My parents chose to live in Canada

Re: How to honour the victims of communism, June 27.

I wish to thank Irene Tomaszewski for her thoughts concerning how Canada might choose to honour victims of communism. My mother was also sent to the Siberian gulag with the Soviet invasion of her area of Poland. She survived and made her way to England to work with the Polish Air Force. There she met my father, who escaped from Poland and was piloting bombers out of England. I was born in Britain. With the Allied victory the family had a choice: return to Poland or resettle elsewhere. Some Poles did return but it was not to an independent Polish nation; it was a nation reminiscent of Poland within the Russian empire.

My parents chose Canada and its way of life and freedom and I thank them for it. As much as we became Canadians, we nevertheless felt the loss and the distance from our roots caused by the totalitarian regime governing eastern Europe.

In that sense I feel we were victims of communist totalitarianism. Yet, the method chosen by our government to recognize and honour such victims strikes me as ostentatious, divisive, and perhaps even somewhat politically partisan given its timing. It would be much better if the monument funds would instead be allocated to academic chairs who would enlighten current and future generations of the history, consequences and dangers of totalitarian governments of all sorts.

I am reminded of the propagandist monuments put up throughout eastern Europe and hope we do not follow in their lead with this divisive monument. Richard A. Boczkowski, Ottawa