Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on Dec. 6th, 2012

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Do I have time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

You actually have a minute.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Combatting racism and anti-Semitism is very important to ensuring that all people are able to freely exercise their human rights.

Could you please elaborate on how the activities of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research contribute to the promotion of human rights in Canada and around the world?

[Mario Silva]

Very briefly, there is a working definition as well which the organization has on Holocaust denial. Holocaust denial is a form of anti-Semitism and attempts to deny the genocide of the Jewish people, or attempts to blame the Jews for causing their own genocide. It goes on to deal with issues of Holocaust denial, and they include, public denial, or putting in doubt the use of principal mechanisms, justification or trivialization of the Holocaust, and diminishing the Holocaust, Hashoah, including minimizing the scope of the Holocaust. That's one document that is out there.

There is the grants program as well that works with the NGO communities and with partners across different countries, and especially member countries.

There is the importance for commemoration on Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27. This is now done internationally.

There's been other initiatives that the ITF has also undertaken to advance at the international level. In terms of trying to advance the cause of access to archives and to demonstrate countries' commitment, when countries join they have to show a certain commitment to our principal document, which is the Stockholm Declaration, but also to a series of initiatives on education, remembrance, and research.

Finally, one of the great things this committee could also do is to be part of the handover on March 5. I would encourage you, Mr. Chair, to see if you could get the approval of all members of the committee to be there in Berlin on March 5. I think it would be important for this committee, which is so important on the international issue of human rights, to be present.

At the same time, as you are probably aware, Mr. Chair, the Human Rights Council will be meeting in Geneva, which is right next door. It would be a great opportunity for you and the members of your committee to participate and to do other business if they wish to. I think it is a very important, worthwhile event and a milestone in Canadian history. It's the first time that Canada will take over the chairmanship of this international organization that is doing incredible work on Holocaust education, research, and remembrance.

I would take this opportunity once again to ask you, Mr. Chair, to get the support of your members to attend. It would not be the same without having all of you there.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

That is duly noted. I imagine that will be something the committee will discuss at a future time. There's a couple of hurdles we would have to cross.

We are right at the end of our available time, but seeing that it is not quite two o'clock, I am going to allow Mr. Sweet to raise one last matter.

Mr. Sweet.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We had a very successful program through the Dominion Institute, which the government funded, to videotape Second World War veterans to make sure we kept their stories alive.

Something similar to that was alluded to in Mr. Silva's testimony regarding the videotaping of Holocaust survivors.

It's not clear, and we didn't have an opportunity to get specific, but is that program actually going on? Is it funded? Are there NGOs that are accepting charitable donations so that can continue?

[Mario Silva]

Yes, we are going to be working with the three Holocaust centres to preserve those testimonies, probably making them accessible in digital form. These are things we are working on at the moment with the three centres. It certainly would be a major undertaking during our chairmanship year.

I thank you very much for mentioning the veterans, because they were the great liberators of many camps, one of Canada's roles as well. We hope during our chairmanship year to honour our veterans because they certainly were wonderful in terms of the work they did to liberate Europe from Nazism and the terrible hatred.

I don't know if there is anything Colin would like to add.

[Colin Boyd]

I think certainly in terms of Holocaust testimony we know that roughly 2,000 testimonies currently exist, but they are in various formats. Sometimes it's VHS. Some of it's deteriorating, so it's a matter of taking what currently exists and bringing it up to the latest technological standards and preserving, indexing, documenting it in a way that would facilitate access by the public.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Thank you, Mr. Sweet.

Thank you to both of our witnesses. I actually have a question which I won't ask because of the time constraints. Today, of course, is a day of remembrance and there are activities in the House of Commons that I don't want to keep you from.

Thank you, Mr. Boyd, and thank you, Mr. Silva.

[Mario Silva]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Your testimony is insightful as always, and we're very glad to have you here today.

Thank you.

The meeting is adjourned.