Driving eastward along Wellington St. and looking north.


Architectural details of the central tower. "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea" (Psalm 72 and Canada's boundaries).


The outer entryway is impossibly ornate. Can you spot the two birds (and I don't mean those owls)? How many faces do you count? What's wrong with the big horse?


The inner entryway features a knight and many more animals. At the bottom, holding the maple leaf shield, is none other than a beaver.


Exploring the east side of the main entrance, I find a lot of animals and a lot of faces. There are owls in the stained glass, another horse in an anguished state, and creepy faces at every turn exhibiting Canadian stoicism. It's truly unsettling.


Now around the east side of the building, facing west, and rotating around to facing south at the back.


Architectural details of the central tower, part two. It looks like there are cats sticking out at all corners, but the closeups show... well, I don't know what sort of Mayan glyph is on the left, maybe a dragon, but the one on the right is definitely some sort of bird. A very frightened one.


Continuing my walk to the west side of the building, facing east. These darker statues seem more likely to be cats, but I don't have enough of a closeup to determine that.


The closeups I do have from this vantage end with something unmistakably ursine - and two more creepy faces. Dozens of faces, watching, standing guard, keeping the peace merely through the unsettling surreality of their presence.

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