In 2000, a plaque commemorating the Hogg’s Hollow tragedy was erected at the entrance of the York Mills Subway station. The plaque serves as a way to remember the five Italian Canadian labourers (Pasquale Allegrezza, Giovanni Battista Carriglio, Giovanni Fusilo, Alessandro Mantella and Guido Mantella) who died while working in an underground tunnel in order to connect the growing borough of North York with a water-main. The following is an assessment of the commemorative plaque in order to evaluate its effectiveness at interpreting the historical meaning of the Hogg’s Hollow tragedy. In concluding, this essay will examine the pitfalls of the act of commemoration tied to the problems of the commemorative plaque which is discredited by the failure to properly expose the socio-political underlying issues which should be remembered from the event. The historical nature of an event or person in contention for commemoration can sometimes be a controversial issue which partly defines the pitfalls of the act of commemoration itself. In the case of the Hogg's Hollow tragedy, the underlying socio-political issues that are tied to the disaster are crucial for the understanding of the way it was commemorated, and more importantly, the incredible length of time it took to be considered for commemoration. Notably, the tragedy does not aspire into a glorious event that took place in a glorious past. In her work entitled ‘“Battle and Burial”: Recapturing the Cultural Meaning of Canada’s National Memorial on Vimy Ridge,’ Jacqueline Hucker examines the process of commemoration of one of Canada’s proudest moments in international military history. Looking over the Vimy Ridge war memorial, it is safe to say that a great amount of time, effort and money was invested in order to build a grand symbol of Canadian greatness. Of course, apart from the obvious necessity to honour the fallen soldiers, the memorial stands as a propaganda tool in order to calm public unrest over the end of