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Victims of Communism

RESOUNDING THUMBS DOWN ON WHAT IS CONSIDERED A WASTEFUL AND UNNECESSARY PROJECT

[Ottawa – May 22, 2015] First, the good news for the government: most Canadians are blissfully unaware of the government’s plans to erect a giant monument to the victims of communism on the front lawn of the Supreme Court. This location will skilfully occlude that despised institution with a huge celebration of things arguably dear to the government’s re-election plans and ideologically consistent with their cold war era views of Godless commies. Now the bad news: when presented with the concept and graphic illustrations, a representative sample of the Canadian public say WHAT?

When shown the design concepts, fewer than one in four Canadians approve of the memorial. Even in the prime territory of older Conservative voters, who harbour still vivid memories of the horrors of the cold war era, support is just mixed. About everywhere else, support is dramatically eclipsed by opposition. This is especially true for the denizens of the National Capital Region (NCR) who will be subjected to near daily views of this massive new icon.

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In ranking what things could be done to improve the NCR as a symbol of national identity, constructing a monument to victims of communism comes dead last (not far behind in least favoured ideas is yet another Holocaust memorial which cynics might note is linked to the government’s enthusiasm for the Jewish vote). Appalling injustices inflicted on Canadian soil to our Aboriginal populations are seen as a far more worthy subject to honour. Or how about a world class national library complete with books and everything? There are many ideas that seem appealing but a memorial for the victims of communism is not. In fact, the overwhelming qualitative response is “unnecessary and wasteful”.

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The federal government had best hope the deal can be closed on this before the election because given the depth of opposition we suspect there will be a groundswell of protest that will probably jettison this “unnecessary” and “wasteful” project. Hey how about a victims of capitalism monument? No wait; if we just continue the current extractive policies on carbon we can just stick that sign somewhere on the blackened husk of planet Earth 50 years from now.

Every now and then, governments come up with an idea that is so crass, cynical, and offensive that it deserves to be outed by the public. This is one of them.

Methodology:

This study was conducted using EKOS’ unique, hybrid online/telephone research panel, Probit. Our panel offers exhaustive coverage of the Canadian population (i.e., Internet, phone, cell phone), random recruitment (in other words, participants are recruited randomly, they do not opt themselves into our panel), and equal probability sampling. All respondents to our panel are recruited by telephone using random digit dialling and are confirmed by live interviewers. Unlike opt-in online panels, Probit supports margin of error estimates. We believe this to be the only probability-based online panel in Canada.

This study involved an online only survey of 2,116 Canadians. While panellists are randomly recruited, the survey itself excludes the roughly 1 in 8 Canadians without internet access. The results should therefore be considered generalizeable to Canada’s online population. The field dates for this survey are May 12-19, 2015. The margin of error associated with the total sample is +/-2.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Please note that the margin of error increases when the results are sub-divided (i.e., error margins for sub-groups such as region, sex, age, education). All the data have been statistically weighted by age, gender, region, and educational attainment to ensure the sample’s composition reflects that of the actual population of Canada according to Census data.

Click here for the full report: Full Report – Memorial to Victims of Communism (May 22, 2015)

43 comments to Victims of Communism

  • Robert F Nelson

    How about a monument to the victims of Harperism? !!

    • MisterDaryn

      There is something to be said about your comment. I was born raised and educated in Canada, my wife is Japanese and I have a young daughter, also Canadian. Due to Harper’s new immigration laws that came into effect this month (June), it is very likely that I will never live in Canada again, as my wife would never pass his point scheme. I have come to accept this situation. However, some people are worse off, thousands of residents with jobs and whom have integrated into Canadian society will be sent away once Harper’s temporary work visas expire. Harper has to go! Read the law see the hypocrisy.

  • Bytowner

    Heartwarming to see the level of support for a new home for Library and Archives Canada as shown here via the survey results.

  • Ted Alden

    There is only one reason that Harper is trying to push this through, his absolute and total enmity towards P.E. Trudeau, and I would suggest the family name. And the last thing this guy wants is a court house for ever present in the area with his name on it. That’s it that’s all.

    • MisterDaryn

      Once Harper is out of power, the next government should simply remove the monument and put in some far corner of the country or perhaps use it to start a new coral reef on one of our costs.

  • Lorraine Rogers

    Another idiotic Harper idea. Why put money into constructing anything in the NCR – share the money with the “have-nots” provinces.

  • Marg Wood

    This is pure hate mongering! We need to stop this discrimination from spreading! Maybe we should erect a monument to the victims Of the Harper Government!

