The Lebanese Emigrant Statue
On Halifax’s waterfront, a bronze figure honours the Lebanese emigrants who crossed the ocean to establish new lives in Nova Scotia. Installed in September 2018, the Lebanese Emigrant Statue recognizes their pioneering spirit and the contributions of generations of Lebanese Canadians to the province’s communities, businesses and professions.
Lebanese migration to Nova Scotia began in the 1880s, decades before Lebanon became an independent country. Successive waves of migration brought families seeking opportunity and security, while maintaining connections to their homeland. The harbour setting gives the monument particular meaning: these waters were the approach to a new country for many arriving by ship.
The figure wears traditional clothing and carries a bundle over one shoulder, with luggage at his feet. These modest belongings make departure central to the sculpture. The traveller stands for the many people who left familiar surroundings, relatives and livelihoods behind, carrying what they could toward an uncertain future.
The sculpture reproduces a work by Ramiz Barquet, a Mexican artist of Lebanese descent. The first version was erected in Mexico City in 1979, and others followed in cities around the world, including Beirut. Halifax’s monument therefore belongs to a wider commemoration of the Lebanese diaspora, linking communities separated by geography but connected through ancestry and migration.
The monument’s dedication brings together remembrance of those who departed and gratitude for the place where they settled. Beside the harbour, the solitary traveller gives a human form to that history—one person carrying his belongings, representing generations of families whose journeys became part of Nova Scotia’s story.
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