Debates of Feb. 24th, 2015

Rise in anti-Semitism

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Mr. Chair, I will start by saying that I do not have the wisdom of Solomon. It is hugely difficult to stand as a democrat to protect our rights to democracy, our rights to that communication, but I do not think one has the right to preach hate. We have laws against preaching hate and if that occurs, those laws should be enforced

I will not pass judgment on any particular group I have not heard directly about, but if they are teaching hate, that has to be addressed. There are boards of directors in universities. The problem is that until someone is there and says it there, they do not have jurisdiction over them. That complicates the issue, I am sure.

I would trust the judgment of most of the boards of those universities after the fact, once the hate, or whatever it is, has been preached, like the incident at McMaster about the niqab that I mentioned. They brought a group of people together. I attended because I happened to be in town that week. We spoke about the unfairness. It was not at the same level as Israeli Apartheid Week in my opinion and the opinion of many people there. However, where will we find the wisdom to reach the point that the member is alluding to? I really cannot answer that.

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Chair, there is a duality to Jewish identity and Jewish life that is perhaps unique in Canadian history.

On the one hand, individually and collectively, and especially in the western democracies, the Jewish community is achieving unparalleled acceptance and an ability to contribute to society in the same way as other citizens in each of the countries in which they live. We see that in Canada, where Jewish institutions are strong and the Jewish community is able to participate at every level in every field of human endeavour.

As well, Israel, although threatened, has emerged as a strong cultural, scientific, military presence in the Middle East that can contribute to, and has contributed to, the advancement of health, education, and literature around the world.

On the other hand, we are seeing the emergence of an old hatred, a hatred that we all thought could not possibly re-emerge, a hatred that means Jewish people cannot safely walk through the streets of some of the most civilized capitals of the world if they are dressed identifiably as Jewish. They risk their physical lives, and the social and psychological oppression that they face on a daily basis in some of these capitals is quite chilling indeed.

At the same time, Israel's existence is now threatened by those who deny its very right to exist and who both deny the existence of the Holocaust and at the same time are determined to repeat it.

What is the genesis of this hatred? What are the reasons, be they psychological, historical, theological, or political? What is the genesis of this hate, and what is the reason it has been perpetuated over the millennia? To the extent that we can reach children, we can deal with it and prevent it from spreading, yet we have not been successful in doing that.

We here in this country have a diverse society, an extraordinarily successful society in which people are free to practise their religious beliefs and have different political perspectives, a society in which people of all races and religions can thrive. While this issue definitely exists, it does not pose the same kind of threat that it does in other countries of the world.

What can we learn from that, and what can we suggest that will help address the issue, protect the community, and hopefully—over the longer term, at least—prevent it from metastasizing into the kind of horror that we have seen all too recently?

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Mr. Chair, I will take it as a supreme compliment that I would be asked one of the hardest questions to answer on the face of the Earth.

I think we have to go back over century after century of this hatred. It has been taught, and taught systematically. It has gone through the so-called grapevine of community after community.

Today one of the reasons it is arising is through communication. In Egypt and the revolution there, in Syria and other countries where people have risen up, the one common thing in that phenomenon is the iPhone. It is communication. If we talk to seniors in a Tim Hortons, they will tell stories of things they have read on the Internet that they absolutely believe. Nobody can say why they believe those things. Hatred is one of the things. Xenophobia is another one of the things.

The communication factor that we have today plays a role in the hatred that is spewed out there, uncontrolled, against many different people, but particularly the Jewish people. It is unbelievable and it is sad.

Again I come back to the fact that we have hate laws. If hate is purveyed by anybody on the Internet, it should be addressed. The problem we get into when trying to track these things is that they use shadow locations, going through three different servers, to get that message out. There are some people who are very sophisticated in delivering these messages.

What we are seeing with ISIS today, which is shocking the world, is how professional the things are that they are putting forward. Those videos, as horrific as they are, are professionally planned and orchestrated. The people who are purveying hate on the Internet are doing precisely the same thing.

