Once the cause of international controversy, Little Italy’s Vietnamese Commemorative Monument memorializes the plight – and symbolizes the success – of Ottawa’s Vietnamese community.
The bronze monument is located in a shaded area filled with trees and plants at the corner of Preston and Somerset streets. It features a statue of a Vietnamese woman running barefoot while clutching a baby. There are wreathes in front of her and a cement wall behind her.
Under the statue are French, Vietnamese and English versions of the phrase “In memory of those who have lost their lives in their quest for freedom.”
In April 1995, when the monument was erected, the Hanoi government was offended because it portrayed Vietnam badly. As a result, the Canadian secretary of state for the Asia-Pacific region and a group of trade delegates postponed a visit to Vietnam.
Canadian officials were not swayed by Hanoi’s government criticisms of the monument, but rather celebrated it. Ontario premier Bob Rae congratulated the Vietnamese-Canadian community on the monument and then Ottawa mayor Jacquelin Holzman proclaimed the week of its unveiling to be Vietnamese Canadian Heritage Week.
Pham the Trung, who escaped South Vietnam after Communists came to power, designed the monument. He was one of many who fled after Communists took over South Vietnam in 1975.