The controversy over the proposed Memorial to the Victims of Communism has taken a new twist – a “Move the Memorial” petition launched by a group of University of Ottawa students who want the planned site between the Supreme Court and Library and Archives Canada abandoned in favour of the project’s original location: the Garden of the Provinces.
The online petition to move the contentious memorial has recently attracted media attention and had gathered 2,833 signatures by March 20.
According to Elizabeth Seibel, one of the students behind the petition focuses on the unorthodox, politically-influenced process that allowed the charity behind the memorial, A Tribute to Freedom, to win permission to build it on a 5,000-square-metre site on Wellington Street near the Supreme Court of Canada, which had been a site designated for a new federal court building.
“Our petition and our movement is focusing mostly on the processes ignored, in the hopes of having either the project dropped entirely or having it moved away from the Supreme Court where it’s supposed to remain impartial,” says Seibel.
In order to have a memorial in Ottawa on public ground proponents have to go through approval processes with the federal department of Public Works and the National Capital Commission. The charity did go through these processes but the memorial was initially approved for a location in the Garden of the Provinces, located a short distance to the southwest of Library and Archives of Canada at a less prominent site. But for reason that have never been made completely clear – and which critics have argued was the result of political interference – the NCC later gave a green light for the new, higher-profile location near the Supreme Court.
“None of the stakeholders were spoken with, Paul Dewar, MP for Ottawa Centre, Mayor Jim Watson, none of these people were consulted in terms of allowing this memorial to be placed outside of the Supreme Court,” says Seibel. “So the democratic processes were essentially not followed.”
The monument’s original cost was expected to be about $1.5 million and be raised entirely through private donations. But that figure is now closer to $5.5 million, of which $3 million is to be covered by the government.
“The fact that public land and public funds are being used, without the public being properly consulted,” says Seibel.
Watson, Dewar and Ottawa architect Barry Padolsky are among the high-profile figures who have voiced opposition to the location of the planned monument.
“We had a general idea, that there would be quite a few people who were not OK with the way this memorial was gone about,” says Seibel. “And before we started the campaign there had been a few bigger players, who had expressed their discontent.”
The federal department of Canadian Heritage, which has overall authority over the project, says it is not planning on changing the location for the memorial.
“The Memorial’s location, beside the Supreme Court of Canada, links very well to the theme of this Memorial.” Len Westerberg, spokesperson from Canadian Heritage. “Our government committed to honouring the victims of communism in our Speech from the Throne, and we look forward to fulfilling that commitment.”
The group is not sure whether the petition, arranged through the petition site change.org, and the groundswell of the public opinion finally could convince the government to change its mind.
“Right now we are just focussing on garnering more support for the petition,” says Seibel, who also has a plan if the petition doesn’t influence any immediate change. “Hopefully, we will be organizing some concrete demonstrations, just to show that this is our city, this is our country. We would like more accountability when these sorts of decisions are being made.”