I think that is one of the keys to the explosion that is happening. In hard times, in Europe and in those capitals where people are rising up and the hatred is boiling again, people are unemployed and there is high youth unemployment. That winds up scapegoating many people. In the old stories, the Jews are the people with money and the Jews are the business people who are affecting capital around the world. All of those stories that have been perpetuated for generations bubble back up again, but in a different context.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Chair, before I begin the few words I would like to say today, I want to inform the House that I will be splitting my time with my friend and colleague, the hon. member for Mississauga East—Cooksville.

I am thankful for the opportunity to speak to this very important issue. It is crucial that we continue to educate current and future generations, as we have heard many times this evening, about the poisonous effects of anti-Semitic and xenophobic hate. We must also continue to research and teach about the Holocaust, as well as the prevention of genocide.

These are more than beliefs or convictions. They are, indeed, moral obligations. In fact, the release of the Anti-Defamation League's largest ever worldwide survey on anti-Semitic attitudes in 2013 shows us exactly why we must continue to speak out. More than 53,000 people in more than 100 countries were surveyed, and the results were alarming. Most significant is the fact that 35% of those surveyed had never heard of the Holocaust and, of those who had, roughly one-third said it was a myth or greatly exaggerated.

Canada is deeply committed to the promotion of Holocaust commemoration, research, and education around the world. It is through this commitment that we will guard against future atrocities. With each passing year, our commitment has remained and must continue to remain steadfast. As an expression of this commitment, the Government of Canada has proudly partnered with Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Israel, and other organizations on a great number of educational and commemorative initiatives in recent year.

I had the opportunity to travel to Israel in 2013 in a delegation with members of Parliament from all parties and in 2014 with the Right Hon. Prime Minister. On both of these trips, I visited Yad Vashem and was deeply moved by what I saw and learned at this poignant museum. Jews and non-Jews around the world are able to travel to Israel and understand the massacre that was the Holocaust in this museum in the modern Jewish homeland. If we are human, we cannot help but be moved by what we see when we walk through that museum.

In addition, in November, 2010, the second annual conference of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism took place right here in our nation's capital, Ottawa. It brought together parliamentarians and experts from around the world to lead the fight against global anti-Semitism and developed what is known as the Ottawa protocol. Canada took the extra step of signing the protocol in the fall of 2011 to further underscore its commitment and to encourage other states to do so.

Canada has a proud history of promoting human rights and combatting hate and discrimination. The government supports a coordinated global effort against hatred and anti-Semitism, and the Ottawa protocol marks an important step in such an effort.

Our country's profound commitment to Holocaust remembrance and education was only made stronger when Canada took on the responsibility of chairing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2013-14, an intergovernmental body comprising 31 member states to promote Holocaust education, remembrance, and research. In our chair year, we hosted a major international conference on Holocaust remembrance and education in Toronto. It was among many other events and initiatives designed to promote Holocaust education and research and to confront and combat the global resurgence of anti-Semitism.

At the Toronto conference, we were also proud to obtain consensus on a working definition of Holocaust denial and distortion. This placed the IHRA in a better position to effectively target, monitor, and address the most extreme form of anti-Semitism on a global scale.

Canada's chairmanship of the IHRA came to a close to last year, when we handed over the chairmanship to the United Kingdom. However, our resolute dedication to this organization and to international Holocaust education, research, and commemoration continues.

In closing, we have an ongoing responsibility to resist all efforts to accept anti-Semitism as something normal or understandable, because once it is accepted as such by public opinion, it may lead to unimaginable consequences.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Chair, I have been moved by many of the speeches in this take-note debate tonight. When we are in unanimous agreement in condemning anti-Semitism, as we are tonight, the challenge for all of us is to find recommendations for what we can do to ensure that Canada, more than any other nation, rejects anti-Semitism. I believe that would be a good goal.

We must reject as well racism of all kinds, and we must reject prejudices, phobias, and attitudes that are either xenophobic or grounded in hatred and superstition. Goodness knows where some of this hatred comes from.

Going back to the history of anti-Semitism in Canada, I note that it is not a good record. In looking back I found that years ago Pierre Berton, one of my favourite authors, did an investigation, a little experiment, with respect to anti-Semitism. He had two young women assume different names and apply for positions as stenographers. The woman whose name was Grimes got job interviews. The woman named Greenberg, who had the same qualifications and was applying for the same jobs, did not get callbacks or was told the job was filled. He did the same experiment making reservations at a golf club.

