A memorial to “Victims of Communism” in Ottawa, Canada, that was slated to be inscribed with the names of so-called victims will focus instead on more general thematic content related to its subject, after a government report prompted the Department of Canadian Heritage to change course. The reversal follows claims issued last year that connected more than half of the proposed 550 names to Nazism or fascist groups.
As reported by The Art Newspaper, concern over links between the names and troubling aspects of the past were first raised by Jewish groups and Canadian media enterprises including Ricochet and The Maple, and were later corroborated by the Department of Canadian Heritage. Last week, a department spokeswoman told the Ottawa Citizen, “The government of Canada has emphasized that all aspects of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism must align with Canadian values of democracy and human rights. The Wall of Remembrance will now solely feature thematic content that conveys the broader commemorative and educational intent of the memorial.”
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The Memorial to the Victims of Communism, which was first approved in 2009, has accumulated a budget of around $5.4 million, with $4.36 million covered with public funds, according to TAN. An initial plan for the memorial was scrapped over perceptions of an “oppressive” design, before it was re-conceived and construction was completed before its official opening last year. Issues related to engraving name date back to warnings of troubling affiliations in 2021 and, in 2023, an incident when a name had been engraved and was subsequently removed without explanation.
