City removes one of two Toronto monoliths

Torontosun.com
Jan. 4, 2021
Jane Stevenson

One monolith down, one to go.

The city of Toronto has removed a mysterious steel structure from one of its parks that looked like it was straight out of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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The obelisk, one of two in Toronto, appeared in Humber Bay Park on New Year’s Eve. It was vandalized on New Year’s Day but later cleaned by volunteers.

City spokesman Brad Ross confirmed by the time the Humber Bay monolith came down early Saturday it was covered in racist posters that were photographed and posted on Facebook and read: “There is a war on whites.”

“It did appear to be covered racist vandalism and graffiti,” said Ross. “That’s beside the point -- we would have removed it anyway.”

“We don’t know who installed it. The offensive posters will be referred to the Toronto Police Service for investigation,” he added.

Toronto Police Const. Ed Parkes said he was aware of the monolith but unaware of any investigation, so couldn’t immediately comment.

Ross said a second monolith, located on a narrow breakwall on the water off the shores of Sir Casimir Gzowski Park -- just east of the Humber River in the city’s west end -- will also come down but is a bit trickier because it can only be accessed by water.

“We’ll need the assistance of the Marine Unit and the Port Authority to remove it,” he said. “It will be removed as soon as possible. I appreciate that this is a fun distraction for people.”

People were naturally curious about the Humber Bay monolith and got their phones out to take pictures and videos with it for as long at it was around while sharing theories ranging from it being an art project to a gift from aliens.

The worldwide monolith mystery began in November when the first one was discovered in a remote Utah canyon by a government wildlife survey team. It’s believe that it sat unnoticed for over four years.

Dozens of copycat monoliths subsequently surfaced around the world, but Ross said he’s unaware of any international investigation between the cities where they’ve appeared.

“I don’t believe there’s any coordinated investigation, not that I’m aware of,” said Ross.

“They’re fairly innocuous. I mean obviously we can’t have structures erected in city parks and certainly when they’re covered in graffiti and by other (things) that are offensive. That’s a great concern to us,” he added.