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May 26, 2025 - Epoch Times
23:15
A Monument That Almost Wasn’t: The Story Behind Canada’s Anti-Communist Memorial | Ludwik Klimkowski
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This is a memorial to those who still struggle.
This is the memorial given to those who still want to escape.
This is the memorial to those who are still sitting in prison, whose organs are being harvested.
Recently, Canada unveiled its national memorial to the millions of victims of communism.
In this episode, we sit down with Ludwig Klimkowski, chair of the Memorial to Victims of Communism, Canada, a land of refuge.
We discuss the 17-year battle to realize this national monument and why it matters.
To have this common memory place in the heart of our nation is really, really nice.
The final elements on the wall of remembrance are still under development.
This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Jan Jekalek.
Ludwig Klimkowski, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.
Thank you, Jan.
Thank you.
and it's a great pleasure for me as well.
So the ideology of communism...
And there's plentiful immigrants in Canada and the United States from these countries where all this has happened.
But the memorials to the victims of this ideology are almost nowhere to be seen.
Why is that?
For a variety of reasons.
Number one, we need to acknowledge that communism has not ended.
Doing the evil deeds even today as we speak.
And unlike, for example, the case of Holocaust, which lasted only for a certain number of years and it was concluded victoriously, and you can come back to the places of crime and you can put up the monuments to commemorate and to say never again.
The story of communism is a bit more complicated.
It continues.
And clearly, in countries like North Korea, Vietnam, China, you wouldn't think that they will allow any of those monuments to exist.
And yet in North America, we are somehow adjusted to the new way of life.
Many immigrants, just like myself, It's almost like the greatest generation in America, the soldiers that came back after the Second World War.
You had such fantastic documentaries about it where they just didn't want to talk about what happened to them during the combat years.
I think we are dealing with the same dilemma both in the United States and in Canada.
We don't recognize the evils.
of communism unless they are being eloquently called out, just like President Ronald Reagan used to do.
I think that generation has passed too.
And we do also have rather unhealthy tendencies on concentrating on folk heroes and glorifying them without even knowing who they are.
The best example is the cult of Shehevara.
Would people know that he's a...
We don't.
And because we don't, it is a bit more challenging to put up the monuments and say, look at this, remember this.
And unlike the United States in Canada, our society...
There's no country like Canada anywhere on this planet where 25% of people who live in that country would escape communism to find the safety and refuge in the wonderful mosaic of countries like Canada and the United States.
So it's particularly poignant that here in Ottawa there is now, after a great many years, a memorial to the victims of communism, also known as tribute to liberty.
And I know because I've been following it very closely all these years, For full disclosure, a tiny donor to it.
And a good friend of it.
Yes, and a good friend of it, of course.
And at some points, we weren't even sure if it would happen.
And that itself is astonishing.
So tell me the story of this memorial, the saga.
Yes, it is quite unusual and unlikely for the memorial devoted to the memory of victims of communism to be built in Canada, of all the places.
So the idea began because we were in the lockstep, almost in the lockstep, with the wonderful, well-meaning memorial to the victims of Holocaust.
My personal hero, Saint Paul John II, basically suggested that the 20th century was the century of tears.
And they were the tears because of Holocaust and Communism.
Because Ottawa erected the memorial to the victims of Holocaust, it was just logical that we should have a balance, not that we would compete with each other, but the balance of memory given to so many refugees and so many immigrants that found refuge in Canada.
And John Paul, he always talked about not being afraid, you know, really putting up your own life and your own...
So the origins of this are quite long.
This is 2008.
So then the group of volunteers which established the tribute to liberty, both Koreans, Vietnamese, and Central and Eastern Europeans, we wanted to have this place of memory for all of us, one united place.
And obviously Ottawa, capital city of Canada, is famous for having national memorials.
The first number of years was quite challenging in terms of fundraising and really demonstrating that this particular project, which is funded in conjunction with the federal government, can actually stand on its own.
And in 2012, Divine Intervention tapped me on the shoulder.
And I showed up with perhaps a different set of skills, and this is where you and I, we began that journey together.
The idea was not to compete with Lady Liberty in Washington, D.C., but Jan, at least with this memorial, we've got something in Canada that is ten times bigger than an American thing.
And I think that was a funny thing, too, that the memorial devoted to the memory of victims of communism in Canada in Canada.
