Who was Norman Bethune?
(pt. 1)
The namesake of this project is Bethune Square, which faces the Guy exit of the Guy-Concordia métro station at the heart of Montréal's west downtown - a neighbourhood that goes by many names, each speaking to a different history or aspect of what this place is. Shaughnessy Village, Quartier Concordia, Little Palestine, Chinatown 2.0, and certainly others.
Norman Bethune - a statue in his likeness graces the square - was born in a forgettable part of Ontario in 1890 and died in a generally unknown part of China (Hebei province) in 1939.