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Proposed monument offends Communist Party
12.10.2009
The leader of the Communist Party of Canada is decidedly unhappy about a proposed monument in Ottawa that will honour "victims of totalitarian communism."
Party leader Miguel Figueroa is asking other "left and progressive organizations" to urge the National Capital Commission to reverse its approval for the project, which Figueroa describes as "defamatory."
In a letter to NCC Chairman Russell Mills, Figueroa said the monument, proposed by the groups Tribute to Liberty and the Open Book Group and supported by other organizations and politicians, "smacks of the type of vicious anti-communism which plagued our country (among others) during much of the latter half of the last century.
"In our considered view, the monument would constitute an unjust attack on the pride Canadian Communists feel for our pioneering contributions to Canada since 1921, such as fighting fascism, organizing industrial workers into unions,
initiating the movements to win unemployment insurance, public health care and other social programs, campaigning for peace and disarmament, fighting for the full national rights of Aboriginal peoples and Quebec and in defending Canada's sovereignty."
The monument, which is expected to be unveiled in 2011, has a budget of $1.5 million, which will come from private sector fundraising.
The backers of the project had originally suggested a "monument to the victims of communism," but added the word totalitarian because of concerns of NCC board members that the memorial could be perceived as "unduly critical of Canadians who might associate themselves with communism," one of the backers of the project told the Citizen in September.
After discussions with the NCC, the groups also agreed to add the phrase "Canada -- A Land of Refuge," to recognize Canada's role as a refuge for victims of oppressive regimes.
The monument also has political champions, including Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who told the National Post he took the idea to the prime minister after a meeting with the Czech and Slovak Association in Toronto three years ago, when he was secretary of state for multiculturalism.
In a letter to Kenney last year, the prime minister said he "would strongly support the idea of such a monument."
The NCC will be working with the groups supporting the memorial to plan a project approach and a national design competition.
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
Steve Mazey, The Ottawa Citizen
Facts
- August 6, 1940 - Estonia became a part of Soviet Union
- From June 1940 until August 1941, more than 7000 Estonian citizens were arrested
