Trudeau government scrapes all names from “Victims of Communism” monument in attempt to hide Canada’s patronage of Nazi collaborators and war criminals

 

The Trudeau government officially inaugurated Canada’s “Memorial to the Victims of Communism” earlier this month. However, no member of the Liberal government was allowed to show their face at the ceremony, for fear it would once again draw public attention to the Canadian state’s longstanding and ongoing patronage of fascist forces.

Yvon Baker, a Liberal MP and former Ukrainian Canadian Congress Ontario Council president, had been expected to address the December 12 inauguration ceremony, but on government orders he instead spoke at an invitation-only, post-inauguration event.

In a damning political admission, the Department of Canadian Heritage previously removed all the names listed on the “Victims of Communism” memorial wall. The move followed the release of a government-commissioned report calling for the removal of the names of over 300 individuals—more than half of the total inscribed on the monument—who were directly or potentially linked to the Nazis or the fascist organizations that collaborated with them during World War Two.

When announcing the official unveiling of the monument, which after its completion had languished for years in the heart of downtown Ottawa, a spokesman for Liberal Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge confirmed that “at the time of the unveiling, there will be no names on the monument’s wall.” Her office released a statement saying that the government “will continue its due diligence to ensure all aspects of the memorial remain compatible with Canadian values on democracy and human rights.”

In fact, the presence of the names of Nazi and fascist war criminals on an anti-communist memorial championed by both Liberal and Conservative governments illustrates quite clearly the shameless hypocrisy and utter cynicism of the Canadian ruling elite’s claim to champion “democracy and human rights.” This is a ruling class whose political representatives rose as one in September 2023 to give a standing ovation to former Waffen-SS member Yaroslav Hunka, in a gesture that epitomized Canadian imperialism’s decades-long funding and promotion of Ukrainian far-right nationalist ideology and groups.  (more...)

Trudeau government scrapes all names from “Victims of Communism” monument in attempt to hide Canada’s patronage of Nazi collaborators and war criminals