This was back in the late 1940s. We know as well the story of the St. Louis pulling into Halifax Harbour and being sent away.

If we as Canadians are to really expunge, reject, and forever remove anti-Semitism from our society, we have to acknowledge that it was rather deeply embedded in our culture in the past and acknowledge that we are making improvements. There is no question that anti-Semitism is less prevalent now than it was then, but we cannot be content with the progress we have made. We must continue to move forward to condemn any acts of anti-Semitism, as my friend from Richmond Hill has said, to ensure that it has no place in our society and that it is named, outed, and rejected wherever it is found,

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Mr. Chair, I thank the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for her comments and the point that she has made.

We do not have to look back decades to see anti-Semitism, its effects, and the fact that it existed. As the member said and as we have heard many times this evening, it very much still exists. I will give a live example of a very appalling, disgraceful, despicable, racist hatred movement right here in our own country that transpires and has transpired over the last couple of years in the summer in our provincial capital at Queen's Park in Toronto.

Quds Day is something that was initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979. Its purpose is to oppose Zionism. It calls for the elimination of the State of Israel.

This is what happens. The Liberal provincial government in Ontario has given permission to the organizers to organize this rally for Quds Day in the middle of the summer right in Toronto. We have seen unbelievable hatred and anti-Semitic activities transpire at these events, yet the provincial government is not responding to the call of the people, particularly the Jewish community but also the greater community at large, to stop providing the permit that allows these people to demonstrate in the way they have been.

A quick Google search produces images of some of the signs to be seen at this event right in the heart of Toronto. I will read off some of the signs that were held by the demonstrators there, some of who are children, I would say to my hon. friend from Saanich—Gulf Islands and to all of the members who are here this evening.

One of them says, “Israel, your days are numbered”. Others say, “For world peace, Israel must be destroyed”, “Israel is a terrorist regime”, and “Zionism is terrorism”. As if those are not appalling enough, one states, “Israel is a disease. We are the cure”. These are signs that were held by Canadians in the heart of Toronto in July or the end of June 2014. It was permitted to happen.

It is incumbent upon all of us—as citizens, as members of Parliament, as community leaders, as business people—to speak out so that these types of things do not happen in our community, because children see these acts and learn the wrong things from them.

[Wladyslaw Lizon, Conservative, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Mr. Chair, I am very honoured to rise in this House to take part in this debate.

Just a few weeks ago, people around the world reflected on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of the most notorious sites of the uniquely sadistic, brutal, and unspeakable atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis. They gathered together to recognize and honour the victims and survivors of this horrific and inhumane period of history. I was honoured to be among them to commemorate this most horrific of crimes.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was originally intended as a large concentration camp primarily for members of Polish resistance and intelligentsia, and in 1941-42 it was expanded for what the Germans called “the final solution”, which meant extermination of Jews. Six million men and women, including three million children, were murdered during the Holocaust for the simple fact that they were Jewish. This was what anti-Semitism had led to in supposedly civilized Europe. It was a time of horrendous nightmares.

As the world saw the end of the Second World War nearing, the enormity of the Holocaust began to be exposed through efforts of people like Jan Karski. It is critical that we continue to reflect on history in the modern context. As our Prime Minister said, our memory of the Holocaust and the suffering endured by its victims and their families:

...helps keep strong the conviction in our hearts to do everything we can—through our actions and our words—to stand firm against the forces of intolerance and remain vigilant against genocide. Only through these continued efforts can we ensure that such atrocities never happen again

To put it simply, we must never forget; we must do all we can to prevent another genocide, another Shoah, from occurring. This is the kind of resolution we must make every day and at every opportunity. This is all the more critical at a time when anti-Semitic incidents and Holocaust denial persist around the world.

Seventy years after the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the members, observer countries, and permanent international partners of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance collectively reaffirmed our unqualified support for the Stockholm declaration of 15 years ago and our commitment to remembering and honouring the victims of the Holocaust, to upholding its terrible truth, to standing up against those who would distort or deny it, and to combatting anti-Semitism and racism in all its forms.

