Ottawa’s communism victims memorial too partisan
Re A monument to victims or just partisan bluster? Opinion Dec. 21 Thank you to Christopher Dummitt, the historian from Trent University, whose article is a wake-up call to all Canadians who go about their lives trusting that Ottawa will exercise a certain national prudence. A National Memorial to Victims of Communism has no place anywhere near Parliament Hill.
First of all, communism’s ideals — i.e. citizens give according to their abilities and receive according to their needs — are laudable. Communism has been proposed, and tried, but it has never seen the light of day. The only true communistic societies reside cloistered behind monastery walls.
In a world of contiguous nations, true communism is not feasible. Why are we not surprised? As professor Dummitt says, “In ever more partisan Ottawa, who can expect logic?”
If the Harper government wishes to move ahead with this oafish blunder, the C-word should be changed to Totalitarianism, and the construction jobs should be moved to the oilsands where, in this time of falling sludge prices, there is a need for a stop-gap project. Hugh McKechnie, Newmarket I am amazed how simplistically Christopher Dummitt dismisses the critics of the planned memorial to the victims of communism by saying it speaks to a large number of Canadians who fled their countries of origin under communist rule.
If not for the victims of capitalism, then, would not a memorial to the victims of poverty and hunger be more appropriate for the vast majority of Canadians whose forefathers were poor and hungry in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France? Abbas Syed, Scarborough How can a Canadian who was likely still in diapers when people were dying in droves all over the vast gulag of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe question the building of a monument to its millions of victims? Are we teaching our kids right?
Thanks to Canada for taking me and my family under its wing and saving us from becoming victims of the Communist monster had we returned to Bulgaria in 1976. I am looking forward to the erection of this monument so I can honour the memo- ries of relatives, friends and millions of unknown victims. Atanas Minchev, Toronto In 2015, the Trudeau government might want to rededicate this monument to commemorate the victims of Harperism.
They could chisel the names of those who’ve suffered from the Harperites’ callousness — veterans driven to suicide because they couldn’t get help, aboriginal people forced to scavenge for food in dumps, disabled people denied benefits and waiting more than a year for their appeals to be heard, bona fide refugees hoping in vain for Canada to take them in.
But that list would be very long indeed, and our next government will have to be careful in its spending, what with Harper and Co. emptying out the cupboard in an effort to buy our votes with our own money.
Perhaps it would be more cost-effective just to inscribe the names of all the deeply held Canadian values the Harper government has tried to destroy — democracy, honesty, respect, fairness, civil discourse, multiculturalism, openness, compassion, fact-based decision making, good stewardship of the environment . . . hmmm, that could be a long list too. Patricia Wilmot, Toronto I have no problem with acknowledging the huge number of people who died under communist regimes. However should we not be putting up a monument to all the victims in the world who have suffered and died under imposed democracy? Is it democracy if it’s imposed?
Add to that those of us here who are suffering under the lack of democracy. After all we only have a facsimile of democracy.
What I really had trouble with in the article was the statement, “Harper is giving us a strong, free, patriotic Canada.” The only ones that Harper has given anything free to are the corporations and the wealthy, sometimes one and the same.
What about a monument to the victims of corporate rule? I can see it now: a huge gold $ sign leaning to the right. Beatrice Cleary, North York It is with great dismay that I learn that the Harper government is still pursuing the erection of a monument to the victims of communism. To do so would be an insult to all Canadian citizens.
To honour the suffering of all people at the hands of tormentors of any political shade would do us credit. To do so with such bias and for narrow, blinkered political ideology dishonours our country. Vito Volterra, Burlington Stephen Harper’s proposed memorial to victims of communism confuses our history. The Communist Party of Canada never held power or victimized anyone. So let us be accurate and erect a National Memorial to Victims of Conservatism and Liberalism. Right in front of the Peace Tower. Peter Ferguson, Kimberley A memorial to victims of communism beside the Supreme Court of Canada? A National Monument to the Victims of Residential Schools would be very much more appropriate. Susan Dutton, Port Perry