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39-479: KPK may refer to: Canadian Polish Congress , Kongres Polonii Kanadyjskiej (KPK) Keon Park railway station , Melbourne Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , a province of Pakistan Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (Corruption Eradication Commission), Indonesia Komisija za preprečevanje korupcije (Commission for the Prevention of Corruption), Slovenia Topics referred to by

78-582: A Memorial to the Victims of Communism – Canada, a Land of Refuge in Ottawa. In 2021, the youngest President of KPK history was elected into the KPK BC branch at the age of 29, Michael Dembek . On October 5th, 2024 a new board was voted in. President Dominic Roszak, Vice President Iwona Malinowska, second Vice President Michael Dembek. The KPK's ideology is conservative, anti-communist, and supportive of

117-625: A Land of Refuge is a monument that is currently under development in Ottawa , Ontario , Canada. Its official unveiling was to have occurred on November 2, 2023 but was delayed as a result of the Yaroslav Hunka scandal and concerns that the names of Waffen SS members and other Nazi collaborators have been submitted for recognition, as well as other concerns. A 2023 report for the Department of Canadian Heritage recommended that 330 of

156-583: A kilometre to the west, in the Garden of the Provinces and Territories . Under the revised timeline, a national competition was held in 2016 and 2017 to select a new design for the monument. The site was dedicated in a ceremony held on November 2, 2017. Construction began in early November 2019, and was expected to be completed by the summer of 2020, but by the end of 2022 was still not finished, with no construction progress made in 2022. Joly complained that

195-541: A new design be chosen for the monument with the general public being involved "from the outset of the design process through to final selection." On December 17, 2015, the government requested that the site of the monument be moved to the Garden of the Provinces and Territories and that a new design be chosen. On January 20, 2016, the National Capital Commission rescinded its previous approval for

234-425: A sense of bleakness and brutalism that is inconsistent with a space dedicated to the administration of justice." A design was selected later in 2014 consisting of a series of folded concrete rows with 100 million "memory squares" to commemorate victims. A member of the design selection jury, architect Shirley Blumberg, complained that the pool of proposals the jury had to select from was "poor" and that "the one that

273-424: A statue of a tortured man crucified on a hammer and sickle , commemorating victims of Soviet oppression. Kenney commented to the ambassador that the public should be able to see such a monument and they discussed the idea of creating a memorial in Ottawa , Ontario. Tribute to Liberty was founded the next year as a charity with the mission of building a monument to the victims of Communism . Its 9-member board

312-500: A theatre play whose historical accuracy has been questioned by others. The following foundations are associated with the Canadian Polish Congress: There is a Canadian Polish Congress fonds at Library and Archives Canada . The archival reference number is R12243. Memorial to the Victims of Communism %E2%80%93 Canada, a Land of Refuge The Memorial to the Victims of Communism – Canada,

351-521: A war hero, and given a standing ovation only to have his wartime participation in the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) come to light the next day. Consequently, the planned November 2023 unveiling has been delayed with a statement posted on a government website explaining that “although the Memorial to the Victims of Communism — Canada, a Land of Refuge was scheduled to be inaugurated by

390-516: Is composed of members of ethnocultural communities and whose families originate from various former or still Communist states . The founding chair of the group was Philip Leong who had run as a candidate for the conservative Canadian Alliance in the 2000 federal election and is described by the National Post as a friend of Kenney's and an admirer of Stephen Harper. Alide Forstmanis, the group's treasurer who has also served as chair, ran for

429-568: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Canadian Polish Congress The organization was federally integrated on 7 February 1933 in Winnipeg , Manitoba , and was initially known as the Federation of Polish Societies in Canada. The KPK was founded in 1944 or 1948 as an umbrella association of 115 different organizations. From

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468-638: The Catholic Church . While Poland was under communist rule, the KPK distinguished between the government and the people of Poland. Member organizations were forbidden to have contact with the Polish government, and communists or those sympathetic to communists were barred from positions in KPK member organizations. The KPK supports the Catholic Church, and statements or resolutions in support of

507-603: The Conservative Party of Canada nomination in Kitchener—Waterloo in 2007 while another former director, Wladyslaw Lizon was later elected a Conservative Member of Parliament. The National Capital Commission , in 2009, approved the proposal to build the monument in the National Capital Region with a specific site to be determined later. It suggested modifying the memorial's name, which

