National Victims of Communism Memorial | Completed

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

The "National Victims of Communism Memorial"

Seriously?

Yeah. We know.

[lrt's friend]

My recent trip to former communist countries in Europe does give me a new perspective. What happened following World War II is rather shocking. Millions became refugees when the communists redrew borders. The area where my ancestors came from has had its ethnicity completely replaced. And then there is the whole issue of the suffering imposed by Stalin. Many Canadians came from those areas that were dramatically affected by communism in negative ways so there is some merit for a monument. I am just not sure whether the location is the correct choice.

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

My recent trip to former communist countries in Europe does give me a new perspective. What happened following World War II is rather shocking. Millions became refugees when the communists redrew borders. The area where my ancestors came from has had its ethnicity completely replaced. And then there is the whole issue of the suffering imposed by Stalin. Many Canadians came from those areas that were dramatically affected by communism in negative ways so there is some merit for a monument. I am just not sure whether the location is the correct choice.

Millions became refugees following WWI when the Americans pushed for new borders and republics shattering the old states. Millions became refugees after India gained independence with the creation of Pakistan following British negotiations. Stalin was a monster, but where are our monuments to victims of Britain? Victims of Japan? Victims of Colonialism?

This monument was supposed to be a remembrance of the Holodomor. It would be like turning a Holocaust memorial into a victims of Germany memorial or a victims of Nationalism memorial.

[rocketphish]

Put communism memorial somewhere else: Nussbaum

By Emma Jackson
Ottawa East News, May 13, 2015

Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Tobi Nussbaum is wading into the debate over a planned memorial to victims of communism, asking the federal government to put it somewhere else.

The rookie councillor will introduce a motion at the end of the month that would formally request the Harper government relocate its memorial somewhere other than between the Supreme Court and Library and Archives buildings on Wellington Street, where it’s currently approved to go.

The memorial’s winning design proposes a huge cement complex described as “a solemnly rising modern concrete sculpture,” which maxes out at nine metres high.

Nussbaum said he doesn’t have a problem with honouring victims of communism, but he does take issue with the federal government erasing 60-year-old plans to build a third federal court building on that spot.

“I personally think it’s important to be respectful in terms of the use of that site and of that long term plan,” Nussbaum said.

He has the support of the mayor -- Jim Watson has been vocal about his opposition to the location, which he said will blight the landscape.

“We’re not taking sides as to whether we need a victims of communism monument, but the location takes away really from the streetscape that has been thought about and developed in consultation over the past several decades,” Watson said after council on May 13.

He reiterated the need for public input.

“My hope is we continue to garner support and the government will sit down and have a proper consultation about where that memorial should go,” he said.

The NCC approved the site for the memorial in 2012, although it had originally proposed putting it several hundred metres down the road in the Garden of Provinces and Territories. That wasn’t prominent enough for the private group Tribute to Liberty, which has been spearheading the project and ran the monument’s design competition.

The city is not the first to speak out against the project’s scope and location. Backlash across the country has been growing since the winning design was announced last December.

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada denounced it this winter, along with the Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, NDP MP Paul Dewar and countless residents.

The Tribute to Liberty website said construction of the monument’s wall of remembrance will begin “in early 2015.”

http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/news-...munism-memorial-somewhere-else-nussbaum/

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Walked by this site yesterday and there is absolutely no sign of pending activity. It's almost June and I really doubt they can achieve anything significant by October. There are a few mature trees to be cut down, I wonder if the city can delay the process further by complicating the process for getting permits to remove them

It looks like the Holocaust memorial has been excavated and temporarily fenced in with chainlink, but there was no other visible sign of other activity or equipment on site either.

Ottawa is gonna be one big mausoleum museum by the time Harper's done.

[rocketphish]

Why the Victims of Communism memorial needs a new site

Contributed to The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, May. 20 2015, 10:58 AM EDT, Last updated Wednesday, May. 20 2015, 2:59 PM EDT

Dear Members of the Board of Directors of Tribute to Liberty – Ludwik Klimkowski, Alide Forstmanis, Teresa Berezowski, Christine Dang, Ivan Grbesic, Paul Grod, Markus Hess, Robert Tmej, Byong Gil (Ron) Suh:

We, the undersigned, respectfully ask your group to reconsider the construction of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism at its current location near the Supreme Court of Canada.

More than six decades of long-term planning and public consultation, together with millions of tax dollars, have reserved this nationally significant site for a federal courthouse that would frame a square centred on the Supreme Court. This judicial triad of buildings parallels the parliamentary triad surrounding Parliament Hill.

