A park bench designed to celebrate reconciliation with Indigenous people has divided a sleepy Canadian community.
The controversial bench was installed in Kinsmen Park in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, to commemorate Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation – an annual holiday on September 30 to commemorate the atrocities and multi-generational effects of Canadian-Indian residential school recognition system.
Mayor George Andrews said the bench was intended as a place for people to sit and reflect. report to the CBC that it has been positively received by a number of residents.
But two women are speaking out against the new seating arrangement after the council removed benches from public places last year.
One of the women, Jade Rachwal, has even gone so far as to call it – thanks to the placement of an armrest in the middle – a textbook example of hostile architecture.
A bench in Kinsmen Park has divided the community of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador
“If you Googled ‘hostile architecture,’ you would see a picture of a bank that looks like this,” says Rachwal, youth programs manager at the Labrador Friendship Center, referring to an urban design concept that includes certain elements to guide behavior.
Its installation came just a year after the city of Happy Valley-Goose Bay removed benches around the community of about 8,000 people — including at trail entrances — to combat “loitering and illegal activity.”
“We are all witnessing the increase in loitering,” says Andrews said at the time. ‘Drunk people, groups of people.
‘The day before yesterday there were 20 to 25 people hanging around the plane [at the American military monument]throwing stones, beer bottles, that kind of thing.’
He said the loitering became common since the Labrador Winter Games in March.
“What we’re trying to do is just prevent those gatherings and those activities, you know, people sleeping and drinking, those types of things in these specific locations.”
But community members opposed the council’s decision, saying it takes benches away from people who need a break from walking. Avery Brown, social worker and board secretary at the Labrador Friendship Center, says the new bank is an insult to them. .
“To take that accessibility away from not only people affected by homelessness, but also people who have mobility issues and need rest while they walk, it just seemed a little bit ironic to me,” she told the CBC.
“You know, defending this bank through accessibility while the rest of the community was made less accessible.”
Mayor George Andrews said the bench was never intended to create animosity, but was instead designed as a place where people could sit and reflect.
Both Brown and Rachwal said they would like to know more about how the placement of the bench and armrest was considered by city officials, and any discussions officials had about other reconciliation efforts.
“It just makes me want more,” Brown said. ‘The bench feels very small compared to what it is meant to commemorate.’
However, Andrews says the bank was never intended to sow hostility.
He said it was placed in the park to serve as a place to sit and reflect, noting there were no concerns about people lying on the bench overnight because the park closes at 9 p.m.
“A few years ago we were in a different situation, where public safety was being examined at certain locations,” he says about the municipal council’s decision to remove benches in 2023.
“The only reason this was done is because the activity that took place around those banks – in our minds, as a council, was seen as a matter of public safety.
“This has nothing to do with that specific subject.”
The mayor went on to say that the decision to add a center armrest was “a last-minute thing.”
He also said the city has not yet added other banks because of other infrastructure priorities.