546-690: The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its military, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army ….and to a lesser extent with Baltic nationalist groups (i.e. members of the Latvian SS ).” The Department determined that 50 to 60 of the names to have been listed on the monuments Wall of Remembrance were directly linked to Nazis. A 2023 department report recommended that more than 330 of the wall's 553 names be removed due to potential links to Nazis or fascist groups. The formal unveiling of

585-547: The Wawel Castle treasures and a number of Chopin manuscripts, under its safekeeping since World War II, to Poland. In 1973, the left of centre Polish Alliance of Canada (PAC, founded in 1907) left the KPK in disagreement over the proponents of total independence of Poland that controlled the KPK, the close ties between the KPK and the government in exile, and accusations that the PAC was pro-communist. The disagreement between

624-647: The foreign affairs department warned the department of Canadian Heritage in 2021 that "It is important to note that many anti-communist and anti-Soviet advocates and fighters were also active Nazi collaborators, who committed documented massacres.” Concerns about inadvertently honouring Nazi collaborators came to the fore with the Yaroslav Hunka scandal in September 2023 when failure to properly vet Hunka prior to his being invited to attend parliament to hear an address by Ukrainian prime minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy resulted in his being invited, introduced to parliament as

663-672: The 553 names listed on the monuments Wall of Remembrance be removed due to potential links to Nazis or fascist groups. The monument was originally to be erected on a site between the Supreme Court of Canada and the National Library of Canada but in December 2015, Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly suggested that the National Capital Commission instead approve a 500 square metre site half

702-622: The Canadian government to take action against the Polish authorities and to accept Polish political refugees. KPK's demands were largely rejected by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau , though they did succeed in getting Trudeau to address Parliament in January 1982 in support of loosening the martial law restrictions in Poland. The KPK spearheaded the founding of the Chair of Polish History at

741-802: The Church have been made at nearly every KPK convention. The KPK is engaged in information-providing and anti-defamation activities, and was instrumental in securing two rulings by the Ontario Press Council regarding the misuse of “Polish concentration camps.” The KPK has advocated that a central focus of the "mass atrocities section" in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights should be on "the injury caused to Poles and other Eastern Europeans by Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia". The KPK protested against "rewriting history" in Our Class ,

780-568: The Department of Canadian Heritage are still reviewing the final list of names which will be included on the memorial. He did not confirm that the money to commemorate Nazi collaborators was refused and returned, saying it would be "premature to comment". The Canadian government identified the names of several individuals who served with the Waffen SS among those submitted for the memorial as well as other Nazi collaborators . Officials with

819-527: The PAC and KPK started to surface in the late 1960s, with the PAC advocating that the main focus of Polish-Canadian organizations should be assimilation and integration in Canada while promoting Polish culture, and opposing a non-Canadian political focus. In 1982, following the emergence of Solidarity , the PAC rejoined the KPK. The KPK spearheaded the construction of the Katyn monument in Toronto in 1980, being

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858-625: The Supreme Court of Canada site. As well, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) announced that it had discontinued its court case against the NCC which would have challenged its approval of the Supreme Court of Canada site stating: "The RAIC is delighted to be ending the legal proceedings and look forward to a more appropriate commemoration being proposed." An online survey asking Canadians their opinions on

897-585: The University of Toronto and established the Council for the Support of Polish Studies at the University of Toronto to sustain Polish language and literature studies. In 2014 the KPK was said to represent about 150 Polish-Canadian organizations. That year also saw an academic conference in Poland dedicated to the history and activities of the KPK. As of mid-2010s, the KPK is involved in the construction of

936-541: The beginning, prior to the arrival of exiled Polish combatants in 1946, the KPK was political, excluding communists from the organization and supporting the Polish government-in-exile . In the post-war period, the KPK was dominated by WWII veterans associated with the Polish Combatants Association. In the 1950s, under the presidency of Tadeusz Brzeziński , the KPK was involved in the transfer of

975-608: The darkest day of the year, inviting visitors to step through in a metaphorical journey from darkness and oppression to lightness and liberty. As of June 2023, construction of the monument is still underway. The public costs for the monument are reportedly $ 7.5 million. In 2007, Minister of Multiculturalism and Citizenship Jason Kenney toured Masaryktown, a private park owned by the Czech and Slovak community in Toronto , with Czech ambassador Pavel Vosalik and saw Crucified Again ,

1014-610: The end of 2023, the Government of Canada is doing its due diligence to ensure all aspects of the memorial remain compatible with Canadian values on democracy and human rights.” Department of Canadian Heritage officials have voiced concerns about the monument. In one memo, deputy director Tristan-E. Landry wrote: “It has come to our attention that a number of entries that have been put forward for recognition may have been affiliated in some capacity to fascist and Nazi organizations... For example, some of proposed individuals were linked to

