A white cross will remain on the cenotaph in Southampton, Ont., for this year’s Remembrance Day ceremonies, after local efforts to update the monument stalled due to controversy.

The aging 1958 monument, which honours local veterans from both world wars, rests on a small traffic island in one of the town’s major streets. It features a white cross that is illuminated at night. Unless the intersection is closed for Remembrance Day ceremonies, the cenotaph is difficult to access. Some community members also feel the Christian symbolism leaves out other lives the town meant to remember, including members of the nearby Saugeen First Nation and veterans from other religions, even though a plaque on the cenotaph honours Saugeen members who died in the Second World War.

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John Willetts, then-president of the local Royal Canadian Legion branch, created a community committee in 2022 to update the cenotaph. He had noticed the monument’s disrepair and wanted to advocate for its modernization.

After a year........

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