Cost of Ottawa’s ‘Victims of Communism’ memorial project on the rise

Ottawa is a land of memorials, a sea of statues celebrating various Canadian successes, paying tribute to the country’s losses and honouring all things that have made this country what it is. And soon, Ottawa will have a new memorial to add to its collection, with the impending construction of a tribute to those killed by communist groups.

The somewhat ambiguously-named "Victims of Communism" memorial has been a subject of debate for some time. And while Tribute to Liberty, the group behind the project, is just days away from deciding on what shape the final memorial will take, questions about how much the project will cost have begun to rise to the surface.

The Ottawa Citizen reported this week that the project's government funding had been quietly restructured. The Victims of Communism memorial, once set to receive about $1.5 million in taxpayer money, is now reportedly receiving approximately $4 million from three government departments – Citizenship and Immigration, Canadian Heritage and Public Works. Tribute to Liberty has also reportedly raised $2 million in donations, meaning the total cost of the project could be around $6 million.

But it is the subject matter of the memorial that has raised controversy in the past. Last year, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May was criticized after remarking on Twitter, "No mention of monument to victims of capitalism."

Conservative MP Jason Kenney retorted, "Perhaps that's because no one was shot in the back while risking their lives to flee eastward over the Iron Curtain."

And that is the issue that has caused much confusion. The memorial is dedicated to a generality, but one responsible for very real and very specific atrocities.

An official description of the memorial notes that hundreds of thousands of Canadians first arrived in the country, or are descendants of those who did, after fleeing Communist regimes.

"The memorial will create awareness of the reality of life under communism and pay tribute to the over 100 million people worldwide who perished or suffered under Communist tyranny," reads an explanation.

"Monuments are an essential part of our national landscape and serve as important markers for events and people that make up the diverse fabric of our nation. Prominently located on Confederation Boulevard near the Supreme Court of Canada with views of the Peace Tower, this new Capital landmark will be a lasting tribute to the hardship endured by so many individuals and the freedom that Canada brought them."

Here's how we got to this point. The Tribute to Liberty group received approval to build a memorial in September 2009. Three years later, a location was secured in Ottawa between The Library and Archives Canada building and the Supreme Court of Canada. A design competition was launched to decide what the memorial will look like.

There are currently six designs being considered for the final project, the creators of which all seem to appreciate the ambiguity of the subject at hand.

One is a nod to the "geometry of the Red Star" intended to demystify communism; another is a cemetery of sorts, laid out to mark the 100 million deaths credited to communist regimes.

Another proposed memorial features blades meant to represent each of the 46 countries once or currently run by communist governments. Yet another is intended to signify a forest, reminiscent of those where so many people sought solace from communist regimes.

A final decision on what the memorial will look like is expected to be announced sometime after Labour Day, and the memorial is to be finished by 2015.

Despite receiving support from every federal political party when it was approved, the memorial won't satisfy everyone. The Communist Party of Canada previously opposed the monument as a "throwback to the sordid era of the Cold War, which resulted in a wave of anti-communist frenzy, RCMP spying, witch-hunts, blacklisting, social ostracism, imprisonment and deportations against many progressive-minded Canadians."

Following May's tweet last year, progressive news site Rabble proposed several possible "victims of capitalism" statues, including a sweatshop, a melting glacier and a starving child.

The matter has most recently become the subject of an extensive debate on Reddit, where some community members have questioned its value and purpose.

"Condemning communism while doing billions of dollars of business with China, Vietnam and Cuba. Not so much uncomfortable as embarrassed at the hypocrisy if not inconsistency," one user wrote.

Someone intriguingly, this exact debate has played out in the United States, where a Victims of Communism Memorial was constructed on the grounds of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and a museum could soon follow. The statue is a bronze model of one torn down in Tiananmen Square 25 years ago, and the museum would be timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Columnist James Kirchick wrote about the value of that memorial for the Daily Beast, rejecting the ambiguity of the matter as well as the argument that "Communism didn't kill people, bad leaders did."

Set the awkward name of the monument aside for a moment, since that is what much of the complaints seem to target. You still have 100 million people who were killed in some of the worst horrors this world has seen.

All of which are distinctly separate in their scope, their place in Canada’s history and the scars they left on the survivors. If there's any reason to complain about the Victims of Communism memorial, it is because those meant to be honoured by the monument will be memorialized by one catchall tribute.

That, and the apparently ballooning cost of the project. But then again, it is Ottawa.