Mr. Speaker, I too rise today to pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust.
Sixty-four years ago Nazi extermination camps were liberated, but for more than six million Jews and millions of others it was too late.
As we mark Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, we must remind ourselves why we say “Never Again”.
We say it to remember the countless victims who were brutalized and murdered simply because of who they were. We say it to remind ourselves that those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
Now more than ever it is important to reflect and to act.
We must act today when human rights are mocked at the Durban Review Conference and Israel is unjustly singled out yet again. We must act when the Iranian president speaks of Zionist conspiracies and tries to rewrite history to make the Holocaust a myth. We must act as anti-Semitism flares up in Canada and incitement to murder Jews persists around the world.
We must remember, be vigilant, and outspoken in defence of everyone's right to life, free of persecution.