CANADA 13 October 2008 (TBC) Canadian parks authority hopes to rededicate monument to hero of 1812 US-Canada frontier war 

Brock's Monument in Ontario is a reminder that relations between Canada and the United States were not always amicable. It has been called "the most majestic historical monument in British Canadian history" and "Canada's answer to Nelson's Column in London's Trafalgar Square." Now 151 years old, time has taken its toll. If no major structural damage is found during the present restoration project, the 184-foot-high monument that towers above a 295-foot-high promontory on Ontario's Niagara Escarpment will be re-dedicated on Oct 13. The date is the anniversary of the death of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock in the 1812 Battle of Queenston Heights between the United States and Canada.

However grand the rededication ceremony, it will be dwarfed by the bicentennial celebrations of the Battle of Queenston Heights at the monument in October 2012. The date will be commemorated officially by the United States as well as Canada.

A major tourist attraction, Brock's Monument has been closed since Aug 2003 because of safety concerns over crumbling and falling masonry. There have been delays in repairing the limestone structure, including a 235-step spiral staircase in its interior and the plume-hatted statue of its namesake on the monument's capital, but parks officials are reasonably optimistic the repairs will be done in time for the Oct 13 anniversary. If the date is missed, it will be because major structural damage is found during the restoration process.

The remains of Brock and his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonell, are interred at the site. According to Canada's Globe & Mail, both were killed at the Oct 13 battle, in which Canadian militia, British soldiers and first-nations fighters took the Heights from the occupying United States army. Their victory secured what is now the Ontario-New York border, and asserted the independence of British North America. Brock was hailed as "the Saviour of Upper Canada," and a monument was erected in 1824.

An explosion on Good Friday, 1840, damaged the tower - reportedly the work of an Irish-Canadian who participated in the Rebellion of 1837 against British rule. It was torn down, and its replacement was completed in 1856.

***As of Feb 2008, October is a tentative date for the rededication.

RELATED READING:

If only Brock were here to fight this battle (Globe & Mail 11 Jul 2007)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070711.wbrock11/BNStory/National/?cid=al_gam_nletter_newsUp