Urging Canada's HOC to stamp out antisemitism

In a parliamentary meeting this week preparing for the annual Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) observance, York Centre Conservative MP Mark Adler and Mount Royal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler both rose in the House of Commons to spur their fellow parliamentarians into taking action against all forms of antisemitism.

Irwin Cotler

Mark Adler

Below is a transcripts of their remarks in the Commons.


Adler: "Mr. Speaker, on the evening of April 18th, Jewish communities around the world will come together and mark Yom Hashoa, a special day of remembrance for the suffering and murder of millions of innocent men, women and children during The Holocaust. Mr. Speaker, as Parliamentarians it is our duty to ensure that “never again” is about more than just words, it is about action.

While there are numerous examples of our governments work in the fight against anti-Semitism, I am most proud that in the 2010 speech from the Throne, our Government committed to supporting the National Holocaust Memorial, which will be located in the National Capital Region.

On April 19th, this Yom HaShoah, I ask you to join me in rejecting anti-Semitism in all its virulent forms and in remembering the victims of the Holocaust."


Cotler: “Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate National Holocaust Remembrance Day, a remembrance of horrors too terrible to be believed but not too terrible to have happened, of the Holocaust as a war against the Jews in which not all victims were Jews but all Jews were targeted victims - defamed, demonized and dehumanized - as prologue and justification for their destruction.

“As a reminder of the dangers of state-sanctioned incitement to hatred and genocide; of the dangers of the oldest and most enduring of hatreds, antisemitism; of indifference and inaction in the face of incitement and mass atrocity; of the targeting of the vulnerable, whom the Nazis spoke of as having ‘lives not worth living’; of the culture of impunity; of the dangers of forgetting, ignoring, trivializing or denying the Holocaust; and, remembering also, on this centenary of Raoul Wallenberg, this hero of the Holocaust who demonstrated that one person can resist, that one person can confront evil, that one person can prevail, that one person can transform history.

“Let us pledge never again to be silent or indifferent in the face of evil. Plus jamais!”