  • Susan

    The best memorial to the victims of communism would be a nice plaque on the wall of a new judicial building, or the library and archives building, showing our dedication to the rule of law and the upholding of Canada’s constitution with its protection for all citizens, no matter what their political affiliation is.

  • Gordon Sellars

    Victims from the bombing of Libya and the huge destruction of their cities and towns. Destruction of a system that was working for the majority leaving hopelessness and mass migration in it’s wake.
    Replace that Victims of Communism monstrosity with a large statue stating Canada’s sorrow for their attacks on Libya and the hardship it brought her people.

  • Murray

    The idea of a national library has my support. A memorial to Victims of Communism does not!

  • susan benzon

    hugely embarrassing monument proposal; please, Mr. Harper, don’t do this to Canadians! A new National Archive, or library would be a much more appropriate use of funds

  • susan benzon

    Please don’t do this to us, Mr Harper; nobody wants a memorial to victims of Communism. That idea just doesn’t make sense and is hugely embarrassing to Canadians. Use the funds for a new, or additional National Archive!

  • Leo Doucet

    Wow, this is the type of memorial you would expect to see in a communist country. How grotesque.

  • Nigel Buller

    A national monument to the victims of Communism is not real high on my list of priorities. Seems like a right wing Conservative agenda to spend money frivolously. There are many more things that could be done. A Library with actual books or a national archive, that shows the growth of this country. So many more things that are more appropriate. That is not to make light of the terrible things that happened but there is precious little that has actually touched the lives of the average Canadian.

  • Rose

    There is no direct connection between Canadian soil and unrelated stories about communism victims. Indeed there is no a country in the world where communism was established, so there is no victims of unreal political system. Before 1991 there was a socialist block of countries, but no one from it did not complete building communism. Please, ask experts in history of state formations if socialism in those countries was developed enough to get close to the next formation – communism. There are a lot of unclear questions still in the air, and there is no need to put money for a monument regarding this subject. Let vanish poverty in Canada, this topic is more related to our country than “victims of communism”.

  • Ted Alden

    Eliminate all the where for and why, and you end up with only one reason: Harper refuses to permit a court house on that location named after P.E. Trudeau. That’s it, that’s all folks!

    Every option is available for a more equitable settlement for everyone to be pleased. Not to mention going ahead with this location looses Harper votes, any way you look at it.

  • Andy Fabo

    This idiotic monument will become a coveted canvas for daring graffiti artists. Why can’t the money be spent on a portrait gallery, something that Australia, the UK and the USA all have in their capital cities and are vibrant institutions that educate their respective citizens and tourists about their respective histories in an enjoyable manner.

    • MisterDaryn

      This will happen if the 80+ disapproval holds….Harper will suddenly put graffiti into the criminal code.

    • Andrew Hubbertz

      I recognize your name. You are Andy Fabo, the artist. I believe I remember a large work of yours hanging in the University of Saskatchewan Library in the 1990s.

      Now to the point at hand, the planners anticipate graffiti and plan to incorporate surfaces that can be easily cleaned. (I was at the Thursday NCC board meeting.)

  • Norman Albert

    I almost gagged when this was announced. HE WHAT?
    This guy is beyond believability. So much hate in one guy is just not normal. This really needs to be stopped. Not to do so paints us ALL with the same brush.

  • Christine Ashton

    The Harper Government is the most disgusting government Canada has ever faced. It does not seem to matter what the needs of Canadian are, it is Harper’s agenda which includes keeping power for himself, at any cost, that counts. How do they manage to get the funding approved for a project such.

    • Rose

      Garry Leech in his article “A Canadian in occupied Palestine” stated that never before Canada has got an expression from abroad to its address: “Canada, no good!”. Canada always was known as a peaceful country, but not any more. Thus, whose fault is it? Why is a great nation deserve this shame today?

  • Sandra

    How about a memorial to Democracy which was weakened and abused by the Harper government.
    RIP:
    Democracy
    The Environment
    Fair and honest Elections
    Accountability and common sense
    Veterans rights
    Our constitution
    Privacy
    Science

  • Sandra

    I would support a national monument representing the abuse and demise of democracy by the Harper government. Along with an RIP for:
    The environment
    Veterans rights
    The constitution
    Science
    Privacy

  • M Bourne

    Sign the petition people. This monument is totally inappropriate in the heart and soul of our parliament and judiciary, especially since it is irrelevant to 75% of the population. It needs to be moved to a more appropriate location. We need more courts and a new Federal Court as previously planned to finish off the ‘Judicial Triad’ architecturally to match the ‘Parliamentary Triad’ is the most obvious building that should go here which had been planned for decades for this site. The monument itself has pictures of corpses running down it with a viewing platform. This is a powerful message but not beside the Supreme Court where it will blemish the beauty of our Parliament and Judicial Centre.

