Shovels recently broke ground at the site of Canada’s 2SLGBTQI+ National Monument in Ottawa.
The monument, called Thunderhead, is being built to recognize historic discrimination faced by generations of 2SLGBTQI+ people in Canada, which include the colonial roots of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia as well as the cruel actions of the Canadian government during the LGBT Purge.
Thunderhead is being built on unceded and traditional Anishinabe Algonquin Nation territory, close to Portage Bridge and Wellington Street on the Ottawa River. The monument will celebrate the resilience of all queer and trans communities and serve to inspire the change still needed in Canada.
This monument was designed by Elder Albert McLeod, Winnipeg-based Public City Architecture, and artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan.
Within a landscaped park, a massive column is broken apart by a thunderhead cloud from within, just as 2SLGBTQI+ communities have risen up to break barriers and demand justice and equality. Thousands of mirrored tiles inside reflect diverse identities and aim to hold the memory of queer lives that ended too soon.
In Anishinabe teachings, thunderclouds are home to the Thunderers “whose storms renew the land and make things right,” say the designers. This monument, and its words, were developed with input from thousands of 2SLGBTQI+ community members, including Purge survivors and Indigiqueer Elders.
The monument is a project of the LGBT Purge Fund and it is being developed in collaboration with Canadian Heritage and the National Capital Commission. The Monument is being paid for through proceeds of a 2018 class action settlement won against the Government of Canada. The lawsuit was initiated by survivors of the LGBT Purge, a government campaign that systematically hunted, harassed and fired 2SLGBTQI+ members of the Canadian Armed Forces, the RCMP and the federal public service between the 1950s and mid-1990s. The funds would have gone to LGBT Purge victims had they lived long enough to make a claim.
The LGBT Purge Fund, the Monument’s proponent, marked the milestone with members of 2SLGBTQI+ communities, LGBT Purge survivors, the monument’s design team and representatives of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation and the Government of Canada. Guests heard powerful words from Indigenous leaders and Elders, Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Canadian Heritage, and Michelle Douglas, executive director and Martine Roy, chair from the LGBT Purge Fund.
Thunderhead is set to open in summer 2025.
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