Tribute to Victims of Communism Memorial
2007
Jason Kenney, then minister of state for multiculturalism, and Pavel Vosalik, then the Czech ambassador to Canada, conceive the idea of an Ottawa memorial to victims of Communism.
2008
Kenney publicly pledges support for the memorial and two separate groups — the Open Book Group and, seven months later, Tribute to Liberty — form to promote the idea and raise funds.
2009
January: Tribute to Liberty and the Open Book Group submit competing proposals for a memorial to the National Capital Commission.
June: After the NCC urges the two proponents to work together, they submit a joint proposal, though the Open Book Group ultimately ceases to participate.
2010
March: The Conservative government pledges support for a national monument to victims of communism in the Speech from the Throne. Tribute to Liberty sets a fundraising goal of $1.5 million.
April: Tribute to Liberty obtains charitable status.
August: The NCC announces that a location at the Garden of the Provinces and Territories at Wellington and Bay streets has been chosen for the memorial.
2011
Struggling to raise money for the memorial, Tribute to Liberty applies for funding from Canadian Heritage’s Celebrate and Commemorate Program. The group also asks the NCC to change its policy forbidding on-site recognition of donors at commemorative sites. The NCC abandons the policy the following year.
2012
Spring: Tribute to Liberty informs supporters that it has raised about $130,000 to date but most was spent on expenses. Tribute to Liberty also reveals that “several locations” are now under consideration for the memorial.
May: Public Works quietly allocates a 5,000-square-metre site on Wellington Street between the Supreme Court and Library and Archives Canada for the memorial, but makes no public announcement of that until the summer of 2013.
July: Tribute to Liberty says it is counting on $750,000 in matching contributions from the Canadian government.
2013
March: Public Works asks the NCC to add the memorial to the current site’s permitted uses.
August: The government announces that Citizenship and Immigration Canada will give Tribute to Liberty $1.5 million over two years to help build the new landmark.
November: The NCC’s board approves the new site near the Supreme Court, saying the project is in line with strategies in the NCC’s corporate plan supporting significant national commemorations on Confederation Boulevard.
2014
April: The federal government announces a design competition for the memorial, which now has an estimated price tag of $4 million.
August: The government unveils six final design concepts for the memorial. The Citizen later reports that the government has boosted its financial support for the project to $3 million plus the land.
September: In an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, prominent Ottawa architect Barry Padolsky accuses the federal government of ‘stealing’ the site, which had been designated for a new judicial building.
December: The government announces that a design by ABSTRAKT Studio Architecture has won the design competition for the memorial. The winning design features six parallel concrete rows, rising 14.5 metres at their highest, covered with 100 million “memory squares,” each representing a life lost to Communist regimes worldwide. The estimated cost of the memorial is now about $5.5 million.
2015
January: The Citizen reports that Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin had raised concerns about the “bleakness and brutalism” of some of the memorial designs in a letter to Public Works in September 2014.
Feb. 4: The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada releases a statement ‘respectfully’ requesting that the government reconsider the site chosen for the memorial, and build it at the ‘equally prominent and fitting site’ at the Garden of the Provinces and Territories.