Queen Elizabeth’s portrait will continue to face slapshots at northern Ontario’s ice rinks for now | CBC News

She is no longer on the throne, but Queen Elizabeth II will continue to officiate hockey games in North Bay and Sudbury.

Of the dozens of portraits hanging in courthouses, schools, legionary halls and municipal offices across northeastern Ontario, the two most prominent overlook the ice rinks at North Bay Memorial Gardens and Sudbury Arena.

Both cities say the images will remain in place while they decide what to do next, including the possibility of a new portrait of King Charles III.

In 1953, shortly after her coronation and not long after the arena opened, Sudbury artist Bruno Cavallo was commissioned to paint Queen Elizabeth.

John Fraser, a self-proclaimed monarchist who has worked in urban arenas for 30 years, says he was “quite proud” to work with the big picture of the Queen on the rink.

“Unfortunately, they didn’t really do anything to protect it from the flying pucks,” he said.

There are stories in Sudbury that the many holes in the portrait were the work of hockey players with anti-monarchical sentiments who deliberately fired pucks at the Queen.

Fraser doesn’t think that’s true. He suspects some of the holes in practice were from players trying to show their “delicacy with the puck,” but says most of the damage just happened as the game progressed.

“Look, when I originally started out in the arena we only had four foot tall glass at the end of the rink and there was definitely no net, so a lot of the pucks that went up there would have been shots and deflected off the goalie and gone up “, he said.

“We went to great lengths to put these pieces back into the portrait and attach them with glue or tape.”

But Fraser says that by the mid-1990s, when he was manager of Sudbury Arena, it “got to the point where it was felt to be a great disadvantage to Her Majesty”.

The Royal Canadian Legion and the Kiwanis Club worked together to commission Cavallo to paint a replacement portrait for $7,000.

“The pose is almost the same as last time, but a little older this time,” Cavallo told the Sudbury Star when the new portrait was unveiled in 1994.

Fraser says the original portrait was so damaged that it “just fell to pieces” when it was removed from the frame.

His replacement is in much better shape and he’s hoping it will move to a new home in the coming months.

“I think the portrait of the queen should be removed from the arena and placed in a place of honor. She’s no longer our monarch, but it’s still a piece of history,” Fraser said.

The City of Greater Sudbury says because the picture in the arena is not an official portrait it does not need to be taken down now that the Queen’s funeral has taken place.

But the portrait in the mayor’s office at Timmins City Hall was taken down on Tuesday in accordance with royal protocol.

The image displayed in the city council chambers in Sault Ste. Marie was draped in a black cloth, and the city says it will remain until an official portrait of King Charles is available.