Legal action has been filed against Kincardine for destroying a monument to Dr. Solomon Secord, that his descendants argue didn't belong to the Municipality in the first place.
David J.R. Secord — whose great-grandfather was a first cousin to Dr. Solomon Secord — filed the statement of claim with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, which alleges that the monument was privately funded, erected by local citizens and never established to be property of the Municipality.
Secord said he wasn't even aware of the situation until he was researching a book on his family, and then stories about the monument started showing up in his news feed.
At the September 11, 2024, council meeting, members voted seven to one to decommission the Second Secord Monument, which once stood outside the Kincardine Library.
David Secord alleged that he contacted the Municipality's office on September 13, 2024, told them he was acting on behalf of the Secord family and a staff member advised that someone would return his call. However, the call never came.
"At no time have they ever reached out to me, at no point," he said. "Other than my Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, which they've provided what they've provided, at no time have they ever reached out to me."
The statement of claim says his lawyers later sent a letter to the Municipality requesting the monument not be destroyed, as well as follow-up correspondence. A month later, Secord said the Municipality's counsel finally disclosed that the monument had been destroyed on September 17, 2024.
Secord said he has spent the last year and a half working to recreate the monument.
"I immediately made up my mind that I wasn't going to sit with that. I checked and got some quotes to reconstruct it, and then I picked (Superior Memorials) out of Ontario to build it and it's now finished," he said.
He said a new home for the reconstructed monument has yet to be determined.
Secord is seeking aggravated damages of $30,000 (including the cost of the new memorial) as well as punitive damages of $90,000.
His team's argument is that the monument was never the Municipality's to destroy: it was never listed as a Municipal asset and according to the Heritage Committee the monument "was built through funds raised by local citizens."
The allegations contained in the statement of claim have not been proven in court.
Along with this challenge, Secord is also filing a challenge with the Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner over two FOI requests with the Municipality for information on the monument decision.
Secord said he's ready to get answers, regardless how long the battle takes.
"The family is invested in it. We've been through a lot already with this, a lot of angst, but as long as it takes, we're going to stick it out," he said. "To have our day in court and get the information we want to bring it to closure for everybody, because I think there's a lot of people out there that feel the same way."
Secord said he wouldn't comment on council's original decision to decommission the monument based on Dr. Solomon's efforts to help the Confederacy during the American Civil War.
As for the Municipality, a statement from the CAO said that "because this matter involves legal issues, it is unable to discuss the details publicly."
The statement of claim was served on September 9 and the Municipality has up to 30 days to respond.