It is why we also partner with B'nai Brith Canada to invest in the national task force on Holocaust research, remembrance, and education. The task force brings together scholars, legal experts, educators, Holocaust survivors, and community representatives to further Holocaust research and education in Canada. Canada is at the forefront of the international fight against anti-Semitism. We were the first country to announce its withdrawal from the tainted Durban process at the United Nations because we would not lend the good name of this country to a process supposedly to combat racism, which in fact promoted anti-Semitism.

This is what parliamentarians from around the world declared here in Ottawa four years ago in developing the Ottawa protocol, as we hosted the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism. Among its commitments, the protocol called for leaders of faith groups to combat all forms of hatred and discrimination, including anti-Semitism. It called on governments to establish an international task force to identify and monitor hate on the Internet, to record all hate crimes including anti-Semitism, and to express concern over anti-Semitism on campuses.

The Holocaust was a crime against humanity unlike any other in human history, and it fundamentally altered how the world views and treats acts of genocide.

As more and more survivors can no longer share their stories, we have the moral obligation to teach future generations about the horrors of Shoah and to draw lessons from this dark chapter in history, in order to prevent it from ever being repeated.

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Chair, I grew up in a community in York Mills and went to school with a lot of colleagues who were the sons and daughters of Holocaust survivors. I, myself, came from an Estonian background. My family had seen waves of Soviet, Nazi, and then Soviet occupation before they fled, and many of those in the family who did not flee met a fate in Estonia in the Soviet Union under the communists, including in their concentration camps, similar to that met by many of my friends' relatives in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany and through their empire at the time.

We grew up and we shared those experiences. I remember how poignant that was and how important it was to learn from it all and to recognize those horrors of the 20th century and to resolve never to let them ever happen again. That is why, to me, it has been so unthinkable lately to hear things said that, in my childhood, in my teen years, I never dreamed we would hear people say in Canada and elsewhere in the world. This rising tide of anti-Semitism is indeed very real; it is alarming, and things are said that we have never heard before.

The reason a debate like this is so important, I think, is that when I was growing up, those events of World War II, of learning the horrors of the concentration camps and the Holocaust, were really only 25 years old or a little bit older than that. It was really fresh in people's minds and memories.

Today, we have to recognize that is, now, quite some time ago. We are talking 70 to 75 years ago that people were learning of these things. That is why it is important for us to also remember the horrors that could happen if we do not take an unremitting, uncompromising stand against the hatred of anti-Semitism and the associated horrors that can occur.

I know that my friend comes from a Polish background and also saw many of those horrors happen in that country itself. He referenced Auschwitz-Birkenau. He, of course, in his own experience, has been very much affected by those tyrannical horrors of communism and fascism that really tainted the 20th century as one that almost did not have the worthy name of “civilization” that we would like to think we were, in a modern sense.

I would like to hear his thoughts and his reflections on how that experience influenced us growing up and the changes we have seen happening now and what lessons we should take from all of that.

[Wladyslaw Lizon, Conservative, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Mr. Chair, yes, I was born and raised in Poland. I was born nine years after the war, not very far from Auschwitz, actually, 120 kilometres more or less. I remember visiting Auschwitz when I was 12 years old more or less. I do not think I fully understood, at that time, the magnitude of what happened there.

Growing up, I visited it again several times. The question I always ask myself, and I do not think I will ever find the answer to it, is how people could do these things to other people. The other question I always ask myself is how it was possible that those terrible things, those atrocities, were committed by one of the most or the most advanced nation in Europe. How is it possible that it used its science and its resources to build a place, an industrial place, to kill and process other human beings?

We all know, or we should know, what we should learn from history and from what happened there. It is that propaganda of hatred and racism can lead to unthinkable things as a result, and we should always remember this, and we should all teach our young generations what can happen when we try to turn people against each other because they are different, they pray differently, they worship differently, they look different. This is something we should never let happen again, in the future.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Chair, I am pleased to add my voice, as raw as it is right now, to this debate, because it is an important one.

