By Canadian Press

Monument to Canada’s war in Afghanistan gets a home after years of bickering

Jun 20, 2019 | 2:02 PM

OTTAWA — A site has been officially approved for the federal government’s promised national monument for the war in Afghanistan, five years after the memorial was first promised.

The decision by the National Capital Commission today ends years of bickering over where the memorial should be located and paves the way for it to be built east of the Canadian War Museum in downtown Ottawa.

The national monument is separate from the memorial to soldiers who died in Afghanistan, whose unveiling at the Canadian Forces’ new headquarters building last month prompted an outcry.

The national monument was first promised by the previous Conservative government in May 2014 following the end of Canada’s 13-year mission in Afghanistan.

Construction was to be done in 2017, but the schedule was derailed by complaints the location selected by the government was difficult for some disabled veterans to reach.

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A new location was proposed immediately west of the war museum, but the institution and its architect, Raymond Moriyama, opposed that site.

The approved location is across the street from the war museum and behind the National Holocaust Monument.

The Canadian Press