The pillars of our democracy rest on our parliament and our courts. Their physical presence – in the form of the parliamentary and judicial precincts of our national capital – represent Canada’s history, aspirations and democracy. This is our commonwealth and it belongs to all Canadians.

From an outside perspective, the current site was allocated to your group without the public consultation or engagement that such a decision merits. We know that you value Canada’s commitment to democracy, and believe you will recognize that this lack of due public process and disregard for decades of long-term planning is hardly democratic.

As concerned Canadians, we urge you to find a more appropriate site for the Memorial to the Victims of Communism.

We trust that the widespread public outcry about the planned location for the Memorial to the Victims of Communism is a matter of the utmost concern to you. Given the serious nature of that which you plan to commemorate, and for the sake of all Canadians, we ask that you honour the long-standing vision and plan for the judicial precinct, and that you find an alternate site to proceed with this project.


Signed, Council for Canadian Urbanism Canadian Institute of Planners Canadian Society of Landscape Architects Heritage Ottawa RAIC/Architecture Canada

Robert Allsopp, FCSLA
George Baird, FRAIC RCA
Shirley Blumberg, CM FRAIC
Edward Burtynsky, OC RCA
Jack Diamond, CC FRAIC RCA
Jack Granatstein, OC FRSC
Dan Hanganu, CM FRAIC RCA
Bruce Kuwabara, OC FRAIC RCA
Cornelia Oberlander, OC Hon. MRAIC RCA
Michael Ondaatje, OC FRSC
Vincent Lam, MD
Gabor Maté, MD
Marianne McKenna, OC FRAIC
John Michaluk
Raymond Moriyama, CC FRAIC RCA
Barry Padolsky, FRAIC RCA
John Patkau, CM FRAIC RCA
Patricia Patkau, CM FRAIC RCA
Brigitte Shim, CM FRAIC RCA
Howard Sutcliffe, CM FRAIC RCA
Bing Thom, CM FRAIC RCA

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-deb...morial-needs-a-new-site/article24510021/

[rocketphish]

Communism memorial's saga spotlights Tories' poor process

Joanne Chianello, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: May 20, 2015, Last Updated: May 20, 2015 8:07 PM EDT

The controversial Memorial to the Victims of Communism can’t move ahead until the government formally asks the National Capital Commission to update the long-term development plan for the Parliament Hill area.

And the process for updating that plan should include consultation, according to a letter NCC chief executive Mark Kristmanson wrote to Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar.

It’s the latest chapter in the saga of the controversial memorial that is to be located on a site just to the west of the Supreme Court, property that for decades had been reserved for a new Federal Court building.

Dewar is one of a number of local politicians and among many prominent Canadians and architecture groups to come out against the location of the memorial. Among the issues he has with the proposal is the Conservative government’s apparent disregard for the official Long Term Vision and Plan for the Parliamentary and Judicial Precincts.

“I think of it as the official plan for the precincts,” says Dewar of the long-term vision plan, last updated in 2007 after years of study.

He’s dead set against summarily changing the plan on a partisan whim (more on that in a minute), but at the very least, the government is supposed to apply to the NCC to alter the plan — and it hasn’t done so.

In 2013, the minister for public works asked the NCC’s board of directors to change the land-use in the judicial precinct to allow the Memorial to the Victims of Communism to be built there. The NCC board complied but, according to a letter from Kristmanson to Dewar, the NCC advised public works at the time that the long-term plan would have to be updated.

“This amendment is necessary in order to account for the presence of the … monument at the approved location,” the NCC chief executive wrote in his letter, dated April 22. “No request for an update has yet been presented to the NCC.”

In answering a question from Dewar, Kristmanson writes: “The NCC shares your commitment to stakeholder consultation. It is one of the many perspectives we ensure are addressed through our approval process for major new installations on federal lands.”

The Citizen asked Public Works and Government Services Canada on Wednesday morning when the department would request a change to the long-term plan and vision, and what the amendment process would mean for the project’s timeline — it was supposed to be finished this fall, ahead of the October federal election. No one from public works responded by the end of the workday.

Dewar correctly believes that the blueprint for the future of the Hill has been ignored. Someone in the Conservative government unilaterally decided to move the memorial from its original location at the Garden of the Provinces to the current site in the judicial precinct, but who?

Indeed, Jason Kenney — the minister for national defence and multiculturalism, and the political force behind this monument — said last week he had no idea how the memorial ended up being moved next to the Supreme Court of Canada.

