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ubmission by Team Mills, a seven-member team of artists, landscape architects and public art consultants led by Karen and Ben Mills of Hamilton. -

The Department of Canadian Heritage has revealed five competing designs for a relocated and drastically downsized Memorial to the Victims of Communism at the Garden of the Provinces and Territories on Wellington Street.

Only one of the five designs is literally representational depicting a toppling sculpture of Communist icon Vladimir Lenin. Three others feature collections of artfully arranged rods, while one relies on a veil, reminiscent of the wooden veil at Lansdownes Parks TD Place, to convey its meaning.

Five teams of artists, architects, landscape architects and other design professionals were short-listed last November and given until Thursdayto submit their proposals.

Heres a summary of the teams and their creations:

Team space2place. -

Team space2place, made up of Vancouver landscape architect Jeff Cutler and Philadelphia artist Ken Lum.

Its entry shows a sculpture of Lenin in the throes of being toppled, recreating in permanent form the befalling of Communist statuary at the zenith of decisive political and social change.

Lenin was chosen, the team says, because he is the foundational figure of the worlds first Communist state.

Team Mills. -

Team Mills, a seven-member team of artists, landscape architects and public art consultants led by Karen and Ben Mills of Hamilton.

Its proposed work is an array of bronze stellae in the form of a gently undulating, permeable curtain.

From a distance, the slender triangulated monoliths form a collective identity, the teams literature says.

However, up close, they reveal individually finished surfaces or skins, echoing the distinct stories and experiences of different groups of refugees.

As the sun sets, the work will be bathed in a soft light projected from a central plinth, gradually taking on a warm, iridescent glow until it becomes an immense floating field of light.

Team Moskaliuk. -

Team Moskaliuk, led by Markham, Ont. architect Wiktor Moskaliuk, with landscape architect Claire Bedat and artist Larysa Kurylas, both of Washington.

Radiating from the memorials core, 200 bronze blades remind visitors of the triumph of the human spirit over the dehumanizing and oppressive nature of communist regimes, the team says. Each blade is etched with the surnames of five victims honoured by Canadian families and represent 500,000 victims, giving form to the estimated 100 million deaths attributed to communism worldwide.

An oval in the central plinth, shaped like a shield, symbolizes Canadas protection of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

Team Raff. -

Team Raff, headed by Toronto artist and architect Paul Raff, along with landscape architects Brett Hoornaert and Luke Kairys and designer and arborist Michael Ormston-Holloway.

The focus is on a sweeping sculptural array, 21 metres long and nearly four metres high, divided into two sections. Along its length, a fine vertical veil of 365 stainless steel fins supports 4,412 bronze rods. Each rod describes a unique angle of the sun one for each hour of every day in a year.

The memorials powerful form, the teams literature says, reflects the horrific magnitude of wrongdoing while also invoking gratitude and optimism for the present.

Team Reich+Petch Architects -

Team Reich+Petch Architects, which includes Toronto architect Tony Reich, artist Catherine Widgery from Cambridge, Mass., and Matthew Sweig, a Toronto landscape architect.

The team says its design presents two realms: the darker communist realm on the lower level, and the lighter realm of safe haven that is Canada in a shimmering metal cube on the upper level.

The lower level of the cube is a Room of Remembrance, with walls perforated with quotes that speak of communisms oppression and Canadas open spirit. A freedom bell rings out every 15 minutes, triggering a cloud of voices, relating personal experiences with communism in many languages.

This is the second design competition for the $3-million memorial, made necessary after the incoming Liberal government scrapped the former Conservative governments controversial plan to erect a massive memorial on a 5,000-square-metre site on Wellington Street near the Supreme Court of Canada.

Instead, it will be built on a 500-square-metre site at the Garden of the Provinces and Territories, just east of LeBreton Flats.

The designs will be evaluated by a five-member jury that includes Ludwik Klimkowski, chair of the memorials sponsoring group, Tribute to Liberty. Before reaching its decision, the jury will consider feedback from the public from a survey launched Thursday on Canadian Heritages website.

Klimkowski told the Citizen the jury expects to reconvene on March 24 to review the public input and will recommend one of the designs to Heritage Minister Mlanie Joly by the end of this month.

Tribute of Liberty is expected to contribute $1.5 million half the cost of the memorial to the project.

Though it has struggled in the past to raise funds, Klimkowski said the non-profit group should have the money with something to spare.

A number of pledges were contingent on actual construction commencement, he said. If you take those into consideration, I think we have exceeded our goal.

Canadian Heritage said the winning design will be announced this summer, with major monument elements unveiled in December 2018 and completion of site work and landscaping by March 2019.

More than eight million Canadians can trace their origins to countries that have suffered under totalitarian communist regimes, the department says.

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Five competing designs revealed for Victims of Communism memorial - Ottawa Citizen

From tall bronze columns, granite pillars, bronze rods pointing to the sun, to a freedom bell and a toppling statue of Vladimir Lenin, its all part of five designs for a scaled-down memorial to the victims of communism have been unveiled by the Canadian Heritage.

The design competition was launched last fall with teams invited to provide their credentials and examples of past work, according to Canadian Heritages website.

Then in November, five teams were shortlisted.

Videos and photos of each design are available online. The public can also weigh in on the different designs by taking a survey, available at pch.sondages-surveys.ca/s/63447834/?l=en.