  • Rod Corbett

    The monument is patently ugly. The idea is patently ugly. The fact that donors will have their names on the monument is patently exploitive and without class.There have been many historical injustices to most of the various groups who make up Canada.What about the victims to the Highland Clearances, the victims of the Irish Famine, the victims of Facism, the victims of religious discrimination, the victims of all wars, the vistims of spousal abuse, the victims of the American Revolution which ended up dislocating so many to what eventually would beome Canada, the victims of the forced relocation of Japanese Canadian citizens during WWII, the vistims of the Chinses ehad tax, the victims of the Grande Derangement…and so on. These all should be remembered in a museum which would/could put the victims into some historical context.The place where the monument is proposed to go should stay reserved for the Law building as has been planned for many years. I wonder whether there will be a backlash against Canadians of Ukrianian descent since the monument is being built specifically to garner their votes…are they truly supportive of getting the overwhelming majority of Canadians riled up about this. If the memorial to cummunism is built this summer, it should be removed as soon as the government is changed. There is a huge need for an fixed attachment to the Museum of Civilization to explain the terrible plight of the Canadian Aboriginal Community through history…and there is a need to give the Museum of Civilization back its original name.

  • Big Mike

    Bad idea from a lousy source. Harper™

  • Jaime B

    Why does this deserve pride of place in Canada’s capital? We’ve never even had a communist government in this country!
    If you want to stick to purely local atrocities, may I recommend a memorial to the victims of colonialism.

  • Alide Forstmanis

    The poll result does not surprise me, and because of the poor knowledge about communism and its brutality, inhumanity towards millions of people, this memorial needs to be built and located at allocated prominent location. Let’s not ignore the fact that every 4th Canadian has been either personally affected or has roots in a country that once was or still to this day is ruled by communists.

    Here is some more information that I like to share with you.
    Read and watch!

    Young Swedes lack knowledge about communism
    http://www.thelocal.se ^ | 05/09/2007 | Paul O’Mahony
    Posted on 9 May, 2007 16:25:37 by WesternCulture

    Less than fifteen years after the last Soviet troops pulled out of the Baltic States, a new survey has shown that young Swedes are still in the dark about the fate of its neighbours behind the Iron Curtain.

    A poll carried out by Demoskop on behalf of the Organization for Information on Communism (Föreningen för upplysning om kommunismen – UOK) found that 90 percent of Swedes between the ages of 15 and 20 had never heard of the Gulag. This can be contrasted with the 95 percent who knew of Auschwitz.

    “Unfortunately we were not at all surprised by the findings,” Ander Hjemdahl, the founder of UOK, told The Local.

    “We had a strong hunch that this would be the case having spent a few years travelling around to various schools,” he added.

    Of the 1004 young Swedes involved in the nationwide poll, 43 percent believed that communist regimes had claimed less than one million lives. A fifth of those surveyed put the death toll at under ten thousand. The actual figure is estimated at around 100 million.

    The poll also found that 40 percent of young Swedes believed that communism contributed to increased prosperity in the world; 22 percent considered communism a democratic form of government; 82 percent did not regard Belarus as a dictatorship.

    This information gap has roots that date back many years, according to Anders Hjemdahl.

    “There were strategic reasons. For example, I think the Social Democrats only won one absolute majority in the post-war years. Therefore they had to rely on the support of smaller parties, one of which was the communist party.

    “Another reason is that a large majority of Swedish journalists are left-wingers, many of them quite far left,” he said.

    Hjemdahl speculates that some historical ignorance may also be explained by the fact that Sweden accepted Stalin’s takeover of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

    “Sweden expressed its de jure recognition of the Soviet Union’s World War II annexation of the Baltic States. Nazi Germany and Franco’s Spain were the other countries to grant such strong recognition,” he said.

    The organization has provoked a strong reaction in the few short hours it published its findings in Dagens Nyheter.

    “We have had lots of responses over the course of the morning. Some aggressive communists have called us to voice their opinions.

    “But we also had two victims of communism crying on the phone, explaining that they had waited fifty years for this,” said Hjemdahl.

