A big cross that for many years stood atop a preferred lookout within the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island was mysteriously eliminated this week.
The cross, which is on the summit of Mount Tzouhalem, about 4 kilometres east of Duncan, disappeared sooner or later in the previous few days, reduce from its base, based on Duncan Mayor Al Siebring.
Photographs started exhibiting up on social media depicting what’s left of the cross.
RCMP didn’t instantly reply to CBC Information to say whether or not officers are investigating the elimination of the cross.
Siebring described the incident as a “unhappy piece of vandalism” in a submit on Fb. He says he believes somebody intentionally used a grinder to chop by the steel and take away the cross.
“Who did this, or why, is just not recognized at this level,” he wrote.
Siebring cautioned individuals to not conflate the elimination of the cross with different current acts of vandalism, which have resulted within the burning down of church buildings and the toppling of statues, till the motive behind elimination of the cross is understood.
“In our current cultural context, that is the place our minds go,” he wrote.
A number of the acts of vandalism involving church buildings and statues of historic Canadian leaders adopted the invention of stays in unmarked graves at former residential college websites.
The cross is situated within the Chase Woods Nature Protect. The Nature Conservancy of Canada acquired the 40-hectare website in 2009. The realm was deemed a nature vacation spot in 2019.
“This land is within the coronary heart of the normal territory of the Cowichan Tribes, and Chase Woods itself holds important cultural worth to the band members, who proceed to make use of the positioning to today,” the conservancy wrote on its web site.
Areas of Mount Tzouhalem are additionally a part of a provincial ecological reserve, which was established in 1984. The province says the Tzouhalem space is a historic harvesting location for the Vancouver Island Coast Salish First Nations, which was historically burned to extend yields and keep its open park-like habitat.
The conservancy stated in November 2014 a windstorm knocked down the cross. It was repaired and reinstalled.
