Madam Speaker, I want to join with my colleagues in the House in commemorating the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. We must never forget the millions who were murdered at the hands of the heinous Nazi regime.
I also want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the many Canadians who fought so that the future generations could live in peace and freedom.
I shall never forget as a little girl, when I was only five years old, when my brothers came in to tell my mother and my father that they had signed up to go overseas. They were overseas in France, Germany, and Italy. I will never forget the prayers and the hard times my mother had, hoping and praying she would hear from them. And I will never forget when I was a little girl and we went to the train station to greet them when they returned safe and sound.
If there was ever a war that needed to be won, it was the second world war. It hardly needs saying that the world would be a dark and different place today if the allies had not achieved victory.
We must never forget the unspeakable horror the death camps brought forth. They are a symbol of what can result from hatred and racism.
Today we witness the suffering of innocents around the world who are the victims of ethnically motivated conflict. Let us remember what such hatreds can lead to and be ever vigilant in our efforts to make sure it is not allowed to happen again.
Yes, Canada will remember.