TORONTO, Sept. 22 /CNW/ – The National Capital Commission (NCC) approved the title "A Memorial to Victims of Totalitarian Communism – Canada, a Land of Refuge" for the monument to be built on national capital region land to the more than 100 million victims of totalitarian communism.
Tribute to Liberty, the group behind the memorial, has already added "totalitarian" to the intended wording to appease federal naysayers, but is now facing further difficulties over what NCC members allege is a "provocative" reference to communism. The NCC wants to excise any reference to a specific ideology from the memorial and dedicate it to the victims of totalitarianism in general, watering the project down into bland nothingness.
…
Possibly the worst communist criminal of them all, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, left a butcher’s bill that runs into the tens of millions. His relentless paranoia fuelled repeat purges, mass starvation, ferocious internal security and gulags, which destroyed generations and fed off the minds and bodies even of those tasked with keeping the slaughterhouse running. But, today, the 20th century’s most ruthless criminal is lionized in Russia as a man who got things done, while his chief henchmen are commemorated on stamps and statues. There is even a brand of Russian cigarettes, Belomorkanal, named after a prison camp where 100,000 died.
Ottawa – Members of Parliament were aghast to learn that Canadian taxpayers are funding Russian Red Army veterans’ pensions. Legislation introduced by the Harper Conservatives on June 1, 2009 — ostensibly to provide benefits for Canadian-Polish war veterans who fought so valiantly with the Allies during World War II — will also provide payments to one of the most hated and notorious armies in history.
…
By the time “Uncle Joe†was done, the instruments of his oppression, the Red Army and the NKVD, had the blood of 45 million innocents on their hands. Today, Canadian veterans of the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) who fought both Nazi and Soviet evil in Europe’s bloodiest battles do not receive veterans’ benefits, yet this legislation introduced by the misguided Harper Conservatives is providing veterans’ pay to Red Army veterans — the very people they fought against.
Another year has come and gone, and the Toronto Ukrainian Festival has successfully completed it’s 13th event. Here’s a quick run-down of some things that we’ve noticed – some positive and some negative:
What I liked
The dancing
Many different Ukrainian dancing groups came from far and wide to showcase their talents. These are the Barvinok dancers doing the traditional Hopak:
The food (and drinks)
What’s a Ukie fest without some great food? Varenyky, Borscht, Holubtsi, etc. along with import alcohol like Slava, Slavutich and Lvivski. Perogies became a rare commodity by Sunday.
"It’s the victims of communism that the memorial commemorates," she says. "Without the word ‘communism,’ the memorial will cease to have its intended meaning." Similar monuments, in Europe and in Washington, D.C., explicitly identify communism as the culprit in the millions of deaths they memorialize. She says her group is unclear on whether the monument can proceed, in light of the NCC’s concerns, but remains adamant that "the word ‘communism’ has to be in the name."
From 
