Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on the 74th anniversary of the liberation of the notorious Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. The allied soldiers who entered that terrible place documented unspeakable horrors, documentation that inspired citizens and governments around the world to confront hatred, to promote human dignity and to pledge, “never again”.
In recent years, we have seen an alarming resurgence of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, despite the creation of inspirational architectural tributes around the world, like Canada's National Holocaust Monument just down the street, which is why it is so important that we continue to work to ensure that this generation and all future generations address Holocaust remembrance as a moral duty to educate, to reject anti-Semitism and hate speech and hate crimes in all forms, and to re-energize the original powerful covenant “never again”.