A monument to victims or just partisan bluster?
If the Harper government continues with its plan for a national memorial to victims of communism, future tourists to Canada’s national capital are going to be confused. Anyone strolling along Wellington St. past Parliament, the Supreme Court, the national library and archives will find a huge, block-sized edifice: a monument to the victims of communism.
“A what?” a tourist might ask. Perhaps future editions of The Rough Guide to Canada will explain it all as a pathetic joke — a story of partisan bickering, the shameless quest for votes, and an attempt to ideologically renovate nationalism, all of which became etched into the cityscape of the capital.
Earlier this month, Toronto architect Shirley Blumberg, who was consulted on the creation of the monument, publicly spoke out about what she called the “massive problem” of the site’s “inappropriate location.” She isn’t the first. Earlier in the year, another architect claimed the government was “stealing” the site for partisan purposes. The site on which the monument is scheduled to be built had been slated for the Federal Court of Canada. Then in 2012, Public Works announced that it would instead go to this monument. Why?
Critics can’t help but wonder whether this is because the new Federal Court of Canada building that was going to be on the site was to be called the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Judicial Building.
Partisan bickering is supposed to subside once former leaders leave office, and our governing classes are meant to honour all of our nation’s leaders. The origi- nal plan made sense: the naming of a Federal Court building after one of our longest-serving prime ministers, a man responsible for the final act in our story of national independence — the patriation of our Constitution and the creation of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
But in ever more partisan Ottawa, who can expect logic?
Canada does have a fine history of accepting immigrants who fled from communist suppression. Many immigrants from eastern Europe remain harshly critical of the communist governments that used to control their countries of origin.
The problem is where this is going to be located and why it’s being done
The acceptance of thousands of Vietnamese “boat people” in the early 1980s is an important part of recent Canadian history.
So although some critics have caustically wondered when we’ll have a monument to the victims of capitalism, they are missing the point. The monument to victims of communism speaks to a large number of Canadians. There is nothing wrong with enshrining these sentiments in a national monument. The main problem is where this is going to be located and why it’s being done.
This is part of the Harper government’s attempt to remake the Canadian story one adjective at a time. In place of a Canada devoted to multiculturalism, diversity and openness,
Harper is giving us a strong, free, patriotic Canada. The differences are subtle but profound. Harper is pushing the lan- guage of un-ironic patriotism and liberty — sentiments that when spoken by Americans used to make Canadians snicker.
This is the cultural side to the government’s emphasis on jobs and the economy. It’s Orwellian in intent and form. Speak words that might not be true, but become truer seeming by constant repetition. We’re in the realm of “truthiness.” The fact that the group calling for the monument is the Tea Party-esque Tribute to Liberty isn’t a coincidence.
All of this would be defensible, if partisan, were it not for the brazen choice of location and the gargantuan, out-of-proportion size of the monument. Even the American monument of the same name, opened by George W. Bush in 2007, is merely one statue in Washington.
The buildings along this stretch of Wellington St. speak to all Canadians. These are the symbols of the Canadian state writ large — the home of our national memory and culture in Library and Archives Canada; the national centre of our judicial independence and law in the Supreme Court of Canada; and of course the seat of our national government in Parliament and the adjacent buildings of government.
Now we are going to add to this a monument to the victims of communism? Someone ought to feel ashamed — hopefully not before it’s too late.