Rendering of the planned Memorial to the Victims of Communism, which will no longer be going forward on the site adjacent the Supreme Court (Abstrakt Studio)
On Wednesday, the National Capital Commission (NCC) rescinded land use and decontamination approval for the National Memorial to the Victims of Communism. This formalizes the federal government’s decision to move the monument from its contentious site adjacent the Supreme Court in Ottawa.
Immediately following the decision, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) and fellow applicants today discontinued a court case against NCC challenging its decision to start excavating the site last summer for the memorial. Lawyers for the RAIC, Heritage Ottawa and architects Barry Padolsky, FRAIC, and Shirley Blumberg, FRAIC, filed a notice of discontinuance of the legal action to the Federal Court of Canada. ?The RAIC is delighted to be ending the legal proceedings, and look forward to a more appropriate commemoration being proposed,? said RAIC President Allan Teramura, FRAIC.
?We encourage the government to re-examine the governance of planning in the capital, so that the careful planning that has shaped Ottawa for the last 100 years will not be undermined by short-term thinking and political influence.?
Last June, the RAIC, Heritage Ottawa, Padolsky and Blumberg filed an application in the Federal Court. The application challenged the NCC?s decision to break ground for the memorial on a site in the judicial prec...