    He also added that the organization has plans to make its effort international and is currently working on translating its material into English.

    Honorary members and contributors to UOK include former Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar, Latvia’s EU Commissioner Sandra Kalniete and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.

    Paul O’Mahony

    http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/mark-milke-the-tragedy-of-communism

    The Gulag —– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfr0uftv51w

    Through the Red Gate http://www.veoh.com/watch/v19112213gh8MHRxm?h1=Through+The+Red+Gate

    Socialism’s Legacy – Alan Charles Kors
    from Clemson Institute 3 years ago NOT YET RATED
    Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, many optimists claimed that the world was now somehow “after socialism.” There are reasons, however—structural, political, moral, and intellectual—why the collapse of Communism did not entail the end of socialism. This talk will explain why there can be no “after socialism” until the West comes to ultimate terms with the catastrophic legacy of international communism.
    ALAN CHARLES KORS (B.A., Princeton; M.A. and Ph.D., Harvard) is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, and he is a co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). He is the author of numerous books on European intellectual history and American higher education. Dr. Kors has served on the National Council for the Humanities, and been honored with many awards, including the National Humanities Medal and the Bradley Prize.
    http://vimeo.com/21613629

    • Smagik

      Thanks for telling us the official government position. Now go report to king stevie.

    • MisterDaryn

      If Canadians don’t want it and Harper is doing it for reasons of ideological-partisan revenge then we need not build it. The next government should stop its construction once in power and dismantle what is there. Monuments should be popularly supported and prided not forced on us against our will – hint hint.

  • Ed C

    Why is Harper being so pig headed and such an autocrat? Does he not realize that of the 35 plus million brains in Canada his brain is one of the very few that thinks this is a great idea?
    Come on Harper get the program of what democracy means. You are being a communist by leading in the way you have been leading.

  • Randy

    Victims of Communist China and Execution Buses?

  • Steppenwolf

    Lenin: State Capitalism During the Transition to Socialism:
    http://www.ebook3000.com/LENIN-ON-STATE-CAPITALISM-DURING….

    Lenin: State Capitalism as a measure to rebuild the Russian Economy
    http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/mar/23b.htm

    Stalin: Five-Year Plans: State Capitalism to Accelerate Industrial Development and Challenge the West
    http://lrp-cofi.org/book/intro.html
    http://www.marxists.org/archive/hardcastle/stalin_report.htm

    Mao: On State Capitalism–a fiscal framework for building the Chinese Economy 1953
    http://www.marxists.org/…/selecte…/volume-5/mswv5_30.htm

    Second, this bogus monument cynically ignores the far greater number of victims of classical, fascistic, colonial and US style capitalism (all based on the same fundamentals as Leninist state capitalism). Colonial capitalism killed over a billion people over a three-century period. The US government/ Corporate America in the last century alone is directly and indirectly responsible (via murderous puppet dictatorships and its influence in the IMF) for more deaths than Hitler, Stalin and Mao combined. This monument should be called the Victims of Capitalism, because that’s what’s caused all these deaths.

    Annihilation of Natives
    http://necrometrics.com/pre1700a.htm#America

    Thanks to the Trilateral Commission and its Friedman trickle-down austerity spoonfeed the rich by starving the poor policies dominating the IMF, over a hundred million people have died across the Third World over the last 50 years.

    http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=t
    http://books.google.ca/books?id=138oIBg_MikC&pg=PA253

    Partial list of US-backed Dictatorships protecting corporate interests (everyone from throughout Latin America, Asia, Middle East and across the globe:

    http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/Cards_Index.html
    http://wais.stanford.edu/…/us_supportforladictators8303…

    And speaking of Hitler and Stalin, US corporate support for and in investment in the Nazi and Stalinist regimes:

    http://histclo.com/essay/war/com/sov/sc-stalin.html
    http://www.orwelltoday.com/redriding.shtml
    http://www.whale.to/b/mullins41.html
    http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/State_capitalism
    http://www.scribd.com/…/American-Corporations-and-Hitler
    http://www.iahushua.com/WOI/us_nazis.htm
    http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww2/cou/us/aod/aiac/aiac.html
    http://www.whale.to/b/mullins41.html

    And how about, just for fun, looking at some of those evil Islamic regimes the US government either brought to power or bought into in order to advance or protect US corporate interests:

    US Brings Saddam Hussein to power in Iraq
    http://archive.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=755
    http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/about_hal/chronology.html

