The Memorial to the Victims of Communism – Canada, a Land of Refuge is a controversial monument that as of July 2021 is currently under construction in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It 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 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 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 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, the darkest day of the year, inviting visitors to step through in a metaphorical journey from darkness and oppression to lightness and liberty.