Another Shameful Day for Canada
Canada Unveils Virulently Anti-Communist Monument to "Victims"
Whose Names
Cannot Be Uttered
The Government of Canada refuses to utter the names of the millions of victims of genocide committed both during its colonial past and its present national and international stands in lockstep with the U.S. imperialists. It erects no monuments to murdered and missing Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited people but shields Nazi war criminals and collaborators.
Monuments to many worthy causes should legitimately claim pride of place at the centre of Ottawa, across from Library and Archives Canada. That would make Canadians proud. Monuments to all those who fought the British from the time of Conquest into the 21st century -- Indigenous Peoples, Québécois, Métis, peoples from China and India and many others, to the workers who have given their lives for Canada to prosper, to the Canadians who gave their lives as cannon fodder in World War I and in the fight against German Nazism, Italian fascism and Japanese militarism in World War II. This includes those whose countries were occupied by them at that time, as well as all those who have sought refuge in Canada as a result of U.S. imperialist wars of aggression, occupation and torture regimes since World War II.
But no, now it is unveiling a virulently anti-communist no-name monument for which it can provide no justification, no rationale. It is a vain attempt to perpetuate the hoax that Canada does not glorify Nazism and the falsification of history to cover up the crimes it is participating in and condoning today, such as the genocide of the Palestinian people. It is a shameful act exposed by the very fact that the sole mission of its "project partner," the organization which calls itself Tribute to Liberty, is to rehabilitate Nazis and Nazi collaborators and agitate for the destruction of Russia.[1]
A
spokesperson for Canadian Heritage said on December 2 that the
official
inauguration of the misnamed "Memorial to the Victims of
Communism --
Canada, a Land of Refuge" will take place on December 12, in
partnership with "the project's main promoter," Tribute to
Liberty.
It claims that this
monument does not glorify Nazism and Nazi-collaborators but "the
millions who suffered under communist regimes." To prove this,
it says
the monument will not bear one single name of said "victims,"
the
reason being that Canadian Heritage has been advised that a
majority of
the names which were to be engraved on the memorial are Nazis,
Nazi
collaborators and war criminals, including members of the Waffen
SS
during the Second World War, or have no connection with Canada
and
should be removed.
The monument was to be unveiled on November 2, 2023, following one postponement after the other due to the inability to raise funds from Canadians to build this abhorrent monument. Instead, it was postponed once again when Canadian Parliamentarians shamelessly gave two standing ovations to Yaroslav Hunka, an avowed Waffen SS soldier, in the House of Commons on September 22, 2023. This act caused such universal condemnation, at home and abroad, that the government has been trying to backtrack ever since, brushing it aside as an inadvertent mistake or oversight or even Russian "fake news."
Nonetheless, the backlash was such that the government was forced to reckon with the fact that the names submitted to be inscribed on the walls of the anti-communist monument were those of Nazis and Nazi collaborators and heinous criminals who have carried out reprehensible crimes.
In October, a report prepared by the Department of Canadian Heritage was made public. It recommended that 332 of the 550 names planned to go on the memorial be removed because of their Nazi connections, or because they had no connection to Canada. In fact, they too were Nazis or Nazi collaborators. It pointed out that in 2021, officials from Global Affairs Canada told Canadian Heritage that many anti-communist and anti-Soviet advocates and fighters were also active Nazi collaborators who committed documented massacres.
Regarding the removal of such names, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center called upon Canadian Heritage to take a clear stand: "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. We feel this is a very reasonable request and it is concerning we cannot get a simple answer."
A
spokesperson for Canadian Heritage has confirmed that there will
be no
names on the memorial. It states that it will "ensure all
aspects of
the memorial are compatible with Canadian values on democracy
and human
rights." Which aspects would those be?
Funding has been received from organizations and countries promoting Nazis and erecting monuments for their rehabilitation. Canadian officials who collaborated with Tribute to Liberty from the inception include Jason Kenney. He was Minister of National Defence, Minister for Multiculturalism, Minister of Employment and Social Development, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, and Secretary of State (Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity) in the government of Stephen Harper, which is when the project first got underway. Kenney's declared hero is Aloysius Stepinac, a Croatian prelate of the Catholic Church, who during World War II supported the Nazis and their Ustashi collaborators. In the name of high ideals, Stepinac actively supported brutal crimes against millions of people -- including the mass murder, forced expulsions and forced conversion to Catholicism -- of Serbians, Jews, Roma, Croatians who opposed collaboration with the Nazis and others. After the war he was convicted of war crimes for these activities and imprisoned.[2]
Such statements from Canadian Heritage do not account for why the names of Nazi soldiers and collaborators were suggested in the first place. As well, all claims that Canada abides by criteria of democracy and human rights have lost whatever credibility they may have had. This is the case not only in the wake of ovations to Nazis in Parliament and Canada's funding and training of neo-Nazi brigades in Ukraine to commit crimes against the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine and destroy Russia. Even more significantly, Canada's claim to defend human rights has been exposed by Canada's refusal to disengage with the U.S./Zionist genocide. So too with its ongoing attempts to criminalize those who defend our humanity and want to see an end to genocide and war crimes committed against the Palestinian people.
The fact that government officials are forging ahead with this nefarious monument, come what may, leads Canadians to wonder what world they think they live in. They seem to think Canadians will let them get away with such an egregious abuse of their positions of power and privilege. It tells Canadians what to expect going forward given Canada's takeover by the U.S. Pentagon and the aggressive military alliance it leads, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The unveiling of this monument is their dirty deed. It is precisely the Nazis and Nazi collaborators who the United States placed at the head of this warmongering NATO alliance following World War II who are striving to make a comeback.
This monument should be abolished. That is the bottom line from which Canada cannot escape.
Notes
1.
Approval of Tribute to Liberty's Anti-Communist Monument by
Harper
Government.
2. Jason Kenney's Hero – Archbishop Stepinac of Nazi-Occupied Croatia
(With files from Ottawa Citizen. Graphics: JRD-YDR.)
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 48 - December 12, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/TS54481.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca