Public monument will remain in Alice Munro’s longtime hometown: Mayor

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Politicians in Alice Munro’s longtime home community remain committed to keeping the public monument honouring her amid a posthumous scandal around the Nobel Prize-winning writer.

Mayor Jim Ginn addressed the issue as Central Huron council met Monday – its first meeting since a dark Munro family secret was made public – and he reiterated his stance in a Free Press interview, making it clear the tribute in Clinton is staying.

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“Status quo will remain,” Ginn said. “The recognition was because she’s was a great writer, not necessarily that she was a great mother.

“I made it very clear that I wasn’t speaking on behalf of council, and that that was just my own personal view. Alice was a world-class writer and was honoured as such and that doesn’t change.”

Two other politicians expressed similar views at the meeting while the rest refrained from commenting, Ginn said.

Munro, who died in May at 92, was born in Wingham and rose to international fame while living with her second husband, Gerald Fremlin, in Clinton – including winning the 2013 Nobel Prize honouring her short-story works. There is a monument in her honour at the Clinton library, and in nearby Wingham, part of North Huron, there’s a reading garden and a sign proclaiming the town as her birth place.

North Huron politicians say they are still considering how to handle the fallout.

Munro’s public image shifted dramatically on July 7 when her adult daughter, Andrea Robin Skinner, wrote in the Toronto Star of being sexually abused by Fremlin for years starting at age nine during visits to her mom in Clinton in the 1970s. She wrote that Munro stayed with Fremlin even after he was convicted for the crimes in 2005.

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Skinner writes that the incident remained an open secret in the Munro family for years and she was ultimately estranged from her mother, who Skinner says sided with her husband and treated the abuse as an injury to herself. In letters, Fremlin shockingly blamed the child.

Munro has long been an icon of Canadian literature, and especially in Huron County, which inspired many of her stories. Skinner wrote she and her siblings were speaking out now to give Canadians a more complete picture of their mother.

In perhaps the first tangible sign of damage to Munro’s legacy, Western University has pressed pause on the position it created to honour Munro, the Alice Munro Chair in Creativity, and cancelled the fall 2024 class the appointee was set to teach.

But there appears to be little interest in making similar moves in Huron County, where the crimes occurred.

Ginn expressed sympathy for Skinner – “we’re happy she came forward, and we hope this helps with the healing process” – but indicated he’s heard almost no local interest in pulling Munro’s name from public spaces.

“It seems to be a lot bigger issue outside of Central Huron that it is inside,” he said of the Huron County municipality that includes Clinton. “I’ve received numerous emails from people on either side of the discussion . . . and they were evenly split . . . but I think there was only one that came from Central Huron.

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“The rest were from people outside of Huron County, even outside of Ontario, so it doesn’t seem to be a hot topic in my community.”

In North Huron – which includes Wingham, home to the reading garden and library named for Munro – there’s no clear path forward yet, Reeve Paul Heffer said in a statement.

“Alice’s actions, or lack thereof, are not explained and nor are they excused by her accomplishments. In the near future, the Township of North Huron will be considering this information and discussing recognition of her accomplishments,” he said.

jjuha@postmedia.com

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