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A day after concerns were raised about a large pile of cinder blocks dumped along the shoreline behind the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, construction workers began building a retaining wall in the Rideau River.
Earlier in the week, a kayaker discovered the large pile of cinder blocks behind the embassy’s back fence. Yesterday, that pile was reduced mostly to dirt, and the cinder blocks were stacked in front of it, creating a stonelike wall in the water.
An official from the embassy said yesterday the retaining wall is not extending the embassy’s shoreline, but restoring it to its original condition.
The representative, who refused to be identified, said an official embassy explanation will be released shortly.
In the meantime, he said the retaining wall is being built because water has eroded the embassy’s shoreline by two metres.
As such, he said the structure is technically on the embassy grounds. He added that there are no pollutants involved in the current construction of the retaining wall.
When the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority was notified about the incident on Friday, they weren’t sure if they would be able to investigate, since international law dictates that the embassy grounds are “inviolable.”
Normally, the authority works with owners of property where damage has occurred to restore the shore to its original condition. If that doesn’t happen, charges are laid.
“Natural shorelines are best. Nature tends to take care of itself,” Jocelyn Chandler, a planner with the authority, said Friday.
An officer from the conservation authority was supposed to visit the site yesterday, but the authority could not be reached to verify if that had happened.
A number of government bodies—including the City of Ottawa, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the provincial Ministry of the Environment—said the river was not in their jurisdiction.
Jeremy Webber, who holds the Canadian Research Chair in Law and Society at the University of Victoria, said the constuction is likely the result of a misunderstanding.
“I suspect that the Chinese Embassy case is just a matter of garden-variety ignorance of the law, or of a contractor taking a shortcut,” he wrote in an e-mail.
“Embassies often try to comply with local standards even when they can’t be legally constrained to do so.
“I expect that when the problem is brought to their attention, as a problem, they will take steps to remedy the situation.”
Yesterday, most of the cinder blocks that were piled up earlier in the week had been moved and a large pile of dirt remained next to the chain-link fence. In the water in front of that pile—about a metre and a half from the shoreline—shale and blocks of varying sizes had been stacked into a retaining wall. A string was tethered to two trees and lined the front of the structure, perhaps to keep the design straight.
At 2 p.m. yesterday, three workers appeared and surveyed the structure. One man returned with a wheelbarrow 15 minutes later, dropped something off, and returned for another load.
Soon after, construction stopped.
Ryan Hardy, who lives in the area, bicycled by yesterday morning to see several workers in the water.
“I thought they were cleaning it up, then they started tilling the soil over, and started building the wall,” he said. “All the old cement, it’s going to seep into the river.
“I love the scenery along the river and that’s going to be an eyesore.”
(C) Ottawa Citizen