fought to change the legal term of ‘persons’ in Canada, which until October 18th, 1929 didn’t consider women as such. Because of that definition, women couldn’t be appointed to the Senate. The monument, created by Barbara Paterson in 2000, is the first one on Parliament Hill to memorialize Canadian women. The statues depict the women in their moment of victory, having a pink tea party, wearing plain dresses and standing on the ground and not pedestals, emphasizing that those were ordinary women that had the strength to change the world. The empty chair invites you to interact with them as well as to inspire you to take a stand on your own beliefs. A replica of this statue was dedicated a year before, on October 18th, 1999, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Another statue of the ‘famous five’ by Helen Granger Young stands at the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature in Winnipeg, Canada.   Read more...