Tribute to Liberty?

"While there could be good reasons as to why Vietnam would appear more frequently on this list, omitting to highlight other countries or events where there were many victims due to communism would risk an even stronger reaction from Vietnam."

"Highlighting events and names from countries where there were an important number of victims of communism will likely attract a negative reaction from countries cited."

"This will need o be a political decision."

Canadian diplomatic analysis

"Although the Memorial to the Victims of Communism -- Canada, a Land of Refuge was scheduled to be inaugurated by the end of 2023, the Government of Canada is doing its due diligence to ensure all aspects of the memorial remain compatible with Canadian values on democracy and human rights."

"[Canadian Heritage Canada is] reviewing all aspects of the project [before the unveiling]."

Canadian Heritage website 

Ottawa police say the sign was defaced on or around Canada Day. (Tribute to Liberty/Facebook)

 

The Victims to Communism memorial has weathered multiple controversies relating to its purpose, location, size and price tag in the last 15 years of its planning and execution. Its original budget of $1.5 million was to have been funded entirely through private donations from Tribute to Liberty, whose project it is, a group comprised for the most part of members of the Canadian-Ukrainian community who purposed the memorial to reflect a Ukrainian perspective. Its cost has since the project's inception increased to $7.5 million, with $6 million in public funds.

It is not, however, the cost of the project that has aroused attention. The intention of the monument is for a memorial dedicated to those who suffered  under communism. It includes a designed wall of remembrance meant to list names of individuals, groups and key events related to communism and its victimization of groups adverse to its ideology, purpose and outcomes. It is in the last few years that the memorial has been identified as a potential political and diplomatic headache.

Following concerns raised that Nazi collaborators who participated in the Holocaust would be honoured on the memorial, Canadian government officials point out in internal documents that honouring such individuals has the potential of damaging Canada's reputation while causing tensions with foreign governments. Canada has already come under intense scrutiny and criticism for an unforgivable faux pas in introducing an elderly Ukrainian veteran as a guest in Parliament for his role in fighting Russia. No one appeared to have recalled that during WWII Russia fought with the Allies against Germany.

Yaroslav Hunka, right, waits for the arrival of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the House of Commons on Sept. 22. It later emerged Hunka was once part of a notorious Nazi unit during the Second World War. (Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press)

 

That elderly man had been a member of an SS corps that incorporated volunteer Ukrainians to fight alongside the Nazis against Russia, special SS Divisions comprised of Ukrainians who also were involved in killing Jews during the unspeakable Holocaust years. The man had been invited on the occasion of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's trip to Ottawa to address the House of Commons.

And it is the memory of that old Ukrainian soldier and scores of others just like him, associates of Nazi Germany, that this memorial will be honouring, among many others. Canadian Jewish groups have warned government that the memorial is intended to whitewash the history of Nazi collaborators from Eastern Europe who had been actively involved in the Holocaust. Some individuals who had served with the Waffen SS are among the names submitted for the memorial.

The Department of Canadian Heritage has identified other Nazi collaborators associated with the memorial, the precise number censored from records. The planned November 2023 unveiling of the Memorial, now essentially completed, sitting at a fenced-off site along Wellington Street in downtown Ottawa has been quietly postponed by the government of Canada. 

A historian consulting for Canadian Heritage raised the issue whether Canada has any wish to honour Canadian sailors known to have been of assistance to the Soviet Union during the Second World War when it was an ally to Canada after Germany attacked its former Axis ally. Questions also arose whether to honour those killed in Yugoslavia by Communist partisans fighting the Nazis since Canadian commandos operated in Yugoslavia helping and advising them.

And then there is the practical, present-day issue of Vietnam's position as Canada's largest trading partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, one of the world's fastest growing economies to play a key role in Canada's Indo-Pacific Strategy. That Vietnam is a key focus of the Victims of Communism memorial's list of events to be displayed, is yet another controversial issue to be contemplated for the government of Canada.

 

A large opaque blue fence surrounded the construction site of the Monument to the Victims of Communism at the Garden of the Provinces on Wellington Street. Photo by Julie Oliver /POSTMEDIA