    And look who’s investing big time in the Axis of Evil regime in Iran.
    http://www.nytimes.com/…/middleeast/07sanctions.html…
    http://www.jfnnj.org/local_includes/downloads/21816.pdf
    http://www.tehrantimes.com/…/compo…/content/article/3598

    And how about Libya and Egypt, under both Gaddhaffi and Mubarek and now under the new US-installed dictatorships there:

    http://www.nytimes.com/…/24/world/africa/24qaddafi.html…
    http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/48732
    http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jun2011/liby-j17.shtml
    http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/…/guest-post-americas…
    http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/01/29/18670578.php

    And how about all those terrorist groups that are supposed to be enemies, but wouldn’t even exist without US support:

    Taliban, Al Qaeda Created by US to Challenge Russians
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0110/S00004.htm
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VQe8M4IfkQ&feature=share

    US Aided, Empowered Taliban in 80s and 90s
    http://www.politicsol.com/guest-commentaries/2001-09-18.html

    And let’s not get into all the thugs and murderers the CIA has put US taxpayer money into.

    http://www.serendipity.li/cia.html
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/u-s-attacks-iran-via-cia
    http://www.huppi.com

    Third, the Harper regime itself, being a capitalist creation, has been responsible for more deaths and persecution than any Canadian federal government since the RB “Iron Heel” Bennett regime (also Conservative) in the 1930s. It has intensified the murderous Liberal war in Afghanistan, got us into Iraq and committed all sorts of atrocities in the name of “peace-keeping, while vilifying and persecuting Canadians at home to the degree that hasn’t been seen in decades. This is in addition to all the deaths resulting from its gutting of safety and environmental standards, cuts to health care and other vital public infrastructure, etc. It could easily dedicate a monument to its own atrocities in place of this bogus charade (maybe if the NDP wins, we could dedicate such a monument).

    http://thetyee.ca/…/2014/01/04/13-Fails-For-Harper-2013/
    https://harperwatch.wordpress.com/
    http://trustbreaker.freehostia.com/
    http://blogs.theprovince.com/…/ken-neumann-buy-america…/
    https://www.facebook.com/leadnowcanada/posts/693254500690741
    http://www.glob

  • Steppenwolf

    Corrected (apologies) some factual background. This bogus Victims of so-called “Communism” is the epitome of both dishonesty and hypocrisy. Three points:

    First off, the association of communism or socialism with what are in fact, by their founders own recognition, centrally regulated state capitalist economic regimens is pure fraud. State capitalism is based on the same fundamentals as any other type of capitalism: exploitation of labour under dictatorial master-servant regimens, coercive demand-vs-supply pricing system, manipulation of people’s choices and behaviours via saturation of propaganda, etc. The the famine and persecution under Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and similar rulers were the result of a state capitalist version of neo-con medieval trickle-down economics: the usual busting of unions and suppressing liberties in order to slash wages and force people to work harder for less to rapidly capitalize corporations via cheap exports. These economics, regardless of what governments call themselves, that created and continue to create such atrocities.

    Lenin: State Capitalism During the Transition to Socialism:
    http://www.ebook3000.com/LENIN-ON-STATE-CAPITALISM-DURING….

    Lenin: State Capitalism as a measure to rebuild the Russian Economy
    http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/mar/23b.htm

    Stalin: Five-Year Plans: State Capitalism to Accelerate Industrial Development and Challenge the West
    http://lrp-cofi.org/book/intro.html
    http://www.marxists.org/archive/hardcastle/stalin_report.htm

    Mao: On State Capitalism–a fiscal framework for building the Chinese Economy 1953
    http://www.marxists.org/…/selecte…/volume-5/mswv5_30.htm

    Second, this bogus monument cynically ignores the far greater number of victims of classical, fascistic, colonial and US style capitalism (all based on the same fundamentals as Leninist state capitalism). Colonial capitalism killed over a billion people over a three-century period. The US government/ Corporate America in the last century alone is directly and indirectly responsible (via murderous puppet dictatorships and its influence in the IMF) for more deaths than Hitler, Stalin and Mao combined. This monument should be called the Victims of Capitalism, because that’s what’s caused all these deaths.

