Officials at Veterans Affairs (VAC) feared that their decision to overrule the government’s handpicked jury on a proposed design for the Afghan war memorial would be met with a “mixed reaction” that could “negatively affect the families of the fallen,” says an internal department memo obtained by Radio-Canada.
Last June, the department chose a design by Indigenous artist Adrian Stimson for the planned $3 million memorial — even though an independent jury appointed by the government chose a design proposed by Team Daoust, backed by architects Renée Daoust and Luca Fortin and former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour.
The 2023 department memo indicates the government worried that overruling its own process
