The continued attempts of the Trudeau government to erect an anti-communist monument in Ottawa have been opposed by Canadians right from the start. It has been one deception after another as the organization, Tribute to Liberty, failed to raise the funds to cover the cost of the monument which was projected at first to be $1.5 million.

A National Capital Commission spokesperson recently stated that the cost of the monument is now $7.5 million. Six million dollars is coming from public funds after Chrystia Freeland included an additional $4 million in this spring’s budget to complete the monument.

TML Weekly carried an article on November 11, 2017 which pointed out that having failed to raise money or support from Canadians, Tribute to Liberty, a private organization that has links to Latvian Nazi collaborators, is receiving funds from foreign governments and sources to build the anti-communist monument. The list of virulently anti-communist foreign sources — Taiwan, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic plus others — exposes the fraudulent declarations of the Trudeau government that the Canadian people approve of this anti-communist hysteria. Nothing could be further from the truth.”[1]

It is not only the finances which reveal the real aim of this anti-communist project to promote Nazi collaborators but also the suggestion that Canadians support Canada’s use as a haven or refuge — as they call it — for Nazis, fascists and collaborators of the enemies of the peoples of the world. Fraudulent justification for the anti-communist monument are an affront to all Canadians. And now a new CBC report confirms once again that the Trudeau government continues to collude with Nazi collaborators and Cold War propagandists to complete the project behind the backs of Canadians.

Unable to get public support for the project, whatever funding has been received other than that pumped in by the government of Canada, comes from virulent anti-communist pro-Nazi sources. The new report on the CBC News website, July 23, 2021, reveals that the monument has been receiving donations to honour known fascists and Nazi collaborators.

The report states: “The Memorial to the Victims of Communism is being financed partly through a ‘buy-a-brick’ campaign called Pathways to Liberty, which is run by the registered charity Tribute to Liberty.

“The campaign sells ‘virtual bricks’ that appear on the organization’s website and in their newsletter. The bricks are dedicated to alleged victims of communism and include biographical notes about the individuals being commemorated.”

An examination of the donors confirms their aim to use the monument to commemorate known fascists and war criminals and erase their crimes.

“An organization calling itself the General Committee of United Croats of Canada purchased ‘virtual bricks’ dedicated to Ante Pavelić, describing him as a ‘doctor of laws.’

“Pavelić was the wartime leader of the Ustaša, the fascist organization that ran the Independent State of Croatia, a Nazi puppet regime. In this role, Pavelić was the chief perpetrator of the Holocaust in the Balkans. Approximately 32,000 Jews, 25,000 Roma and 330,000 Serbs were murdered by the regime.

“An organization calling itself the Knightly Order of Vitéz purchased five ‘virtual bricks.’ ‘Several members of the order actively participated in the persecution, despoilation, and, in 1944, the deportation of the Hungarian Jews,’ said László Karsai, a professor of history at the University of Szeged.

“Vitéz members included high-ranking members of the Nazi-puppet government established late in the war, which organized the deportation of some 437,000 Hungarian Jews. ‘It was the biggest, fastest deportation action of the Holocaust,’ said Karsai. ‘Several tens of thousands of Vitéz members got large lands (from) Jewish properties.’

“The League of Ukrainian Canadians’ Edmonton Branch, meanwhile, purchased five ‘virtual bricks’ in honour of Roman Shukhevych who led the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during the Second World War and was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Belarusians, Jews, Poles and Ukrainians.”

These are just a few examples.

This latest report from CBC News serves to reaffirm once again the essence of the anti-communist monument, to rewrite history and erase from the collective memory the historical significance of the struggle against the fascist aggression of the Axis powers and the leading role played by the Soviet Union in the victory over fascism in the Second World War.

The Trudeau government has sent Canadian troops to Eastern Europe and continues to participate in military exercises and other provocative actions on the borders of Russia in support of U.S. imperialist ambitions to dominate the region and create a world order where it imposes “indispensable nation” status. Its insistence on building the anti-communist monument to rewrite the verdict of history of known fascists and war criminals expresses the essence of the “Canadian values” it is demanding Canadians espouse to prove they are worthy of citizenship and “the privileges” this confers. It is an abject betrayal of Canadians and all peace-loving people all over the world who sacrificed so much to defeat fascism in the Second World War. Those of us whose families were deported to concentration camps as a result of the actions of those the Government of Canada seeks to honour are profoundly concerned about the direction Canada is being taken by the Trudeau government and all the cartel parties with seats in the House of Commons, all of whom have facilitated the building of this monument by trying to reform it but not oppose it, and demand the project be scrapped.

The anti-communist monument must not be built! With the many concerns of Canadians at this time it has no place in the streets of Ottawa. Let a memorial be built instead — in the spot the National Commission has assigned to honour Nazis and fascists and collaborators — to honour the memory of the thousands of victims of the Residential School system and the murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. Enough is Enough! The anti-communist project must not be built!

[1] “Foreign Financing for the Anti-Communist Monument a Great Concern,” TML Weekly, November 11, 2017