    Annihilation of Natives
    http://necrometrics.com/pre1700a.htm#America

    Thanks to the Trilateral Commission and its Friedman trickle-down austerity spoonfeed the rich by starving the poor policies dominating the IMF, over a hundred million people have died across the Third World over the last 50 years.

    http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=t
    http://books.google.ca/books?id=138oIBg_MikC&pg=PA253

    Partial list of US-backed Dictatorships protecting corporate interests (everyone from throughout Latin America, Asia, Middle East and across the globe:

    http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/Cards_Index.html
    http://wais.stanford.edu/…/us_supportforladictators8303…

    And speaking of Hitler and Stalin, US corporate support for and in investment in the Nazi and Stalinist regimes:

    http://histclo.com/essay/war/com/sov/sc-stalin.html
    http://www.orwelltoday.com/redriding.shtml
    http://www.whale.to/b/mullins41.html
    http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/State_capitalism
    http://www.scribd.com/…/American-Corporations-and-Hitler
    http://www.iahushua.com/WOI/us_nazis.htm
    http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww2/cou/us/aod/aiac/aiac.html
    http://www.whale.to/b/mullins41.html

    And how about, just for fun, looking at some of those evil Islamic regimes the US government either brought to power or bought into in order to advance or protect US corporate interests:

    US Brings Saddam Hussein to power in Iraq
    http://archive.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=755
    http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/about_hal/chronology.html

    And look who’s investing big time in the Axis of Evil regime in Iran.
    http://www.nytimes.com/…/middleeast/07sanctions.html…
    http://www.jfnnj.org/local_includes/downloads/21816.pdf
    http://www.tehrantimes.com/…/compo…/content/article/3598

    And how about Libya and Egypt, under both Gaddhaffi and Mubarek and now under the new US-installed dictatorships there:

    http://www.nytimes.com/…/24/world/africa/24qaddafi.html…
    http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/48732
    http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jun2011/liby-j17.shtml
    http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/…/guest-post-americas…
    http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/01/29/18670578.php

    And how about all those terrorist groups that are supposed to be enemies, but wouldn’t even exist without US support:

    Taliban, Al Qaeda Created by US to Challenge Russians
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0110/S00004.htm
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VQe8M4IfkQ&feature=share

    US Aided, Empowered Taliban in 80s and 90s
    http://www.politicsol.com/guest-commentaries/2001-09-18.html

    And let’s not get into all the thugs and murderers the CIA has put US taxpayer money into.

    http://www.serendipity.li/cia.html
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/u-s-attacks-iran-via-cia
    http://www.huppi.com

    Third, the Harper regime itself, being a capitalist creation, has been responsible for more deaths and persecution than any Canadian federal government since the RB “Iron Heel” Bennett regime (also Conservative) in the 1930s. It has intensified the murderous Liberal war in Afghanistan, got us into Iraq and committed all sorts of atrocities in the name of “peace-keeping, while vilifying and persecuting Canadians at home to the degree that hasn’t been seen in decades. This is in addition to all the deaths resulting from its gutting of safety and environmental standards, cuts to health care and other vital public infrastructure, etc. It could easily dedicate a monument to its own atrocities in place of this bogus charade (maybe if the NDP wins, we could dedicate such a monument).

    http://thetyee.ca/…/2014/01/04/13-Fails-For-Harper-2013/
    https://harperwatch.wordpress.com/
    http://trustbreaker.freehostia.com/
    http://blogs.theprovince.com/…/ken-neumann-buy-america…/
    https://www.facebook.com/leadnowcanada/posts/693254500690741
    http://www.glob

  • Lesley O'Nei

    I am basically apolitical, but definitely on the left side of the spectrum. I have always voted, but rarely PC—and most definitely NOT for Harper, although I have been living in Alberta for almost 40 of my 72 years.

    The idea of a ‘victims of Communism’ monument is an atrocity, as is the horribly ugly and monstrous design. My parents were English-speaking and grew up and met in Montreal (where I was born). At one point, in the latter half of the 30s (they married in ’34), they sheltered the leader of Canada’s Communist party. Were Mom and Dad Communists? No, they were just smart-thinking people suffering under the corrupt Diplessis regime.

    The idea of this Harper faux pas makes me almost literally sick to the stomach.

  • Lesley O'Neil

    Duplessis—couldn’t find a way to edit. I think I was quite wrapped up in heat generated by the topic of this discussion and didn’t proofread very well! Even left off the final L on my own name….

  • Ruth MacLaurin

    “Victims of Communism”? Looks like Joseph Stalin designed it. Construct a garden space to remind us of all tyrannical governments. Have a First Nations artist design the garden. Harper diminishes daily, his tunnel vision totally myopic. He is the most destructive PM in Canadian history.

  • David Dowdell

    If it’s not too late, let’s abandon this project and devote our public space to something that matters to Canadians.

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