List of Names
Below are excerpts from a CBC report:
Initially, the Wall of Remembrance was supposed to feature the names of 1,000 victims of communism, but by the end of 2015 a list of only 300 or so names had been compiled. The department said it is now looking at a list of 600 names for possible inclusion in the memorial.
Canadian Heritage hired Carleton University historian Michael Petrou to review those 600 names, but not the names listed on Tribute to Liberty's website or in its newsletters. Petrou told CBC News there is overlap between the list of names for the monument and the list on the website.
Petrou filed his report to the department back in the spring. He said he red-flagged the names of individuals in that list of 600 who collaborated with the Nazis or were associated with fascist organizations that were active in Eastern Europe and the Balkans during the Second World War.
Petrou said he also flagged names of individuals who could not reasonably be described as "victims of communism."
The Pathways to Liberty list seems to embrace a very broad definition of "victims of communism" that extends to other apparent victims of political violence and veterans of Cold War era conflicts.
The list on the website also includes people who don't seem to be victims of persecution by communist regimes -- such as Tara Singh Hayer, a Sikh journalist and activist assassinated in Vancouver in 1998, and Jagat S. Uppal, a successful BC businessman who was one of the first Sikhs to attend public school in Vancouver.
Tribute to Liberty's website and newsletter say that the Pathways to Liberty project features stories about victims of communism, while the Wall of Remembrance will display the names of victims and survivors of communist regimes.
"... Visitors will see names ranging from donors' own names or those of their ancestors to the names of historical figures and events that are important to these donors," says a statement from Canadian Heritage, which declined a request for an interview. "These names will be linked to a planned website to be developed and hosted by Tribute to Liberty that will share the stories of these individuals, groups and events."
Some war memorials in Canada have inspired controversy over their ties to wartime collaborators. A cenotaph dedicated to the veterans of the Waffen-SS "Galicia Division" in an Oakville cemetery made headlines in 2020 when Halton Region police opened a hate crimes investigation after a slogan against Nazism was written on the monument -- indicating opposition to Nazis, not support of them, is a "hate crime."
The
memorial to Nazi collaborators from the 1st Ukrainian Division
of the Ukrainian National Army in St. Volodymyr Ukrainian
Cemetery in Oakville, Ontario is spray-painted, October 13,
2023. The memorial previously had the words "Nazi war monument"
sprayed on it, in July 2020.
A bust of Roman Shukhevych outside the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex in Edmonton was tagged with the words ''Nazi scum" in late 2019. Because it was suggested that the act may have been motivated by hatred toward an identifiable group, the Hate Crime and Violent Extremism Unit of the Edmonton Police was tasked with investigating. It ultimately concluded the action against the Nazis didn't meet the standard of a hate crime.
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 19 - November 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/MS53198.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca