{"id":13043,"date":"2014-05-30T22:09:54","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T14:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=13043"},"modified":"2014-06-02T00:56:46","modified_gmt":"2014-06-01T16:56:46","slug":"harper-goes-on-full-scale-verbal-attack-against-evil-communism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/05\/30\/harper-goes-on-full-scale-verbal-attack-against-evil-communism\/","title":{"rendered":"Harper goes on full scale verbal attack against ‘evil’ communism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Facebook Page of PM Stephen Harper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO — Prime Minister Stephen Harper launched into a full-throated attack on the evils of communism at a fundraiser on Friday for a monument to its victims.<\/p>\n

In a lengthy key-note speech to the dinner, Harper took aim at Russian President Vladimir Putin and past adherents to communism.<\/p>\n

“During the 20th century, communism’s poisonous ideology and ruthless practices slowly bled into countries around the world, on almost every continent,” Harper said.<\/p>\n

“The result was catastrophic. More than 100 million souls were lost — an almost incomprehensible number.”<\/p>\n

The evening’s goal was to help raise money for Tribute to Liberty, which aims for a permanent memorial in Ottawa to communism’s “hundreds of millions” of victims.<\/p>\n

In 2010, the Conservative government said it would support the monument.<\/p>\n

Future generations of Canadians, Harper said, must be reminded that peace was earned through struggle and sacrifice.<\/p>\n

In language reminiscent of the height of the Cold War, Harper lambasted communism and oppressive or even murderous ideologies.<\/p>\n

“Evil comes in many forms and seems to reinvent itself time and again,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But whatever it calls itself — Nazism, Marxist-Leninism, today, terrorism — they all have one thing in common: the destruction, the end of human liberty.”<\/p>\n

Canadians, the prime minister said, are well aware of that destruction.<\/p>\n

“We feel this pain so acutely because nearly one quarter of all Canadians were either held captive by communism’s chains or are the sons and daughters of those who were.”<\/p>\n

He repeated his support for Ukraine, and lashed out again at Putin, saying the president has “grown more comfortable with confrontation” and Russia’s “expansionism and militarism” threatens global security.<\/p>\n

Canada, he said, has been a haven from those fleeing oppression.<\/p>\n

“Instead of communism’s grim determinism, they found Canadian opportunity.”<\/p>\n

Harper said Canada and the West played their pro-freedom role during the Cold War, and he singled out former prime minister Brian Mulroney along with ex-British PM Margaret Thatcher and former U.S. president Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n

The PM did express “immense regret” that Canada had not always lived up to its high aspirations.<\/p>\n

A jury will be selecting the winning monument design team within months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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