There is no shortage of excuses to talk about memorials in Canada these days. The Department of Canadian Heritage is managing three major projects, all slated to open by 2015.
The National Holocaust Monument, which received royal assent in March 2011, “will help ensure the memory of the Holocaust is never lost.” The Memorial to the Victims of Communism, spearheaded by the charity Tribute to Liberty, “will create awareness of the ‘crimes of communism’ and pay tribute to the more than 100 million people worldwide who perished or suffered under community tyranny.” And of course, the War of 1812 Monument, which will sit promptly on the lawn of Parliament Hill, will “recognize the courage and bravery of those who served during the War of 1812 and successfully defended their land in the fight for Canada.”
Also belonging to the current Canadian Heritage Portfolio, is the new and controversial Canadian Museum of Human Rights, which aims to build “a new era of global human rights leaders.”
In this context, the recent news about the Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV III) Monument project, which was launched at the Canadian War Museum on Wednesday, didn’t seem too out of place.
The pro-Canadian military charity, Canada Company, announced this week that up to 250 LAV III replicas will be produced and placed next to cenotaphs, military bases, public parks across the country, paying tribute to Canadian Forces which served in Afghanistan. Canada Company is footing the bill, yet the project has received public support and encouragement from the Conservative Party.
The LAV III is a light armored vehicle procured and employed by Canadian Forces throughout their mission. Afghanistan veteran, Jody Mitic, valorizes the machine, stating that the sound of the vehicle’s 25 mm cannon “is like hearing angles sing.”
But this project was built by a charity, so it has nothing to do the government’s political agenda, right? Well, not quite. This position overlooks the politics behind these ostensibly benevolent government gestures of approval and active support.
I am steadfast in my support of memorials established by members of our political community, especially those which are counterweights to narratives championed by our government whose memorials are self serving. However, the Conservative party is eager to provide land, donate money, have caucus members attend charity fundraising events and publicly promote the assumed virtues of selected public-led memorial projects which line up nicely with their obvious memorial agenda.
There is a clear storyline in the above mentioned efforts: the only heroes in Canada are its soldiers, Canada is a leader in human rights, and particular victims of particular atrocities committed overseas are the ones we must pay tribute to.
Government-led or otherwise, memorials which fall in line with these messages will receive the support they need to reach a national profile, crowding out alternative narratives and memorial projects, such as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights Violations.
Pitching a memorial project, which entails hundreds of LAV III replicas, after a renewed focus on the National War Memorial, and on the heels of Canada’s dropping of 500 pound laser-guided bombs by two CF-18 fighter jets in northern Iraq, is unabashed in telling us that the Canadian Military will be valorized, and that service members are our country’s most important icons.
Through the presumed innocents of altruism, charities which hold true the values of this government are being championed as leaders in Canada’s memorial culture. The memorialization of the mission in Afghanistan by way of large and aggressive military equipment, is profoundly insensitive to the civilians that vehicle indiscriminately killed when its cannon was launched. I doubt the noise sounded like angles singing to those on the outside of the LAV III.
Where is the memorial to the victims of these missions?
Tiffany MacLellan is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University. Her research focuses on museum exhibitions about war crime trials.
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