Victims of Communism memorial delayed over Nazi link controversy, now opening

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After more than a year of delay the controversial Victims of Communism memorial will be officially unveiled in Ottawa on Dec. 12.

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The unveiling of the memorial was put on hold last year because of the controversy over parliamentarians honouring a Waffen SS soldier and potential links between the monument and Nazi collaborators, according to records obtained by the Ottawa Citizen earlier this year.

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In addition, Jewish groups have voiced their ongoing concerns about the names of alleged Nazi collaborators and other fascists being inscribed on the memorial.

Charles Thibault-Béland, a spokesman for Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge, said Tuesday that at this point there will be no names on the memorial. Department officials are still reviewing the backgrounds of the names and events to be commemorated.

“At the time of the unveiling, there will be no names on the monument’s wall,” Thibault-Béland confirmed.

The memorial, which is located near the corner of Wellington and Bay streets, is supposed to honour those who suffered under communism.

But a Holocaust education organization has warned that a large number of names that were to be inscribed on the memorial had links to the Nazis.

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center has pointed to a report prepared for the Department of Canadian Heritage which recommended more than half of the 550 names planned to go on the memorial be removed.

“What we want is a clear commitment from the minister that the names of those who helped the Nazis or were involved in the Holocaust not be honoured on this memorial,” said Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center official Jaime Kirzner-Roberts. “We feel this is a very reasonable request and it is concerning we cannot get a simple answer.”

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Kirzner-Roberts pointed out that the statement from the minister’s office leaves the door open for the names to be inscribed on the memorial at a later date.

The department had already determined that 50 to 60 of the names or organizations that were to go on the memorial were likely directly linked to the Nazis, according to documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen through an access to information request.

A number of the entries should be removed because they had no direct link to Canada, the report also noted. As originally planned, there were to be 553 entries on the memorial’s Wall of Remembrance.

The memorial was supposed to be unveiled Nov. 2, 2023, and Department of Canadian Heritage planning for that event was in its final stages in early October 2023, according to the documents released under the Access to Information Act.

But that came to a grinding halt after the Sept. 22, 2023 incident in which Yaroslav Hunka of North Bay, Ont., was recognized in the House of Commons by all MPs with a standing ovation. He had been introduced as a Ukrainian Canadian war veteran and a hero, but news quickly emerged that he had served in a Ukrainian Waffen SS unit that fought for the Nazis.

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Officials with Tribute to Liberty, the organization involved in creating the memorial, did not respond to a request for comment.

Dominik Roszak of the Canadian Polish Congress said Tuesday that his organization “has always supported this memorial and hopes its unveiling proceeds without disruption. I look forward to attending the unveiling on behalf of Canada’s Polish community.”

The Memorial to the Victims of Communism has already been the focus of multiple controversies over its exact purpose, location, size and cost over the last 15 years. The price tag for the project has ballooned to an estimated $7.5 million — including $6 million in public funds — from an original budget of $1.5 million that was supposed to be funded entirely through private donations from Tribute to Liberty.

Federal officials in other departments have also continued to warn Canadian Heritage that the inclusion of Nazi collaborators on the memorial will cause international embarrassment.

“It is important to note that many anti-communist and anti-Soviet advocates and fighters were also active Nazi collaborators, who committed documented massacres,” Global Affairs Canada officials warned their counterparts at Canadian Heritage in 2021.

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Private donations had already been made to the monument in the names of Nazi collaborators, CBC News reported in July 2021. Those included Roman Shukhevych, a Ukrainian nationalist whose troops murdered Jews and Poles, and Ante Pavelić who ran a Nazi puppet regime in Croatia and is considered a chief perpetrator of the Holocaust in the Balkans, the CBC reported.

The federal records obtained by the Ottawa Citizen also noted other potential problems on which victims to highlight on the memorial.

One historian who was consulting for Canadian Heritage raised the question of whether Canada wishes to honour Canadian sailors who were helping the Soviet Union, a communist nation, during the Second World War. The Soviet Union was Canada’s ally during that conflict.

In addition, questions were raised about whether to honour those killed in Yugoslavia by communist partisans fighting the Nazis. Canadian commandos operated in Yugoslavia helping and advising those communist partisans.

David Pugliese is an award-winning journalist covering Canadian Forces and military issues in Canada. To support his work, including exclusive content for subscribers only, sign up here: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe

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