BY DOLORES SANDOVAL


Dolores Sandoval Dolors Sandoval is pushing idea to have the montreal planetarium turned into immigration museum
Last week, the Tremblay administration announced plans to sell the old Dow Planetarium. Where are the Montreal millionaires with immigrant roots? This is your opportunity to step up to the plate and help turn the Dow into a cultural observatory for studying and celebrating our nation’s immigrant heritage. The proposed Musée-Observatoire de l’Immigration would showcase the contributions of immigrants like yourself, your parents or your grandparents: their arrival, their relations with the Aboriginal peoples living here and their work in building Canada.
Why do we need an immigrant study centre?
Quebec must attract more immigrants in order to sustain present economic levels, let alone grow and develop further. Individuals come from the various parts of the world bringing their hopes, their energies and creativity with high expectations for success. Yet our province’s track record of inclusion is unfortunate, to say the least. We enjoy the fruits of immigrants’ labours that are too often undervalued and definitely underutilized.
For more than five years, members of the DaCosta-Angélique Institute, of which I am the founding president, have worked together with other groups to establish the Musée-Observatoire de l’Immigration (MOI) for just this purpose. MOI representatives have lobbied the mayor, members of his executive committee, national and federal ministers of immigration, education and culture, and applied for federal grants and other funding. We have already begun the conversation, through a set of public events. As part of our “Let’s Talk About Our Immigrant Roots” series, MOI is presenting symposiums and other events showcasing the contributions of Montrealers of various heritages, including Japanese, Filipino, Jewish and Italian. Coloured Pictures in Family Frames, my own Montreal-based biographical play, was presented recently at the Centre culturel Georges-Vanier as part of Black History Month.
The planetarium property at 1000 St. Jacques St. W. is a perfect location for a study centre and exhibition space. It is downtown, and easily accessible to tourists, pedestrians and school groups. What’s more, it is close to several other sites that have featured in the immigrant narrative, including Windsor Station, the federal immigration building, and a park with a statue of Copernicus donated to the city by the Polish community. In the early days of Montreal, this area was known as the immigrant quarter.
Preliminary architectural plans have already been prepared. In 2011, Teodora Stepanova, a graduate student at Université de Montréal, was awarded a prize, the Bourse Saia Barbarese Topouzanov en Architecture, for her Ethno-City: Centre Multicultural urban design that included the Dow with a new function as a museum of immigration.
Immigration has always made Montreal unique. This is not to discount the great work performed by Pier 21, the federally funded immigration museum in Nova Scotia. This museum aptly captures the immigrant journey to Canada’s shores. That story has always been a part of the Canadian narrative.
MOI, on the other hand, takes it forward another step to showcase how these same immigrant populations, and others who arrived through other ports of entry, re-crafted their lives here, and in doing so created the Canada we have today.
Dolores Sandova lis founder and vice-president of MOI and founder and president of the DaCosta-Angélique Institute.