Canada’s Memorial to the Victims of Communism was finally unveiled in Ottawa on Thursday, but the controversy that has followed the project over the past decade continues.
Etobicoke Centre MP Yvan Baker was expected to speak at the memorial’s public unveiling at the Garden of the Provinces and Territories on Wellington Street, but no one from the Liberal government attended the ceremony.
“We are very disappointed that the prime minister cannot be here, or chose not to be here,” said Robert Tmej, a member of the board of directors of Tribute to Liberty, the registered charity behind the project.
“It’s unfortunate that this memorial project, which was started many years ago under a different administration, is not wholeheartedly supported by this government. It’s a shame. This is a national memorial.”
In an emailed statement to CBC News, Baker said he later attended a private ceremony to commemorate the unveiling “along with members of Tribute to Liberty, a Canadian veteran, survivors and representatives of many communities in Canada.”
“I have been a longstanding advocate for this project, and I am proud that the government of Canada provided $6 million in funding towards this project,” he wrote.
An important reminder
For those who fled persecution under communist regimes around the world, however, the focus on Thursday was on the memorial itself, which consists of 4,000 metal roads woven into two undulating walls.
“My parents were basically political refugees from eastern Europe who came here at the height of the Cold War, and I was born here, and being raised in Canada I was regularly reminded about how lucky I was to be a Canadian,” said Andrew Kavchak.
The memorial also includes a wall of remembrance that was supposed to feature the names of some of those victims, but at the unveiling the plaques remained blank.
In 2021, it was revealed that private donations to the project had been made in honour of known fascists and Nazi collaborators.
Canadian Heritage has been vetting the names that will eventually be added to the memorial, but Roman Krakovsky, a history professor at the University of Ottawa who has helped with that process, said it’s a complex issue.
Some of the individuals came from parts of Europe that were occupied by both the Soviets and the Nazis during the Second World War, or were torn apart by civil war, he said.
“We cannot know what clearly happened, who was responsible for what and who can be blamed for being collaborator or perpetrator of acts of resistance,” Krakovsky said. “This is one of the main difficulties of the monument.”
Tmej said the names will be added to the monument once they have been properly vetted.
“Unfortunately, the due diligence wasn’t done enough,” he said. “It was pointed out that some names are controversial.”
Location changed, cost rose
The memorial was initially supposed to be located near the Supreme Court of Canada, but the project was scaled back significantly and moved to the Garden of the Provinces and Territories.
It was also supposed to cost $1.5 million, drawn exclusively from private donations. Early fundraising efforts barely covered Tribute to Libery’s operating expenses, however.
In 2013, the Harper government pledged $1.5 million to the project, then doubled that contribution the following year.
By the end of 2014, the project’s budget had ballooned to $5.5 million, with a taxpayer contribution of $4.3 million.