Of the more than 50 public monuments in the capital, very few have had major funding from Ottawa in recent years, let alone the size and prominence of the victims of communism memorial.

The memories of communism’s first-wave victims — those who survived Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s labour camps, assassination orders and mass starvation, and the millions of deaths under China’s Mao Zedong — are now few and faint.

But many of the second wave, who lived under Soviet, East Bloc, Chinese, North Korean, Cambodian and Cuban regimes after the Second World War, remember the repression clearly.

They’re now a formidable group in Canada.

Ukrainian, Polish and Hungarian Canadians alone make up at least 3.5 million of Canada’s 35 million citizens. Combined with others who have ties in communist countries, they may number more than eight million.

They are a driving force behind the most contentious monument in Ottawa’s modern history: the proposed Memorial to the Victims of Communism, set to be installed on one of the capital’s most conspicuous pieces of real estate, near the Library and Archives and the Supreme Court of Canada.

The evils of communist repression are far from contentious. The debate is focused on what prominence Canada — a country of immigrants — should give to dire events that are not directly tied to its experience as a country. And whether looking backward at citizens’ roots is a benefit or detriment to Canadian unity.

Some also wonder what a government-funded monument decrying communism has to do with Canada’s current push for expanded trade with China. Or whether it is, in fact, a monument to political hypocrisy — or expediency.

“Apart from all the other problems with symbolic placement, it’s redundant,” argues Tonya Davidson, an assistant sociology professor at Ryerson University who has extensively studied federal monuments.

“We have had a monument (in Ottawa) since 1990 — the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights — that has offered space to speak to a multitude of human rights violations. It came out of explicit anti-communist sentiment but became a dynamic site that people on all sides of global issues can (embrace).”

Ludwick Klimkowski, who spearheads the charity Tribute to Liberty’s fundraising campaign for the victims of communism monument, maintains that the new monument represents the feelings of many Canadians.

“There are tremendous misconceptions about the memorial,” says the Polish-born Ottawa financial planner. “The second part of the title, which is overlooked, is ‘Canada, a Land of Refuge.’

“I came to Canada in the 1990s, but I left Poland under communist oppression,” he continues. “But whether we are Vietnamese, Tibetan, Koreans or Poles, we are all part of Canada. We thank Canada for its kindness and generosity. It’s a spot for people like myself to mark our belonging in Canadian history.”

The design, he insists, is backed by a broad spectrum of immigrants from communist countries. It incorporates a proposed interactive “wall of remembrance” featuring the names of 1,000 multi-ethnic Canadians who suffered under communism, and whose stories can be accessed by viewers’ smartphones, an educational component.

Nevertheless, objections have come thick and fast. A recent EKOS poll for iPolitics found that only 23 per cent of those surveyed supported it.

On the money side, the Harper government’s pledge to fund $3 million of the $5.5 million project — the final budget and how much of the remaining money must still be raised privately is unclear — irks opponents who call it a Conservative effort to buy ethnic votes with taxpayer dollars.

Of the more than 50 public monuments in the capital, very few have had major funding from Ottawa in recent years, let alone the size and prominence of the victims of communism memorial. All are tied to Canadian history: the National War Memorial, the Garden of the Provinces and Territories, Women are Persons and the Valiants memorial to Canada’s fallen warriors, to name a few.

The existing Tribute to Human Rights monument was supported by a wide range of individuals and organizations including unions, gay rights activists, multicultural ethnic and religious groups. It cost around $1 million.

The government’s unusually large footprint on the development of the communist victims project has raised objections, though the fundraising charity denies any partisan links.

Since the National War Memorial was built in 1939, says Ryerson’s Davidson, the government has pulled back from financing monuments. For the most part, “what we think of as state monuments are actually financed by groups.”

And, she says, the Harper government’s interest in the victims of communism monument — and its $3 million contribution — is “unprecedented” since the days of William Lyon Mackenzie King.

It was reportedly the brainchild of Defence Minister Jason Kenney, who as secretary of state for multiculturalism in 2007 was struck by a monument to communism’s victims in a private Scarborough park owned by the Czech and Slovak communities. From there the project was backed by Tribute to Liberty and stickhandled by Kenney.

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Related:

Communism’s history: Great evils done, but origins based in justice

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The government smoothed the path with funds and allocation of a prominent site, but the road was rocky. The monument’s location has drawn fire from Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, who wrote that it could send the wrong message, “unintentionally conveying a sense of bleakness and brutalism” in a space devoted to administration of justice.

Others joined the verbal battle. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has called it “a blight” on the historic area.

Then there are the politics, including the argument that it is inappropriate because Canada has never suffered under communism.

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Debate grew more heated when the word “totalitarian” was dropped from the original title, dedicated to “victims of totalitarian communism.”

“We objected,” says Miguel Figueroa, head of the 84-year-old Communist Party of Canada. “We have always fought for workers’ rights, and there are many communists around the world who did not victimize anyone. Why isn’t there a monument to victims of totalitarian regimes?”

Kalle Lasn, an architect of the Occupy movement, points out that unrestrained capitalism has victimized people worldwide, and “after many generations it has got us to the point where climate change is looming as an existential threat to the planet itself.”

Klimkowski says he’s open to any monument to oppressed people. “I only wish there were a dedicated group of volunteers who would devote endless hours, sweat and tears to it.”

Despite eight years of effort, the monument’s planned 2015 construction date appears in doubt. The Ottawa Citizen recently quoted a Conservative MP as saying there was still “a lot of wiggle room” about its placement on the site, and it could be moved farther away from the court.

The design is also progressing. In an email to the Star, architect Voytek Gorczynski said it has been “refined and reduced in size.” It is on the agenda of the National Capital Commission for formal approval. Gorczynski’s Toronto firm, ABSTRAKT Studio Architecture (Team Kapusta), won the monument design competition, decided by a jury chosen by the Department of Canadian Heritage.

However elusive the project, its backers are unwavering. “It’s really about our common experience under communism, whether we’re from Poland or Vietnam,” says Klimkowski.

“The most important aspect of our memorial is the notion of justice. Putting it near the Supreme Court gives us at least partial closure.”

Victims of communism

Estimated deaths under communist regimes:

U.S.S.R.: 20 million

China: 65 million

Vietnam: 1 million

North Korea: 2 million

Cambodia: 2 million

Eastern Europe: 1 million

Latin America: 150,000

Africa: 1.7 million

Afghanistan: 1.5 million

Source: Tribute to Liberty

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