Article content continued

Upon the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, the U.S.S.R. quickly returned to its never-ending mission of imposing communism worldwide, through five decades of threatening nuclear war, invading susceptible countries, crushing rebellion in nations it oppressed (such as Hungary in 1956, and Czechoslovakia in 1968) and providing logistical or moral support to murderous communist regimes in Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia to name but a few.

Toronto’s combined VE Day and Soviet Victory Day ceremony was orchestrated in 2015 by Coun. James Pasternak in conjunction with a Toronto-based Soviet Committee formed to celebrate their victory in the Great Patriotic War (the name the Russians give to the Second World War), and once again, on Wednesday, Nathan Phillips Square was host to this disingenuous joint venture.

A review of the Soviet Victory Day website contains pictures of soldiers or actors marching down Toronto streets with Red Army uniforms, Soviet flags and banners flying, and an interesting description about how “… people of all nationalities and religions selflessly stood shoulder to shoulder in fighting the enemy of Civilization as we know it. It was this union of all Civilized Nations that led to the historic victory over fascism.” Of all the phrases one could accurately employ to describe the former Soviet Union, “Civilized Nation” is not one of them.

For all right thinking Canadians, especially those who are descendants of the millions whom the Communist Soviets oppressed and murdered, the participation of Soviet Red Army forces in a VE Day celebration is an abhorrent charade and a gross insult to our Canadian veterans, and those from our allied democracies.

The Swastika and the Hammer and Sickle both represent pure evil, the latter just had a longer run on flag poles. There ought to be no place for it on Toronto’s streets.

— Paul Philip Willis is a freelance writer living in Toronto