It is an important debate on many levels. Today we are living in tumultuous times. If we look back on history, whenever we live in tumultuous times certain things are guaranteed to happen. When we are going through bad economic times, it seems, historically, that the finger gets pointed at immigrants, that “the immigrants are here; they are stealing our jobs; they are taking away our opportunities.” When we live in tumultuous political times, it seems, historically, we see a rise in anti-Semitism.

A couple of statements were made, one by my hon. colleague from Mount Royal and one by my colleague on the subcommittee for human rights, that the rise of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitism itself can be considered a canary in the coal mine in many ways.

When we see a rise in anti-Semitism, we also see a rise in other forms of hatred. Anti-Semitism is hatred, nothing more, nothing less. It is hatred. It is hatred that is geared to and pointed at a particular group of people for a particular reason that is manufactured by another particular group for their own particular reasons.

We very much need to understand that process. Our understanding of that process needs to go back further. I will submit this to my colleagues that it needs to go back further than the Holocaust. The Holocaust happened for a reason, and that reason goes back centuries.

The Holocaust happened because of a longstanding hatred of the Jewish people. It was not something that just came out of an insane man's mind. It is something that has been manifested over centuries upon centuries, as all hatred is.

It is something that has been state-sanctioned. If we were celebrating the work of the Stratford Festival, we can look back at Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. I believe it was written in 1623. That was a commentary. It is viewed by many as an anti-Semitic play. I submit that it is actually a commentary on the hypocrisy of European life back in the 1600s, and even prior to that.

We can look at the ancient rite of Passover practised by our Jewish brothers and sisters, which is so important to Jewish culture. It is a remembrance of the wrongs that have been done to Jewish people. It is a remembrance of the deliverance out of Egypt. It is a remembrance of the Holocaust. It is a remembrance of all the significant acts of anti-Semitism that have been practised throughout history.

We have been discussing and agree entirely about the importance of recognizing the evil of anti-Semitism, but we would be remiss if we did not take every opportunity that we have to learn about where this kind of hatred comes from and what we can do to abate it.

Hatred is a learned process, which to me implies that it can be unlearned. The education that we need to pass on to our children is: what does it mean to be Jewish and why is it different from who we are? It is the understanding that this difference is not a threat to who we are, which is the basis of all hatred. It is the basis of the hatred towards my ancestors that we still endure today. We still find ourselves in positions where we have to stand up and fight.

The saying “Lest we forget” is very important, and why debates like this are so important. We have to remind ourselves of what we are capable of.

My colleague who spoke previously talked about his surprise as to what we as human beings can do to each other. Unfortunately, I grew up in a world that was not surprised at what we can do to each other. However, that helped me understand what my job and work was in moving forward. I continue this with the youth in my community by speaking to them and encouraging them to stand tall and stand strong.

Education is key to delivering ourselves from the hatred that is anti-Semitism, xenophobia, misogyny, and all forms of hatred of another people for a particular reason. It is up to us as leaders to make sure that we practice that education. We must take the time to learn and not hide behind dogma and rhetoric. We must take the time to learn where this comes from so that we can make sure that it does not happen again.

I thank each and every person who has contributed to this discussion this evening for thoughts and contributions. As late as the evening is, it is also heartening to see that we agree that our voices have to be unified to fight both the rise of anti-Semitism and what the rise of anti-Semitism brings in terms of other horrific acts of racial and religious intolerance that are happening around the world.

My colleagues and I hear these stories on a regular basis in the human rights subcommittee. It is disheartening at times. However, it is up to us as leaders, as people, to make sure that we do not let these voices fall silent, that we do not forget what we have done, what we are capable of doing, and also to remember what we are capable of doing in bringing an end to this type of behaviour, such as what happened where I used to live in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. It is up to us to make sure that we do not let these acts go unanswered, and that we do not let the history of these acts be forgotten.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development]

Mr. Chair, I found it a little cool in here, so I went out to the lobby to grab my scarf. Perhaps it is serendipitous that I am wearing this one tonight because I call this my scarf of many colours. Maybe it is indicative that we stand in solidarity with our Jewish friends.