This is the biggest memorial, and it's designed in such a way that it's all-inclusive.
It gives every community, any community, a really distinctive chance to claim its own ownership on it.
You know, there were moments where there was questions if this would even go ahead at all.
Right?
To a certain extent.
Yeah.
Well, so why?
What happened?
Well, I mean, one may say quite honestly that the people in power in Canada, some of them, not all of them, were closely inclined to what we can say Marxist-Leninist ideology.
So for them, being in a position of power, they were not.
So initially, in 2015, the location was changed to perhaps make it a bit less visible, if you will.
Coincidences are wonderful.
It happens that this place where the memorial, the viewers will see, is placed today.
It's actually, in terms of viewership, much more accessible and much better.
The Confederation Boulevard runs through the heart of Ottawa, gives a quite unique exposure to components of light related to this memorial at night.
So even for the accidental witness of this memorial, today's location, in my mind, Well, why don't we, let's go out to the memorial and check it out.
Sure, absolutely.
Welcome to the heart of this nation.
You cannot be more central in Canada than this spot, because we are downtown.
Behind us you can see the buildings of the Parliament.
In front of us, there's a newly developed second downtown of Ottawa, if you will.
It's still in the planning process, but this will be a new home to our major hockey team, Ottawa Senators.
And there's a large development.
Recently crushed by the Maple Leafs.
Don't even go there.
And so, in terms of foot traffic, in terms of coincidental visitors, right?
It's perfectly placed because it invites you to come and check it out.
This is the Canadian equivalent of American Mall between the Congress of the United States and the Lincoln Memorial.
And typically you need a special permission to get anything built both in Washington and it is the same in Ottawa.
So to have this common memory place in the heart of our nation is really, really nice.
This is the Wall of Remembrance, and it's divided into two separate parts.
This is the front.
These two spots are reserved for official interpretation of what this memorial is all about.
That interpretation on this side will be in both official languages.
And that side is devoted to the largest, the most generous participants in this project.
So both organizations as well as individuals.
who made rather significant the donations both of time and money in the back you will see eventually the mosaic of names devoted to the the grass roots level that you know kind of uh...
yeah i think that i was a telekin from first year all the other that we go that the idea was to collect stores of a thousand one thousand just one thousand canadians and and and tell Why did they come and why their family escaped communism?
And I said, I'm the first one with my donation and my story.
I want to join 999 others to join me.
So this would be a thousand.
And a thousand is just a tiny, tiny percentage.
Over 100 million people that were killed by communism since the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
We clearly cannot put every name of every victim from around the globe.
So we came to the different communities and we said, listen, here is the idea.
Why don't you just tell us what your family story is all about?
We ended up with 600 distinctive names that we would know and recognize as those who were engaged in fighting against communism.
They were victims of communism.
But above all, Jan, this is really devoted to those who found home here.
What are these actual names going to look like here?
I'm trying to imagine.
So there'll be small plaques and as you can imagine, They're not placed alphabetically.
They are not placed by ethnicity or religion.
they represent the true Canadian mosaic.
So the idea is that at the end of the wall, there'll be a QR code which you can scan and you can type in on your phone the name of the individual that you'd like to explore and then, and then, I mean, this is so important.
This is so important to me.
Thank you for making this happen.
My pleasure.
So, why don't you kind of tell me a little bit about what all these things mean, all these tubes.
Those bronze rods, and obviously I'm speaking on behalf of the artist who won the competition, because he verbalized this.
In the best way, this represents the living calendar.
And the living calendar, the main theme of this is to come from the darkness of winter, the solstice of winter, which is here, 22nd of December, all the way to the sunny day like we're experiencing today.
And the analogy is that it's the vast darkness of oppression of communism Versus the light.
Light is life.
Life is in Canada because you're enjoying your prosperity, your freedom and democracy.
We're following the dates here.
Right.
And every single day of the year is at the plateau of this memorial.
Initially the idea was that every single rod that you see here, and there's about 4,000 of them, there'll be a small plug.
So for example, we move...
April the 30th for the Vietnamese community in Canada and globally is the day of the fall of Saigon where life of Vietnamese people has changed.
So the idea, Jan, is that every single community can come and commemorate the importance of their own individual dates.
The calendar is vast, right?
It's 365 days.
