The 180

A better idea than a monument to communism victims

There's a new national monument in the works for Ottawa: a memorial for victims of Communism. But not everyone likes that idea. Columnist Patrick Butler tells us what he thinks.
This is the winning design for the new National Memorial to Victims of Communism on Wellington Street in Ottawa. Several people and groups have been critical of the monument's location, design or both. (Tribute to Liberty)

There's a new national monument in the works for Ottawa. It's a memorial for victims of Communism, and would sit on land between the Supreme Court building and the National Library. But not everyone likes that idea. Patrick Butler, a columnist with The Telegram newspaper, in St. John's, Newfoundland, tells us what he thinks on this week's show. 

Butler acknowledges that many Canadian families came to this country because of communism, but, he says, "it isn't really a struggle native to Canada."

So, instead of using high profile space beside the Supreme Court to mark communism, it should be home to a monument in honour of a Canadian struggle-- that of this country's First Nations. 

He points out that the only national memorial to Aboriginal people right now is one honouring those who fought for Canada, and that needs to change.