And if no one can say how the memorial’s relocation happened, “then it shouldn’t happen,” says Dewar.

The Ottawa Centre MP is right, of course.

The official Long Term Vision and Plan is a comprehensive and sensitively designed development strategy for the Parliamentary Precinct, the Judicial Precinct and Library and Archives Canada. It’s not meant to be a rigid to-do list, but a framework for making decisions, ensuring that future developments “make a positive contribution to the total composition of the Precincts, while avoiding negative impact on the landscape.”

It’s hard to see how the proposed memorial will do any of these things. Kenney may insist that the massive, brutalist design for the memorial will be “more like a park,” but two dozen of the country’s most prominent architects have decried the plans, not to mention the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the mayor, and pretty much every architectural and planning organization in the country.

Ottawa’s city council will debate and likely pass a motion next week asking the federal government to relocate the proposed memorial because it would violate the guiding principles of the government’s plan.

“I believe fundamentally that due process has to be followed,” says Dewar, “so development can be protected from the whims of any political interference.”

If you care about the outcome, you need to care about the process. But this Conservative cabinet seems to care mostly about the political outcome, and has thus managed this memorial with an opaque, political process.

[email protected]
twitter.com/jchianello

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/0521-col-chianello-2

[teej1984]

I sincerely hope this chorus of opposition isn't falling on deaf ears. How many prominent Canadians do we need for Harper to finally change his mind?!

[HighwayStar]

Originally Posted by teej1984

I sincerely hope this chorus of opposition isn't falling on deaf ears. How many prominent Canadians do we need for Harper to finally change his mind?!

Since when did Harper give a rats behind what *anyone* else thinks. Our Dear Leader should be a case-study in someone who is "only in it for himself".

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by HighwayStar

Since when did Harper give a rats behind what *anyone* else thinks. Our Dear Leader should be a case-study in someone who is "only in it for himself".

The more the elites squawk, the harder Harper will dig in.

But is there so much as a spade in the ground yet? Time's a tickin' to get anything meaningful done construction-wise this year. Smells like it's delayed again.

[agl]

Well this could good news for a change in location and design: According to an Ekos poll, even Tory supporters, to the tune of 63% with Conservative voting intentions, oppose both the design and location of the memorial.

EKOS poll: Almost two-thirds of Tories oppose Communism memorial

Opposition to the Harper government’s planned Memorial to the Victims of Communism is staggering—with even the prime minister’s supporters strongly opposing its design and location, EKOS polling data shows.

Sixty-three per cent of those polled who intend to vote Conservative in the upcoming federal election oppose the memorial, a project of the Harper government that has been vigorously backed by senior Conservatives despite controversies about its location, its lack of architectural merit, cost and political symbolism.

The iPolitics/EKOS poll shows that 77.4 per cent of Canadians strongly oppose the memorial and 82.7 per cent of residents of the National Capital Region [NCR] oppose it. In Canada and the NCR only four per cent polled strongly support the memorial.

Among non-Tory voters, 83 per cent who intend to vote Liberal oppose the project and 84 per cent of polled who intend to vote NDP oppose it. Among other supporters of national parties, opposition remains at the 83 per cent mark.


Rest of the article here.

My thinking (and great big hope), the gov't will delay the project up to the election, blaming bureaucrats and the NCC planning process for the delays out of one side of their mouths while continuing to quietly profess their support to the project sponsors and community out of the other side.

After the election, whoever wins, I hope this memorial is redesigned (ie. downsized and de-bleakified) and moved elsewhere.

Edit - Ugh, didn't see at first the bit in the article where 62% of Canadians don't even know about the memorial. So most likely course of action is for them to plow ahead on this awful thing.

[Radster]

I wonder how many would oppose the Holocaust monument. Then again, probably none, out of fear of being accused of hate crime, as per the new Bill C-51!

[ars]

Originally Posted by agl

Edit - Ugh, didn't see at first the bit in the article where 62% of Canadians don't even know about the memorial. So most likely course of action is for them to plow ahead on this awful thing.

61% of residents in the NCR know about it though, I'm not too surprised that the rest of Canada isn't aware of it.

Pressure from the residents of Ottawa-Gatineau against this thing is a big deal as well, even though it would be nice if we had the weight of the rest of Canada against it as well.

[Uhuniau]

Full EKOS tabulation is here:

http://www.ekospolitics.com/index.php/2015/05/victims-of-communism/

[rocketphish]

Almost two-thirds of Tories oppose Victims of Communism memorial
By Janice Dickson, iPolitics.ca | May 22, 2015 4:30 pm

Opposition to the Harper government’s planned Memorial to the Victims of Communism is staggering—with even the prime minister’s supporters strongly opposing its design and location, EKOS polling data shows.

