WWII veteran criticizes plan to sell Canada's historic residence in Italy

[CougarKing]

Note what is mentioned below about the Ortona Room and Canada's role in the Battle of Ortona in December 1943.

From the National Post

‘It’s disgraceful’: WWII veteran rails against possible sale of Canada’s historic official residence in Italy

A retired major who fought in the Italian campaign during the Second World War is urging the government to drop plans to sell Canada’s official residence in Rome, saying the building has symbolic meaning for veterans.

“I think it’s disgraceful,” Ted Griffiths said Wednesday. “They waste billions of dollars and then they start nitpicking on things that really matter. They have no sense of what has gone on in the past.”

He was responding to a government plan to sell Villa Grandi, the residence of Canada’s ambassador to Italy. It is to be sold as part of a strategy to supplement the Foreign Affairs budget by shedding diplomatic properties.

(...)

But critics argue it is akin to a war monument, since it was purchased with reparations paid by Italy to the Allies. Mr. Griffiths said he had visited the home and noted that portraits of Canadian soldiers hung in the Ortona Room, named after a key Canadian battle against Germany.

“It’s a very nice residence, it is worthy of a Canadian ambassador,” he said. “The Prime Minister and all his staff are all post-World War II babies and none of them understands what went on and what the feelings of the veterans communities are. They just don’t give a damn. This is my feeling, I’ll stick by it.”

Concerns about the sale were raised in February by Robert Fowler, who served as ambassador to Italy between 2000 and 2006, and was later kidnapped in West Africa. “That residence was paid for with the blood of 6,000 Canadian soldiers,” he said in testimony to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs.

(...)

 

[Lightguns]

Another Bob Fowlers rewards to himself. He spent millions under Jean Creeptan building himself an Italian villa. It was all but forgotten before that. Sell it.

 

[PMedMoe]

And what purpose is this residence serving now?  If none, sell it.  Sorry, it's not a war monument.  Just my  :2c:

 

[CombatMacguyver]

And what purpose is this residence serving now?  If none, sell it.  Sorry, it's not a war monument.  Just my  :2c:

I'm all for fiscal responsibility, but don't you think we've done enough denying our past in this country?  I'm pretty sure that our habit of severing links to history is to blame for our ridiculous apathy in Canada; when you sever the physical links, history becomes awful easy to warp.  :'(

 

[ArmyRick]

That link to the past has to be tempered with and balanced with fiscal responsibility. I don't want my tax money wasted on all kinds of "links to the past" at great expense. Someone will argue that the government waste all kinds of money, why not? Exactly my point. Every dime and dollar saved and not wasted on such things is a step in the right direction. How about the money be spent on say helping living veterans (Old and young)?

 

[Journeyman]

..... don't you think we've done enough denying our past in this country?

The Army is getting pips & crowns back as a link to the past, so now we can get rid of the old house in Italy without guilt. 

 

[PMedMoe]

That link to the past has to be tempered with and balanced with fiscal responsibility. I don't want my tax money wasted on all kinds of "links to the past" at great expense. Someone will argue that the government waste all kinds of money, why not? Exactly my point. Every dime and dollar saved and not wasted on such things is a step in the right direction. How about the money be spent on say helping living veterans (Old and young)?

:goodpost:    What he said.  :nod:


Maybe they could send the homeless vets to live in the residence.....   

 

[The Bread Guy]

.... when you sever the physical links, history becomes awful easy to warp.  :'(

If this was a publicly-accessible monument, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe hang on to it.  If I was in Rome, drove up and asked to see the Ortona Room, would I be allowed to?  Not bloody likely.

That link to the past has to be tempered with and balanced with fiscal responsibility ....

:nod:  Happy to see the Ambassador find a new place to live that may actually be cheaper.

 

[Edward Campbell]

It looks like our two ambassadors in Rome ~ one to Italy and one to the Vatican ~ will share one estate ... now do really we need two ambassadors in Rome and three in Brussels (Belgium, EU and NATO)?

 

[dapaterson]

The culture of entitlement among some senior diplomats is positively senatorial (or, in some cases, worse).

It would be entertaining to see a comprehensive Auditor General review of our foreign outposts... followed rapidly by a long list of high-profile retirements, I'm sure.

 

[The Bread Guy]

It looks like our two ambassadors in Rome ~ one to Italy and one to the Vatican ~ will share one estate ... now do really we need two ambassadors in Rome and three in Brussels (Belgium, EU and NATO)?

Good question, especially when we have several multi-hatted (multi-country-ed? multi-flagged?) ambasssadors elsewhere like this one, this one and this one?

 

[Edward Campbell]

As some of you know I live in a nice but certainly not "rich" or "lavish" condo in downtown Ottawa ~ so do several diplomats from both first and second world countries.* There are no ambassadors, as far as I know, but I know one military attaché and one first secretary (from a prosperous Asian nation) who rates a car and driver.

I have visited Canadian diplomats overseas ~ many, all in my limited experience, live in first class or even luxury housing in their posts, including in London, Brussels, Paris and Rome. Canadian diplomats, generally, live better, more lavishly, overseas than they could afford to live in Ottawa.

Now, I don't want the Canadian Ambassador to The Peace Loving Peoples' Republic of Wherever to live in a smallish apartment, (s)he usually needs to live in a residence which can double as a site for first class official entertainment, etc (although in one small, rich country the Canadian Embassy is in an office building and our Ambassador does live in an apartment and, usually entertains in a first class, five star hotel.

____
* Diplomats from third world countries tend to live "higher" than than their confrères from the first and second world. Maybe, given what "home" is like  one can't blame them for living "high" while they can.