I am always very proud when I am able to have Seder dinner with my very good friends, Sam Goldstein and his wife, Shelly, or with my good friends Julius and Etta Suraski. It is always a pleasure when I am able to spend Second Seder with my good friends Carla and Robin Silver in Richmond Hill. It has been an education for me. They are always evenings of great delight and enjoyment, not only with food but also fellowship and new cultural experiences for me.

When I was first elected, I was part of an inquiry panel chaired by my good friend from Leeds—Grenville. It was a great investigation that we undertook. I will note from our report some comments by Rabbi Bulka. I have read this report several times through and I always come back to one part where he said:

How do we counter antisemitism? To me, the very simple answer is teach, teach, teach.... We need to create foot soldiers, and those foot soldiers are the children of the next generation. We owe it to them. We owe it to the legacy of our founding fathers and mothers that children going through any elementary or high school system will have been so inoculated against hate by the time they get to university that when they see it, they will reject it.

Could my colleague comment on his experience of how we can bring this education into our school curriculum so that as the rabbi said, children will recognize this as hatred and reject it?

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Chair, there is an old saying that history is written by the victors. Because of that, a lot of history about the contributions of different peoples tends to be left out of our school curriculums. This is one way in which we need to change the curriculum to recognize the contribution not only in the context of what happened to the Jewish people, but also the contributions of the Jewish people and all other people.

I would also submit that it needs to be done at home too. I do not have children, but over the years I have had many discussions with my niece and nephew. My nephew is now 25 years old and my niece is 16 years old. We talk about race relations, including the history of the Jewish people.

I have had the great pleasure of spending Seders with my dearest friend and family, the friend I grew up with and went to high school with, thereby getting the education I needed. I shared that with my niece and nephew. It starts that small. It starts with our families, our children, and if we can get the school boards and so forth to change curricula so that they are inclusive in their teachings, as opposed to simply treating oppressed peoples in terms of, this happened to them and they are the victims, I think that will begin to change the minds of children to look at Jews and others as people who are part of our society, as opposed to seeing the issue as something that happened or as things that were done to them.

[John Carmichael, Conservative, Don Valley West, ON]

Mr. Chair, to expand on the last question, I would ask the following of the member who talks about communication with his nephew and niece and starting at a young age. One of the issues we have talked about tonight is universities as breeding grounds for some of this hate, whether it is Israeli Apartheid Week or some of the other issues that have led to a great focus on anti-Semitism in Canada. Cutting that hatred off, cutting that anti-Semitism off, at the root appears to be the key to what we need to accomplish.

I wonder if the member would expand on what he might view as a solution to that, as something that might bring some positive results out of tonight's debate.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Chair, we as leaders need to make sure that we set the example through our own actions. In the case of universities and institutions of higher learning, those institutions exist to debate, to challenge, and to learn. Therefore, we have to be careful not to create a situation where we stifle debate. The strongest test for democracy and the strength democracy has is allowing for that debate.

We do have laws in place, as my colleague, the member for Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, said earlier, to remedy hate speech. If those laws are broken, those people should be charged to the fullest extent of the law. However, if we inhibit what we are actually fighting for, then we do ourselves a disservice. It is up to the universities to make sure that healthy debate is maintained, and if hate laws are broken, those individuals should be charged to the fullest extent of the law.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Chair, I want to touch on something that I do not think has come up tonight.

It is important that we create a distinction between the appropriate response of those people who are not anti-Semitic, including Jewish people within the State of Israel, who question actions by the current government in Israel, without having any action that suggests criticism of Israel's foreign policy or domestic policy as conflated with anti-Semitism.

This is a very difficult area, and this is where we need to be very clear. Anti-Semitism is without question unacceptable at its root, but groups like Independent Jewish Voices will criticize actions by the State of Israel if it believes that they are illegal, without being anti-Semitic.

I wonder if my friend has any comments on that. This is a very difficult area and is far more sensitive than some of what we have discussed here tonight. This may not have the same degree of unanimity.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Mr. Chair, it is not a question that I, at this point, feel I can answer. I would offer, though, that we need to be careful in blurring the lines between political debate and cultural debate. Anti-Semitism is, in and of itself, an anti-cultural aspect, and the debate over what Israel does or does not do is a political debate.