Sixty-three per cent of those polled who intend to vote Conservative in the upcoming federal election oppose the memorial, a project of the Harper government that has been vigorously backed by senior Conservatives despite controversies about its location, its lack of architectural merit, cost and political symbolism.

The iPolitics/EKOS poll shows that 77.4 per cent of Canadians strongly oppose the memorial and 82.7 per cent of residents of the National Capital Region [NCR] oppose it. In Canada and the NCR only four per cent polled strongly support the memorial.

Among non-Tory voters, 83 per cent who intend to vote Liberal oppose the project and 84 per cent of polled who intend to vote NDP oppose it. Among other supporters of national parties, opposition remains at the 83 per cent mark.

“Rarely do you see an idea that’s so clearly opposed by the public,” said EKOS pollster Frank Graves.

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar, who has been among the memorial’s fiercest critics, said the new numbers only confirm what he’s been hearing.

“Most people, when they have learned of this project and where it’s going to be located and the process by which it’s been placed in this particular location, are against it,” said Dewar. “That’s a clear sign to the government that they’re out of touch with the public.”

Ottawa’s mayor, Jim Watson, criticized the location of the memorial and the National Capital Commission for not consulting with the City of Ottawa. Watson will be speaking to a motion related to the memorial at a city council meeting next Wednesday.

According to Graves, the “good news” for the government is that most Canadians are blissfully unaware of its plans to erect this giant monument on Ottawa’s historic Wellington Street. The controversial 5,000-square-metre structure would be located between the Supreme Court of Canada and the Library and Archives Canada building.

As the cost of the structure has ballooned to an estimated $5 million and the cost of the prime land has been estimated at $16 million, opposition to the project has galvanized.

In his analysis of the poll, Graves attributes the government’s determination to build the memorial on prime land that was set to be the site of a Justice Department building named after Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau to the Tories’ antipathy toward the Supreme Court (and communists).

“This location will skilfully occlude that despised institution with a huge celebration of things arguably dear to the government’s re-election plans and ideologically consistent with their cold war era views of Godless commies,” writes Graves.

The poll shows that 63 per cent of Canadians have not heard of the planned memorial, but 61 percent of NCR residents are aware of the plans.

EKOS asked respondents to review the design, which will feature one hundred million “memory squares” each representing a life lost to Communism regimes world wide, and to describe in one word their reaction to the memorial.

Respondents were also asked to rank the priority of a new facility in the NCR – and among options – the victims of communism memorial was dead last.

Graves suggests that the federal government “had best hope the deal can be closed on this before the election because given the depth of opposition we suspect there will be a groundswell of protest that will probably jettison this ‘unnecessary’ and ‘wasteful’ project.”

Graves said that the Harper government is trying to appeal to the Ukrainian and Polish communities, in an effort to secure their votes. The memorial’s significance to victims of Chinese communism has been blurrier, given the Harper government’s generally cordial relationship with Beijing.

“The Ukrainian and Polish population is sizeable and they have vey stark memories of victims of communism and have legitimate reasons that should be celebrated. The trouble is those thing happened in other counties at different times and they’re really not relative to most Canadians,” he said.

This study involved an online only survey of 2,116 Canadians. The field dates for this survey are May 12-19, 2015. The margin of error associated with the total sample is +/-2.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

View the graphics or get the data

http://www.ipolitics.ca/2015/05/22/ekos-...oppose-memorial-to-victims-of-communism/

[rocketphish]

Relocate Victims of Communism Memorial or Cancel Project

Apr 11, 2015
by Obert Madondo, The Canadian Progressive

There are a half-dozen things that bother me about the proposed Memorial to the Victims of Communism, slated to be built here in Ottawa soon. The $5-million taxpayer funded monument is sponsored by the so-called Tribute to Liberty charity.

I’ll discuss only four of my concerns.

First, the monument is slated to be build on a $16-million piece of land that “should be reserved for a federal building.” That’s according to Paul Bedford, a former chief planner for the City of Toronto and fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners. The coveted site is sandwiched between the Supreme Court of Canada and the National Library along Wellington Street.

Second, the location is taken. The site was originally designated – by the government of Canada – for a future judicial building to have been named after former Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. By giving the land to Tribute to Liberty, the Harper Conservatives are, once again, showing their obsession with trashing anything that has a “Trudeau” stamp to it.

