OTTAWA CITIZEN, By Blair Crawford

An online petition protesting the location of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism has garnered nearly 1,000 signatures and continues to grow, says one of the University of Ottawa students behind it.

The Move the Memorial Petition and a Facebook page by the same name was started in February, says Kayla Carman, an anthropology student.

“We’re focusing on the location,” Carman said. “Anybody has the right to memorialize whatever they want, but you have to go through the same processes as everyone else. The location was not approved by the body that’s supposed to be in charge of that land.

“We see the location as something that should not be a source of division — not a source of controversy — and the controversy here is loud. Whatever goes in that spot should be for everyone.”

The memorial is backed by a charity, Tribute to Liberty, and is to be built on a 5,000-square-metre site on Wellington Street near the Supreme Court of Canada, a spot once designated for a new federal court building. The monument is expected to cost $5.5 million of which $3 million will be paid for by the government. Its original cost was listed at $1.5 million, to be raised entirely through private donations.

The petition is the latest voice in a growing chorus opposed to the memorial’s location, which includes Mayor Jim Watson, Ottawa architect Barry Padolsky, Shirley Greenberg, an architect who was on the jury that chose the winning design, and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

Click here to read Heritage Ottawa's position on the proposed Victims of Communism Memorial.