There was unexpected emotion at Major’s Hill Park within sight of the Parliament buildings late afternoon on May 16 as Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU) and guests including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled the new Canadian Building Trades Monument in Ottawa.
The monument, supported by 14 trade unions, was fabricated in Ontario with Cambrian black granite from Quebec. The design features a pair of plumb bobs, described by CBTU Canadian operating officer Robert Blakely in his speech as the "intersection of gravity and human ingenuity," and a carved toolbox with 16 granite tools representing the tools of the trades; the tools are "integrated and interdependent," said Blakely, just as the construction trades stand together at worksites.
The monument is intended to both celebrate the contributions of the women and men who work in the building trades and to commemorate deaths in the sector. A procession of representatives of trades workers from across the country laid single roses to honour the living and the dead. Blakely asked that one rose be saved in memory of his father, who he described as a "superb" plumber and gas fitter.
"He believed in his trade and believed in the union," said Blakely. "He would be absolutely over the moon to know that someone had raised a monument to the trades."
The monument was designed by sculptor John Greer and architect Brian MacKay-Lyons, both based in Halifax.
Trudeau was described as a friend of the trade union movement who had worked with stone masons to deliver a tonne-and-a-half of stones on one of many projects and rebuilds currently being undertaken in the parliamentary precinct in Ottawa.
The prime minister posed with four apprentices who instead of a ribbon-cutting had cut pipe, cable, glass and brick. Trudeau was given an honorary membership card from the bricklayers union in reference to his efforts carrying stones.
Kitchener-Waterloo’s Marion Brown performed an original song, titled Standing Together, that was the winning entry in a contest held in anticipation of the unveiling ceremony. Brown, an employee of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 804 and a member of Teamsters Local Union 879, gave a charged speech before singing, referring to the death of her father, a union plasterer, who had been exposed to asbestos and died from cancer.
"Standing together is what makes us strong and our country even stronger," said Brown.
Meanwhile, supporters watching live streaming of the ceremony on Facebook Live registered their support, with IBEW member Jennifer Pigozzo writing, "Way to go Marion!! All of IBEW Local 804 is super proud of you!"
Another Facebook observer noted that Trudeau had attended the last five annual conferences of the CBTU and that he was the only sitting prime minister to ever attend.
Trudeau mixed politics with anecdotes in his speech, referring to his government’s recent pledge to ban asbestos from building sites by 2018, its plans to increase the number of apprentices and properly enforce the Westray law, new initiatives to increase resiliency in construction in the wake of the Fort McMurray fires last year, and then discussing construction on Parliament Hill.
The greatest perk he has looking out of his office window on the third floor of the centre block, he said, was watching construction crews working on the new visitors centre, "step by step, through rain, snow and sunshine, watching rebar and other things I don’t know about," learning the process and meeting with the stone masons.
"As I think about the kind of future I want to build for my kids, I get to take a few minutes to look out my window to see the work you people do," said Trudeau.
"We are so proud to host this monument in our nation’s capital to celebrate the work of building trades in building our communities, the sacrifices made, to inspire a better future.
"Standing here, parliamentarians will forever more be able to remember and acknowledge the people who literally built this country."
Blakely looked around at other monuments on the hill and the parliamentary buildings and said, "This place now marks the work, service and sacrifice of the men and women who actually built the joint — who constructed the infrastructure, who have done this for generations but have been almost completely unsung."
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