‘Vestige of their memory’: Hudson’s Bay war memorials need to be saved, lawyer says

A Toronto lawyer is hoping to find a way to preserve war memorials at two Hudson’s Bay stores.

E. Patrick Shea, who also sits on the senate of the 48th Highlanders of Canada and is the RCAF Foundation’s secretary, said he wants the displays commemorating Bay and Simpsons workers who died in the Second World War to be saved.

The display at the Hudson’s Bay store in downtown Toronto consists of a list of staff at Simpsons, a defunct department store the Bay bought in 1978, that made the “supreme sacrifice.” The arrangement tucked away near a bank of elevators is flanked by two Canadian flags and a wreath of poppies with a purple banner reading, “lest we forget.”

And at the downtown Calgary location closing by June 15 is a bronze plaque bearing the names of dozens of Hudson’s Bay employees who died in the war.

“Most people just see names on a wall, but behind every one of those names is a story,” Shea said.

Most of the almost 100 individuals listed between the two memorials were 18 or 19 years old when they left home for the war, he said. They never returned and now most of the people who knew them are gone as well.

“Some of them may have had children, but even their children would be well into their 80s now,” Shea said.

“The last sort of vestige of their memory are these plaques and they deserve to be in the public eye.”

Shea feels his advocating for the memorials will help ensure they don’t become an afterthought as Hudson’s Bay closes all but six stores by June, sells off its assets and looks for businesses to assume its leases. The downtown Toronto store is not slated for closure.

The company will return to court Thursday to seek permission to run an auction for some 1,700 pieces of art and more than 2,700 artifacts.

Asked about plans for the memorials, Hudson’s Bay spokesperson Tiffany Bourré said in an email that the company is “deeply mindful” of the cultural significance of its artifacts and is working with advisers to ensure they will be auctioned off in a way that “appropriately balances the interests and concerns of all stakeholders.”

RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, which oversees the Calgary property through a joint venture with the Bay, did not respond to a request for comment.

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, whose subsidiary Ontrea Inc. is listed in court documents as the landlord for the downtown Toronto property, did not respond to a request for comment.

Its other real estate subsidiary Cadillac Fairview, however, replied and referred The Canadian Press to Hudson’s Bay.

“If any artifacts come into Cadillac Fairview’s possession, we support their preservation,” company spokesperson Anna Ng said in an email.

Shea, whose mother worked for Hudson’s Bay for 40 years, wants to see the memorials stay in the community where they’re already located.

He imagines the Simpsons tower at 401 Bay Street, a Cadillac Fairview property where Hudson’s Bay has its head office, would be an ideal site for the Toronto memorial.

The Military Museums in Calgary could be a good fit for the Alberta memorial, Shea said.

Curator Alison Mercer agreed in an email that it could be suitable for the museum collection.

If Shea is successful, the memorials wouldn’t be the first he has rescued. He previously saved one at a decommissioned mill in Thorold, Ont., for Ontario Paper Company employees lost in the First World War.

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