Statue with 'too much beard' will grace Provencher Park after all

A statue criticized for looking "too old" and having "too much beard" will be completed and eventually be erected in Winnipeg's ProvencherPark.

Last month, the project to celebrate French-language activist Georges Forest was almost cancelled. Theorganizing committee rejected the sculpture by Miguel Joyal on the basis that it had"wrong facial angles" and lacks "character [and] personality,"said committee chair Marcien Ferland. They put the project on hold.

Forest, who died in 1990, became famous in the 1970s for defending French language rights in Manitoba. He fought an English-only parking ticket all the way to the Supreme Court in 1979, whichstruck downa 1890 law that made the province unilingual.

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The city told the group they had until May 31 to resolve their dispute with the artist. They could only keepthe $25,000 pledged to the projectif the statue was built.

This week,Ferland told Radio-Canadathe committee is satisfiedenough with the statue to see it through.

Joyal, who previously described working with the Forest statue committee as"a real nightmare,"beganworking on thestatuefive years ago.

He first created a full-body figurine of Forest with his arm on a parking meter but it was rejected becauseit would be too costlyto bronze. He completed his scaled-down bust inJanuary.

Joyal has addressed several concerns since then. He's scaled back theabundant amount of facial hair the statue had, which required him to change Forest's head, and put more emphasison the statue's eyes after hearing complaints theywere too soft.

For decades,Joyalworked at Festival du Voyageur making snow and ice sculptures. Perhaps his best-known work, though, ishis statue ofMtisleader Louis Riel, which stands outside the Manitoba Legislaturenear theAssiniboineRiver and replaced an earlier, and controversial, statue in the same spot.

A new statue of Louis Riel

29 years ago

Duration 2:16

The provincial legislature unveils a new, dignified statue of Riel to replace the controversial old one.

Plans to unveil the statue this month have beenpostponed. It needs to be bronzed, which Joyalpreviously said would take as long as six months.

Another $25,000 will have to be fundraised, said Ferland.