So you will see June 4th is a special date.
For the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing in China.
But it's also the day of freedom of the solidarity people because the June 4th of 1989 same day led to the new elections semi-democratic elections that arguably led to the fall of communism in Europe later in November of the same year so so clearly having this long calendar and and and the space to
That's pretty cool.
So you see, this is the one of the few hundred mementos that the people on the wall of remembrance have received.
And if you see the top piece here, it's taken from And every single piece is distinct.
It is different.
It has a different cut.
It's almost like being at the Berlin Wall in 1989 and chiseling your own piece and just keep it for the next generations to cherish.
So technically, your family, you, you possess a living piece from Ottawa, from this Canadian memorial for the victims of Canada.
Thank you.
Thank you for showing me this incredible monument.
Ludwig, we're going to take a quick break right now, and folks will be right back.
And we're back with Ludwig Klinkowski, Chair of the Memorial to Victims of Communism in Ottawa, Canada.
So something that I've been thinking about a lot lately is this idea of the distinction between collective rights and individual rights.
And what I mean here is, there's We have this idea in the U.S. and Canada that it's good and right to do things for the greater good.
This idea of the greater good in that sometimes the individual or some individuals get sacrificed for the benefit of the many, hence the distinction between collective and individual rights.
I've been an investment advisor for all of my professional life, almost 35 years.
And I am a lifelong student of a Scottish professor, Adam Smith.
And I'm of the school that the betterment of individual benefits the society, not the other way around.
If you take care of yourself and you do the things that are right and you...
then that will lead you to helping your neighbors, your immediate society in your town, in your city, and then that rises up to the nationhood.
There's something to be said about the idea that the individual well-being, the wellness, Why am I saying this?
Because obviously that is in complete contrast to the notion that there's an elite of people that know better and they will tell you what's good for the society and what's not.
And they will sacrifice you.
When the time for sacrifice is required, required by whom?
Who makes that decision?
Is it a grassroots decision or is it a top-down decision?
Well, typically it is a top-down decision.
The lockdowns during the COVID, that's the best example of the top-down direction and the decision.
And clearly it is based on the notion that we know nothing and we should listen to.
To some people that know better, to put the restriction and prohibition from you traveling to your own cottage by the lake where there's no one in the vicinity for a few miles at least, that's ridiculous.
So I'm of the school where there should be some kind of a fine balance between.
I think that's what life is always about.
But I am also very much, not only through economics, but in terms of your faith, the set of your values of the school, that it's the family unit that makes it happen.
The love between the father and the mother and the next generation of children, the set of rules and values that you give to the next generation will allow that generation to pass this along to the next generation.
And if you have a breakdown of that family unit because the communist regime or any elite based regime says we don't like this because we don't have enough control and for the betterment of the society we're going to divide that unit, I have a problem with that.
I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head.
Someone gets to choose.
someone there is deciding who is more valued and who is potentially expendable.
And so it's just a complete Understanding that distinction, I think, is, I suspect, is very important for us.
William Styron wrote a book called Selfie's Choice, and it was about the mother and a couple of her children, and she was to choose which of the two is to live and which one to die.
Is this the society that we want?
Is this the society that the Chinese government can impose on us and tell you which child of yours is to be sacrificed?
And I know I'm exaggerating this, but I'm doing this to make the point.
I think the beauty, the benefit of living in North America, both in the United States and in Canada, is that we can openly say no.
We don't agree to that.
Ludwig, this has been an amazing conversation.
And final thought as we finish up?
I don't know how this happened.
I find it a blessing.
But the Memorial to Victims of Communism in Ottawa exists.
And I would be sincerely grateful to all Canadian and American families, if you can find it in your heart, to travel to Ottawa at some point to visit that memorial and to just take this message and be our ambassadors.
Not only in North America, but also in the countries that your ancestors came from.
Spread the news.
Be grateful for what I'm grateful for, which is the ultimate exhibit of the freedom that I get to exercise.
As a chair of Tribute to Liberty, Memorial to Victims of Communism, Canada, Land of Refuge, that gives me immense pleasure in knowing that there are good people out there.
Who want this memorial to come alive?
Well, Ludwig Klimkowski, it's such a pleasure to have had you on.
Thank you.
Thank you all for joining Ludwig Klimkowski and me on this episode of American Thought Leaders.
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