​​​​​​​Ottawa pays out over $100K to Quebec group that lost contract for Afghan war monument

Ottawa recently signed an out-of-court settlement with a team of Quebec architects that was denied a prestigious contract to design the National Monument to Canada's Mission in Afghanistan.

Sources told Radio-Canada the confidential deal is worth more than $100,000, or at least three times the initial offer made to the team led by Montreal-based architect Renée Daoust in 2023.

At the time, the Daoust team learned it had won a national competition to design the $5-million monument, but that Ottawa would nonetheless give the contract to the group led by Indigenous artist Adrian Stimson.

Bound by a confidentiality clause, the Daoust team refused to comment on the settlement. In a written statement, however, they thanked all those who supported them in their attempt to force Ottawa to change its decision.

"We remain outraged by this process marred by irregularities and reiterate our commitment to the quality of architecture and public art in Canada, and to the integrity of the processes by which public funds are allocated," said the statement from Daoust, artist Luca Fortin and international law expert Louise Arbour.

The federal government said it awarded the design contract to Stimson because his project was favoured by the families of Canadians who served in Afghanistan, as expressed in an online survey. The Daoust team had been selected by the jury tasked with reviewing submissions.

Jean-Pierre Chupin, an architecture professor and expert in public competitions, said the government's decision was critically flawed.

"They discredited a complex and fragile competition process that aims to be fair, transparent, representative and therefore democratic," said Chupin, who teaches at the Université de Montréal.

He said the online survey can be "clearly disqualifiable after a few minutes of analysis," comparing it to a competition for "likes" on Facebook.

Over 40,000 Canadians served in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2014, mostly military personnel but also government employees and humanitarian workers. Of these, 158 soldiers and seven civilians lost their lives.

The monument project was initiated by former prime minister Stephen Harper and continued under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government.

The Daoust team's proposal aimed to symbolize the struggle for democracy, incorporating elements reminiscent of Afghanistan's mountains, the burqa worn by some women in the country and the Twin Towers that fell in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.

The government-favoured Stimson design more directly references the military aspect of the Afghan mission, featuring four helmets and bulletproof vests mounted on crosses at the centre of the monument.

After informing the Daoust team that they would not be awarded the contract, Ottawa offered them $34,000 in compensation in an attempt to settle the matter.