Veteran asks Queen to save air and space museum.
Pilot and volunteer Philip Gray, right, councillor Maria Augimeri, and pilot and volunteer George Neal talk at a press conference on the status of the Canadian Air and Space Museum Tuesday.
Staff photo/DAN PEARCE
Second World War veteran Philip Gray is so distraught about the threat of eviction hanging over the Canadian Air and Space Museum at Downsview Park, he has written a letter to Queen Elizabeth begging for her help.
"This is a plea for justice for this noble building, a plea that seems to be echoing off into the wilderness at present. The smallest hint of concern from Your Majesty might avert this terrible wrong, might return some dignity to the memories of those valiant young boys (who served in the armed forces)," he said in his letter.
"In these fading months of my life, I can never forget that we 21-year-old boys answered the call at once when our countries were threatened. My questions is, now that we are in trouble will those same countries answer the call for us?"
Veterans and others have been fighting to save the museum since it received an eviction notice from Downsview Park on Sept. 20 after falling behind in rent payments.
Museum officials were then given six months to vacate the building, which is the original 1929 home of the de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd. and is considered the birthplace of the Canadian space program. It contains a life-sized replica of the Avro Arrow aircraft and many other important artefacts.
Downsview Park, a Crown corporation, plans to turn the site into a four-pad ice rink that would open by September 2013.
With pleas to the federal government to save the museum so far falling on deaf ears, Gray said he hopes the Queen might suggest she would like to see it remain open.
Gray, a Lancaster pilot in the Royal Air Force's bomber command during the war, shared his letter on Tuesday Nov. 8 when York Centre Councillor Maria Augimeri invited some NDP members of parliament to tour the museum.
Augimeri, York South-Weston MP Mike Sullivan and Parkdale-High Park MP Peggy Nash, who is running to become party leader, pleaded with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government to intervene with Downsview Park to save the museum.
The request to Ottawa is particularly heartfelt just days before Remembrance Day on Friday, Nov. 11, Augimeri said.
"We beseech the prime minister to do something to save it," she said.
"We have plans to be a showcase for Canada in order for children and youth to come and see what their grandparents fought for, fought in."
Sullivan said he has raised the plight of the museum three times in Parliament, but so far the Conservatives have said they won't get involved.
What's more, the federal heritage designation on the museum building has mysteriously been removed in recent weeks, Sullivan said.
"I have got involved because a number of volunteers have come to my office in tears to say 'This cannot happen, it should not happen'," he added.
"This building is spectacular and its history is spectacular."
Nash said the museum is a "key part of our Canadian heritage" that needs to be saved, especially during Remembrance Week.
David Soknacki, chair of Downsview Park's board of directors, has stood by the decision to evict the museum.
"The park has a 90-year-old, 100,000-square-foot building that's falling apart. The windows are coming out. It's in a real state of disrepair. The park has an obligation to the public to preserve its heritage," he said in September.
The building needs $3 million in immediate renovations and a further $20 million to bring it up to code, Soknacki said.
"The park is about the future. I understand change is traumatic," he said.
"We understand the museum has artifacts that might be fragile and we said we will pay for the move, or store it at the park, when they decide what they want to do. We are open to proposals from the museum to determine where they want to go and they can move to another area of the park if they want to. But we don't know what direction they want to go in."