Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute and celebrate the centenary of Irving Layton, a great teacher, poet, literati, wordsmith and architect of language; indeed, a poetic genius with an abiding jeremiad against injustice. He internalized in his psyche, as well as in his poetry, the romanticism of Shelley, the pantheism of Wordsworth, the dialectics of Hegel and the questioning of Socrates, being also the voice of the voiceless.
Irving Layton was my teacher, mentor and inspiration, who also became my close colleague and friend. He taught me how to think, how to advocate, how to struggle against injustice and, in Leonard Cohen's words, how to live.
May this centenary serve as an occasion for our youth to discover this poetic genius, as well as to inspire us all in the struggle against injustice.