Barry Padolsky, an expert on heritage buildings in the capital region, sees theft. In a recent open letter addressed to Harper, Padolsky accused the government of “stealing” the site.

An online petition demanding the relocation of the monument argues that “the location is absolutely inappropriate” because it is “part of Canada’s Judicial Precinct and, as such, is land that belongs to all Canadians.”

The petition further argues:

“Further, that land has been clearly designated by the Government of Canada as the future site of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Judicial Building, a building that would complete the judicial triad, in balance to the Parliamentary triad. Placing this memorial, which essentially demonizes (either rightly or wrongly) a particular socioeconomic system, next to the Supreme Court of Canada undermines the very foundation of that institution, which is its independence and impartiality, and, as a result, erodes our own democracy.”

Third, the Harper government has flatly ignored the voice of reason. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, Paul Dewar, the NDP MP for Ottawa Centre, and Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, are three of the numerous prominent Canadians who have objected to the monument’s location

In a letter obtained by the Ottawa Citizen, McLachlin stated that the memorial “could send the wrong message within the judicial precinct, unintentionally conveying a sense of bleakness and brutalism that is inconsistent with a space dedicated to the administration of justice.”

In his open letter to Harper, Barry Padolsky posited this argument in favor of moving the monument elsewhere:

“On June 12, 2007, George W. Bush unveiled a victims of communism memorial in Washington. This three-metre high bronze statue is a replica of the “goddess of democracy” erected by Chinese students in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Although passionate about the need for this memorial, the U.S. government wisely located it at a modest street corner at the intersection of Jersey Avenue and G Street. They clearly understood that this type of controversial memorial should not occupy a place meant for more significant expressions of American values.”

Fourth, the Tribute to Liberty winning design “didn’t meet criteria.” Shirley Blumberg, a founding partner of KPMB Architects, a prestigious Toronto firm, was a member of the jury that selected the final design. She described the the design as “particularly brutalist and visceral.” Larry Beasley, a University of British Columbia professor who chairs the advisory committee on planning and design for the National Capital Commission, told Maclean that his committee was disappointed with the design. He stated that the design was “not the one the majority of our group preferred.”

So, whose voice trumped the overwhelming voice of reason? That would be the voice of Tribute to Liberty, a charity with strong ties to the Harper Conservatives. Ties so strong that last May, Harper addressed its dinner event held in Toronto. According to the Globe and Mail, “Tribute to Liberty represents a bloc of ardently anti-communist Canadians with roots abroad.”

The Tribute to Liberty, a monument that expresses anger over historical atrocities perpetrated outside Canada, will be located on land reserved for appendages of our parliamentary system. And, it’s pure madness to alter the nation’s capital to suit short-term political interests.

Am I mad as hell? You bet.

@2015 CopyLeft. The Canadian Progressive
http://www.canadianprogressiveworld.com/...of-communism-memorial-or-cancel-project/

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by Radster

I wonder how many would oppose the Holocaust monument. Then again, probably none, out of fear of being accused of hate crime, as per the new Bill C-51!

Well it looks like more people oppose it than support it but I guess it's not that much of an issue because the location is not as controversial:



Being obviously obviously based on the shape of the Star of David, will the Holocaust Memorial be the largest government-funded religious symbol? You'll be able to see it on Google maps like a tattoo on the city. I find that equally disturbing.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Well it looks like more people oppose it than support it but I guess it's not that much of an issue because the location is not as controversial:



Being obviously obviously based on the shape of the Star of David, will the Holocaust Memorial be the largest government-funded religious symbol? You'll be able to see it on Google maps like a tattoo on the city. I find that equally disturbing.

The giant taxpayer funded cross on the top of Mount Royal that changes colour based on the status of the Pope?

The chapel in the national gallery?

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by acottawa

The giant taxpayer funded cross on the top of Mount Royal that changes colour based on the status of the Pope?

The chapel in the national gallery?

Both of those weren't created by government, funding was for preservation

[1overcosc]

That poll is interesting. It shows the public is basically exactly offside with the Harper government when it comes to monuments in Ottawa.

I like the idea of "A memorial for historical injustices against Aboriginal people". It makes far more sense for Ottawa as it's far more relevant to our country than communism or the holocaust (while we have accepted refugees from communist countries, took in refugees from the Holocaust & helped liberate Bergen-Belsen, neither event is central to our history like the Aboriginal issue is).

I'd like for the communism & holocaust memorials to be downsized and moved to less prominent locations, and then build an Aboriginal monument in the vicinity of Pimisi station.