I would say that, to begin with, we need to make sure that we do not blur the lines that distinguish between political discourse and cultural or anti-cultural discourse.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, before I begin my remarks, I will indicate that I will be splitting my time with the member for Ajax—Pickering, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

I would like to begin by saying that in 1945, when the horrors of the Shoah became known to the world, the world came together and said, “Never again”. “Never again” must not be seen as a hollow phrase. “Never again” must be a call to action for all people of good conscience to stand together against the scourge of anti-Semitism and racism, in whatever form it may take, and for all people to stand together and support each other when they face hatred.

My colleagues tonight on all sides of the House have spoken quite eloquently about anti-Semitism. I want to talk more about the personal side of my own experience.

My dad, as many members know, was a survivor of the Holocaust and was the only survivor from his family. My dad was in Auschwitz. He was 12 when he was interred in the ghetto in Lodz, which, before the war in 1939, had 225,000 Jewish inhabitants, out of 600,000 people. By the war's end, only 300 Jewish residents of Lodz had survived.

In 1944, my dad and grandfather were taken to Auschwitz on the last transport out of the ghetto. My grandmother and my dad's younger brother had already been taken earlier to another death camp two years earlier, Chelmno, which was located outside of Lodz, where the Germans had set up vans. These were not just ordinary vans. These were vans where the exhaust pipe fed back into them so that all of the people were asphyxiated who were put into the vans.

My dad was taken to Auschwitz in 1944 with the liquidation of the Lodz ghetto, and upon arrival there, the SS man sent my grandfather in one direction to the gas and my dad to slave labour.

My dad never spoke a word about what happened. When he came to Canada in 1947, he came with a number on his arm, a shirt on his back, but more importantly, hope in his heart, like most immigrants who come to Canada do. He built a family here. He built a life. He chose hope over despair.

I grew up in the Bathurst Manor area of Toronto, which has a large number of Holocaust survivors. Many of my friends' parents were survivors. As kids, we all wanted to know about our parents' experiences, but we did not dare ask, because we knew intuitively that we should not ask, because it just showed too much pain on our parents' faces for them to talk about, so we did not ask, and we grew up without knowing.

A couple of months ago, I was contacted by a fellow who lives in the riding of York Centre. He called and asked me if I am the Adler whose father was Abram Adler from Lodz. I said yes, and he said he had a story for me. He said he knew my dad's family in the ghetto and that there was something I should know. He said that before the Germans had sealed the ghetto, in the spring of 1940, my uncle, Chaim, was part of a group of Jewish men who would go out at night after the German curfew and smuggle food and clothes to Jewish children's orphanages. He said that one particular night, Chaim was told to drive the truck because he was the only one who knew how to drive a truck. They were caught by the Germans. They were all made to lie face down on the street outside of the orphanage, and they were all shot in the head. He then told me that the SS went into the orphanage and shot all the children. He thought I should know this story.

Another story is about friends of my parents. This fellow was a survivor who married a women from Canada. I remember my parents saying that when he went to sleep at night, he would wake up almost every night, screaming and in a cold sweat. His wife had to place a Canadian and an American flag at the foot of their bed to reassure him when he woke up, he was safe. The dreams he would have were so torturous, recalling what happened to him during the Shoah.

This is the kind of environment I grew up in as the child of a Holocaust survivor. When I went to my friends' bar mitzvahs, they were attended by hundreds of people, but at my own bar mitzvah there were no grandparents.

At Rosh Hashanah, at Passover, there are empty chairs at the table because there are no grandparents, there are no aunts and uncles, there are no cousins. These are the circumstances, this is the environment, the result of the anti-Semitism that we as Jewish people had to endure in Europe in the 1940s.

It all started with words which led to deeds. That is why it is so important. We are talking about a take-note debate. This is not a debate; it is an agreement. Let us all take note. Let us all say that we, as a people, who live in the great democracy of Canada, stand for Canadian values and as democratic people, we have a responsibility to each other to stand up for those Canadian values of democracy, of freedom and of the rule of law.

