| Unacceptable
Conception of "Canada, a Land of Refuge" Liberals Advance Despicable Memorial Project Louis Lang |
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The Trudeau government is going
ahead with plans to erect an anti-communist monument in Ottawa. This is the case despite
opposition expressed by Canadian from all walks of life. The most prominent amongst those
who support the monument seem to have a personal stake in resurrecting Nazis and Nazi
collaborators under the guise that they were "victims of communism." For the government of
Canada to give this Canada's official backing is not only despicable; it is unacceptable. The project has been widely opposed since it was first proposed in 2009 by former Prime Minister Harper and his Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney and the private organization called Tribute to Liberty. Tribute to Liberty's links to Latvian collaborators with the Nazis and their hatred for the communists and Jews are verifiable. If the government were to come clean about Tribute to Liberty's definition of who is a "victim of communism" it would put an end to this despicable project. All of it is based on the Hitlerite definition of communism as the main enemy of humanity that must be destroyed. This was the premise of the Hitlerites in Germany and their alliance with fascist Italy and militarist Japan, officially called the Anti-Comintern Pact.[1] At various times, this extremist position has been adjusted, whether to add "Canada, a Land of Refuge" at the end of "Memorial to the Victims of Communism" or the short-lived effort of the National Capital Commission to add the word "Totalitarian" before "Communism" to claim that the monument is not stigmatizing a particular ideology that is not illegal in Canada. The Liberal Party, aware of the public opposition to the project, declared that the site of the project should not be the space in front of the Supreme Court of Canada and that it should not receive public funding. The Liberal government, aware of the public opposition to the project, declared that the site of the project should not be the space in front of the Supreme Court of Canada and that it should not receive public funding. It subsequently moved the project to the site originally proposed by the National Capital Commission and declared that it would limit its public funding to $2 million dollars (which CPC(M-L) and others have already pointed out is $2 million too much).[2] Conception of "Canada, a Land of Refuge"
The conception "Canada, a Land of Refuge" when applied to the anti-communist monument, is based on the false claims that "millions of Canadians ... have been affected by communism" and that millions have come to Canada "fleeing injustice and persecution" by communists. Notwithstanding all efforts to appear reasonable, the March 2 unveiling of five finalists for the design of the anti-communist monument confirms that the Liberals espouse the same extremist views and unacceptable conception of "Canada, a Land of Refuge" as Tribute to Liberty and its backers. The designs all promote in one way or another either the Hitlerite or the anti-communist Cold War definition of a "victim of communism." This view remains totally silent about who were the freedom-fighters and who were in fact aggressors and genocidal forces. The monument designs feature overwrought and pretentious descriptions such as "the dark of Communism and the light of freedom that is Canada," the "vastness of the suffering of individuals under communist regimes" and utterly baseless claims made by fascist apologists of "100 million deaths attributed to communism worldwide." As if the Hitlerites, fascists and Japanese militarists were communists, and as if it was communists who razed Korea to the ground during the Korean war, or were those who invaded Vietnam or established a 40-year long military dictatorship over Greece, or apartheid in South Africa, or promoted Pinochet in Chile and unleashed Operation Condor across Latin America and the Caribbean, or were those who caused the massacres of the peoples of India when India was divided between India and Pakistan and so on, and on and on. One proposed design features a statue of Lenin frozen on an angle as if being toppled. This echoes the ongoing dismantling and destruction of countless statues and memorials in Eastern Europe that honour the contribution of the Soviet people, resistance fighters and Red Army in liberating Europe from Nazi-fascism. The same attack on the memory of the anti-fascist war is seen in parades of former Waffen SS being held in Latvia and other countries. Among the most common claims of the government and media in support of the memorial project is Tribute to Liberty's contention that "more than 8 million Canadians are descendants of someone who fled or was forced to leave a Communist regime for a variety of reasons." The Trudeau government is only too happy to accommodate these false ideological beliefs. Despite this, for instance, the largest migration of Ukrainians to Canada, 170,00 people, occurred between 1891 and 1914.[3]From 1924 to 1939 the roughly 70,000 Ukrainians who migrated to Canada came from Poland and Romania, which had fiercely anti-Soviet, anti-communist governments. The resettlement of Ukrainians in Canada following the Second World War, some 34,000 people, was the smallest, and more Ukrainians have since migrated to Canada following the collapse of the Soviet Union.[4]To label all Canadians with Ukrainian origins, whose community has always been a fighting contingent of the Canadian working class for its rights including in the communist and workers' movement, as "victims of communism" is unacceptable. This conception further covers up that it is the Canadian state that has been responsible for attacks against sections of the people for defending their rights, including Ukrainian Canadians and other immigrants.[5] New Round of Dubious Consultations
Giving the false impression that the only issue to be decided is design, Heritage Canada launched a design competition and the final proposals submitted were made available for public viewing on March 2. It is now calling for public input once again. The Heritage Canada website announced, "In February 2016 the Government of Canada sought input from Canadians on aspects of the Memorial design. We are now asking you to share your thoughts on the design concepts proposed by the finalist team." Referring to the survey of February 2016 is hypocritical to say the least. The questions were limited to restrict the discussion to design concepts and almost no opportunity was given for people to express views about the project itself. Nevertheless, a significant number of people raised serious questions about the purpose of such a memorial and there were many requests that the project be cancelled. There were also many suggestions that another type of monument be built and many also objected to the use of public funds for this project. Below are the answers to question #4 of the survey which tried unsuccessfully to keep the comments restricted to design. Question 4. Do you have any thoughts or ideas concerning the design of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism?