1053-537: The first such monument in the world erected in a public place. The KPK was a vocal supporter of Poland’s Solidarity movement. In 1981 and 1982, the KPK staged widespread protests in Canadian cities in support of Solidarity and in opposition to the Soviet Union and the imposition of martial law in Poland. The KPK, in what Clements describes as "the most contentious tone the CPC [KPK] had recorded in its history", urged

1092-471: The memorial would be built instead on a more prominent parcel of land between the Supreme Court of Canada and the National Library of Canada that had been designated for over a century as the future location of a new federal court. In 2014, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin expressed her concern that the memorial "could send the wrong message within the judicial precinct, unintentionally conveying

1131-479: The millions oppressed by communist regimes." The monument was expected to be completed by late 2018 or early 2019, but work finally commenced in November 2019. The monument is to include a Wall of Remembrance honoring 600 individuals and groups, however, concerns have been raised that the names of Nazi collaborators , including individuals who participated in atrocities, have been included. In July 2021, while

1170-454: The monument has also been delayed by diplomatic concerns that it may have an undue focus on Vietnam which may strain relations with a fast-growing economy that is Canada's largest trading partner in the ASEAN . According to internal discussions at Global Affairs Canada "“Highlighting events and names from countries where there were an important number of victims of communism will likely attract

1209-643: The monument was still under construction, CBC News reported that Tribute to Liberty received some donations honouring fascists and Nazi collaborators, as evidenced out by the project's on-line list. The donations seem intended to sanitize or commemorate eastern European Nazi collaborators who were involved in the deportation and murder of Jews and other groups under Hitler's Final Solution , like Ustaša leader Ante Pavelić and Ukrainian Insurgent Army leader Roman Shukhevych . Ludwik Klimkowski, chair of Tribute to Liberty stated that questions about who will be commemorated "are premature" since both Tribute to Liberty and

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1248-645: The previous Harper government had made the project too controversial. The new Liberal government has moved the site and cut its budget. She stated: Commemorative monuments play a key role in reflecting the character, identity, history and values of Canadians. They should be places of reflection, inspiration and learning, not shrouded in controversy." The winning design was announced in May 2017 as Arc of Memory designed by Toronto architect Paul Raff in partnership with designer and arborist Michael A. Ormston-Holloway, and landscape architects Brett Hoornaert and Luke Kairys, and

1287-432: The project. Subsequently, however, it was announced that construction of the project had been capped at a total cost of $ 3 million, reduced from $ 5.5 million, with the Department of Canadian Heritage's contribution to be capped at $ 1.5 million and the rest to be provided by Tribute to Liberty, thus reducing the government's financial commitment to half its previous pledge. In addition, Heritage Minister Joly has asked that

1326-460: The proposed monument was opened by the federal government in February 2016; the results were passed on to the design teams. The designs of the five finalists for the monument, renamed Canada: A Place of Refuge , were unveiled on March 2, 2017, with the winner was announced in May. The memorial will recognize Canada's "role as a place of refuge for people fleeing injustice and persecution, and honour

1365-403: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title KPK . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=KPK&oldid=1234690775 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

1404-473: The story of refugees from Communist states . The Conservative government of Stephen Harper had pledged $ 3 million for the construction of the project, with the remaining amount to be raised by Tribute to Liberty. However, following the 2015 federal election , which resulted in a new Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau taking office, it was reported that no government money would be going towards

1443-428: Was described by the selection committee as follows: The Arc of Memory features two gently curving wall-like metal frames totalling 21 metres in length and almost 4 metres in height. The walls support more than 4000 short bronze rods densely arranged along 365 steel fins, each one pointing at a unique angle of the sun, for every hour of every day, across a year. The memorial would be split in the middle at winter solstice,

1482-439: Was originally "A Monument to Victims of Totalitarian Communism: Canada, A Land of Refuge", so that it would commemorate victims of oppressive regimes generally but Tribute to Liberty refused, however the term "totalitarian" was dropped. In 2011, the National Capital Commission approved a site for the monument at the Garden of the Provinces and Territories however, in 2012, the then- Conservative federal government announced that

1521-419: Was selected by the jury was, I think, particularly brutalist and visceral." In June 2015, the National Capital Commission revised the design, reducing its size so that it would cover 37% of the site rather than 60%, reducing the number of folded concrete rows to five from seven, reducing its height from 14 metres to 8 metres, and moving it further back from Wellington Street and changing its focus to telling

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