Ludwik Klimkowski, who sits on the design jury and is chair of Tribute to Liberty, the group formed in 2008 to establish the memorial, said in a statement, Over 8 million Canadians trace their roots to countries that suffered under communism. We are confident that the design selected for the memorial will recognize the role that Canada has played in offering refuge to those who left behind suffering and repressions to live in a free and democratic country. We hope that this next step helps to energize our supporters to participate and vote online.

The memorials location was moved to west of the terraces of the Garden of the Provinces and Territories, after the National Capital Commission voted last April to relocate the project to the south side of Wellington Street near Bay Street. The move came after the NCC was asked in 2013 to authorize a site southwest of the Supreme Court by what was then called Public Works and Government Services Canada that was very controversial in the city. But with the change in federal government, Canadian Heritage scrapped that site.

The memorial is scheduled for completion in 2018.

Melissa Murray is a reporter with the Ottawa West News. She can be reached at mmurray@metroland.com .

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Public encouraged to weigh in on victims of communism memorial ... - http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/

Ottawa could be home to the leaning tower of Vladimir Lenin.

The falling figure of the Russian communist revolutionary is the central feature of one of five finalists to become themonument to the victims of communism, whose site was moved in 2015 from land near the Supreme Court to the Garden of the Provinces and Territoriesa, on Wellington near Bay Street.

Jeff Cutler, with the team Space2Place, which is proposing the Lenin-centric design, said having the statue's toppling effect ties into history.

Supplied

The Team Raff proposal would have more than 4,000 brass pipes protruding from two sculptured walls. Each pipe would denote a important moment in the history of Communism.

What it really represents is that moment of transition from the fall of a communist regime into something new, he said.

He said his group chose Lenin because of his central role in the movement.

All of the modern-day communism can really trace their roots back to him."

Supplied

The Team Moskaliuk proposal would incorporate 200 bronze blades with the names of Victims of Communism etched on them.

Four other designs are also competing to be selected for the project, including an elevated platform, a grouping of triangular monoliths and a design with 200 bronze blades.

Paul Raffs design features more than 4,000 bronze pipes attached to a large sculpture that would mark moments in the history of Communism.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union can be marked on a day of the calendar, so it is memorialized forever," he said.

Raff said part of the challenge of this project is that it has to encompass so many parts of history.

Supplied

The Team Mills proposal

When you have 4,000 unique moments you are also trying to express the vastness of this tremendously unfortunate reality of human history. The government has put all of the proposed designs online for people to view. Online votes will be provided to a design jury, which includes representatives from Tribute to Liberty a private group sponsoring the project.

Natalie Huneault, a spokesperson for the Heritage Department, said Minister Mlanie Joly will make the final call this summer. Construction starts next year.

She is going to make the final selection, which will be announced in the summer of 2017.

Supplied

The Team Reich Petch Architects proposal envisions two levels with an area of darkness and light.

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Five finalists revealed for victims of communism monument - MetroNews Canada

Disgruntled customers, empty store shelves, long supermarket lines. These are the images that mainstream U.S. media typically feature in their coverage of Venezuelas ongoing food crisis.

U.S. media outlets publish stories blaming Venezuelas food crisis on the socialist government almost daily. Today isnt any different.These images are usually accompanied by sarcastic headlines like Forbes Venezuela Discovers the Perfect Weight Loss Diet and the Cato Institutes Hunger Is in Retreat, But Not in Socialist Venezuela.

A new study released by researchers from three Venezuelan universities reported that nearly 75 percent of the population lost an average of 19 pounds in 2016 for lack of food. The report, titled, 2016 Living Conditions Survey, added that about 32.5 percent of Venezuelans eat only once or twice a day, compared to 11.3 percent last year.

Moreover, 93.3 percent told the researchers that their income was not enough to cover their food needs.

The facts are clear Venezuela does have a food crisis. Mainstream U.S. media, however, blames the socialist government that has radically improved the countrys standard of living instead of right-wing U.S.-backed opposition forces intentionally sabotaging the economy.

Since the early 2000s, supermarket owners affiliated with Venezuelas opposition have been purposefully hoarding food products so they can resell them at higher prices and make large profits. Food importing companies owned by the countrys wealthy right-wing elite are also manipulating import figures to raise prices.

In 2013, former Venezuelan Central Bank chief Edmee Betancourt reported that the country lost between US$15 and $20 billion dollars the previous year through such fraudulent import deals.

It doesnt stop there.

Last year, over 750 opposition-controlled offshore companies linked to the Panama Papers scandal were accused of purposely redirecting Venezuelan imports of raw food materials from the government to the private sector. Many of these companies sell their products to private companies in Colombia, which resell them to Venezuelans living close to Colombia.

Reuters admitted in 2014 that Venezuelan opposition members living in border states are shipping low-cost foodstuffs provided by the Venezuelan government into Colombia for profit.Selling contraband is a serious problem. People here are taking large quantities of products meant for Venezuelans and selling them in Colombia, Valencia resident Francisco Luzon told Al Jazeera in a 2014 interview.

Overall, Venezuelas millionaire opposition are profiting handsomely from the countrys food crisis while blaming it on the socialist government thats trying to eliminate it.

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Blaming Socialism, US Media Distorts Venezuela's Food Crisis - Venezuelanalysis.com

The Robot Tax Is Just Capitalism Vs Socialism All Over Again - The Cure Is The Same Too, Competition Forbes We have a piece in The Guardian telling us all about the economics of the robot tax--it's about economics in The Guardian so of course it is actually wrong but our task is to work out why it is wrong. The problem here is that the writer doesn't ...

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The Robot Tax Is Just Capitalism Vs Socialism All Over Again - The Cure Is The Same Too, Competition - Forbes