To draw conclusions from a survey of 504 respondents who submitted 901 views, out of an adult population of close to 20 million Canadians shows the fraudulent consultation process used by the Trudeau government to impose its self-serving agenda. Despite the small number who participated, a government press release declared, "Public consultations reveal that Canadians want a human-scaled monument that reflects core Canadian values." The new survey on the design proposals announced on the Heritage Canada website is a further insult to Canadians whose views have been systematically ignored. For example, the first item on the survey states the following: "Taking the Memorial vision into consideration enter up to 3 adjectives that describe your impression of each design. Only one word can be entered in each box." Answering this question with a one-word adjective presents a challenge. How many ways can one say "unacceptable"? Distasteful, improper, inadmissible, objectionable, offensive, repugnant, undesirable -- all of the above are fitting answers. The rest of the "survey" is just as ridiculous, eliminating any possibility for people to express their own views. This is another example of what the Trudeau government means when it talks about the "importance of consulting Canadians."[6]Eight years and a series of rejected designs and rejected locations later the Trudeau government still thinks it can get away with erecting this despicable monument. Based on self-serving, old Cold War definitions of rights, the project is an attack on the striving for freedom, democracy and peace Canadians and the peoples of the world sacrificed so much to achieve in the Second World War -- with the Soviet Union making the greatest sacrifice. The designs on display on March 2 all reflect the desperation of the architects to depict historical fallacies and extremist views and somehow make it acceptable to Canadians. Not surprisingly none of the proposals succeed in making any contribution to elevating the consciousness or culture of the people. It is clear that the Liberal Government is once again using fraudulent consultations to impose its irrationality and despicable project. As TML Weekly pointed out in a report on last year's survey, "The cause to which this monument is dedicated is bogus and un-Canadian because Canadians never gave their lives in any war so they could espouse the definitions of freedom, democracy and human rights of the Nazis. The more the Liberals push the monument and the more fraudulent the methods they use to declare that it is popular, the more they expose their own pro-Nazi schemes."[7] Notes 1."Historical Review: The Hitlerite Pretext of Saving the World From Communism," TML Weekly , August 24, 2013. 2. Tribute to Liberty's 2016 registered charity information return from the Canada Revenue Agency, like that of all previous years, states that it did not "carry on any political activities during the fiscal period..." Despite this, a March 19, 2015 Globe and Mail report noted: "A review of Tribute to Liberty's official filings with the CRA reveals a clear intention to engage in political activity. When asked if it planned to engage in political activities, it answered "Yes" in its 2009 application for charitable status. It said this would involve contacting MPs and senators to gain their support for the project." Despite Tribute to Liberty's political lobbying activity, its charity status was never questioned by the Harper government. It proceeded to remove all mention of political lobbying from its website when the Harper government decided to pursue cases against others whose charity work it did not agree with and deprive them of charity status. In 2016, the Government of Canada gave Tribute to Liberty $42,248 while the bulk of its funding, $159,368 came from outside Canada. In 2015, it received $176,599 from the federal government. The group continues to accumulate funds and in 2016 indicated that it has $1,103,602 in its bank account but very little comes from Canadians. On February 2, 2008, Alide Forstmanis, posted on the website of the Western Standard newspaper, in response to media reports that then Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney would be speaking at a Tribute to Liberty dinner: "While Minister Kenney does support our project of having a permanent memorial built in Ottawa to the Victims of the Crimes of Communism, there will be no public money going toward having the memorial built. We are raising funds in the private sector for this important and much-anticipated project." The effort to raise funds privately over the past 9 years to build the anti-communist monument was an utter failure due to Canadians' lack of support for the project. 3. "Immigration History: Ethnic and Cultural Groups, Ukrainian," Library and Archives Canada 4. "Ukrainian Canadians," The Canadian Encyclopedia. 5. George Allen,"Canada's Use of Emergency Powers to Attack Communists, Trade Unionists, and Anti-Fascist Ukrainians," TML Weekly, August 24, 2013. 6. Other examples from on-line questionnaire on finalists' design proposals for the Memorial to the Victims of Communism, Canada, a Land of Refuge: Question 2 -- Memorial Objectives The Memorial will serve as a powerful place of meaning and catalyst for discussion. It will invite visitors to commemorate and learn more about tragedies that others -- including, for many Canadians, their own ancestors -- endured under communist regimes worldwide. At the same time, the Memorial will remind visitors of Canada's commitment to freedom, democracy and human rights. To achieve these objectives, the Memorial design needs to perform several functions. Which designs do you think meet the following criteria? You may select more than one of the designs per criteria. - Engages visitors in a visually striking experience - Creates an environment conducive to reflection - Expresses the suffering and loss endured by victims of communism - Conveys a message of hope and freedom - Encourages visitors to approach and interact with the Memorial Question 3 -- Have Your Say Please provide any additional comments that you would like to share about any of the proposed designs. (max. 200 words per response) 7. Pauline Easton and Louis Lang,"Monument Will Expose Liberals' Self-Serving Definitions of Democracy, Freedom and Human Rights," TML Weekly February 20, 2016. |