When one person is being persecuted, we are all being persecuted. It is incumbent upon all of us to stand together, to stand up for each other and to fight the evil of racism, hatred and anti-Semitism.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Chair, I thank the hon. member for his moving commentary. As a child of Holocaust survivors, as someone who knows that history so intimately in a family setting, how are we in Canada doing as leaders and how is the world doing on the important issue of Holocaust remembrance, to which we have committed ourselves and recommitted ourselves as a government, but which obviously will require redoubled efforts globally if the tragedy and the unspeakable horrors of the Shoah are to be remembered in all parts of the world?

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, I thank the minister for his very warm remarks.

As a country, Canada is doing well. We have seen our Prime Minister not go to a Commonwealth meeting in Sri Lanka. We have seen our Prime Minister stand up against Russian aggression in Crimea and Ukraine. We have seen our Prime Minister stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel. Our foreign policy is now based on principle.

As a country, Canada is doing very well in our promotion of Canadian values. What gives me great pause, however, is what we see in other countries around the world. When we see anti-Semitic incidents take place in Europe, when we see the murder of Jews in Copenhagen, in Paris, in other countries around the world, not only do Canadians need to stand up and say no, but people around the world need to stand up and say no.

Growing up, I remember what Martin Niemöller, a German pastor, had said, “First they came for the Socialists, but I was not Socialist, so I did not care. Then they came for the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionists, so I did not care. Then they came for the Jews, but there was no one left to stand up and say anything”.

We cannot afford to find ourselves in that kind of position ever again. That is why I am so proud as a Canadian to be part of a government and to be part of a Parliament that takes such a strong stand, exhibited tonight by every member from every party, standing up and saying no to anti-Semitism, standing shoulder to shoulder to fight this ugly rabid scourge head on.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Chair, I am thankful for the honour of taking part in tonight's debate. I would like to thank members of all parties who have made it possible. Above all, I would like to thank my colleagues on this side, many of whom are here tonight, who give so much of their best to the cause that is so fundamental to the foundations on which we stand.

My colleague, the Minister of National Defence, has said tonight, as we all say to ourselves on the many occasions around the calendar when it needs to be said, that anti-Semitism is the most ancient of hatreds and the most ancient of irrational tragedies in human behaviour. It represents the very epitome of those challenges to the values we hold dear: freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

Our determination tonight to set our faces against this scourge, wherever it manifests itself, is a recommitment to our Canadian values and the values that have made our country, and the broader society and humanity to which we belong, great. It is truly humbling to speak after the hon. member who calls himself the son of Abram Adler of Lodz. There can be no story more moving for any of us in a debate like tonight's than that of a Holocaust survivor.

Let us remember that, despite those tragedies and the institutionalized efforts of the international community to never forget and to never let that tragedy be repeated, we live in a world where anti-Semitism is all too pervasive a fact. Whether it is recent attacks across Europe or an aggressive, belligerent, rapacious regime in Moscow that is prepared to make donations to far-right anti-Semitic groups across Europe, it harkens back to the alliance between Stalin and Hitler that made the Second World War a much greater tragedy than it would otherwise have been.

Whether it is jihadist groups around the world but centred in North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia who bring forth unspeakable tragedies and kill civilians in untold numbers and at every step of the way pepper their obscene language with the poison of anti-Semitism, it is not just ISIL. It is al Qaeda, which is still with us. It is 1,000 branch plants of those offices. It is the Muslim Brotherhood, which just apparently rededicated itself to jihad in late January.

In Nazi Germany, the Jews were stripped of their citizenship, denied their natural rights and their very right to exist. In contemporary times, there are those in these jihadist groups and in dozens of nation states who are trying to strip the State of Israel of its citizenship in the international community, circumscribe its right to exist, and attack its natural rights as a nation. All of them have in common the sin and the violation of fundamental rights that anti-Semitism represents.

We are proud on this side to be part of a government that stands up, stands behind the principles of the Ottawa protocol, and wants to monitor and end this kind of hatred on the Internet and elsewhere. We are part of a government that was the first in the world to withdraw from the United Nations Durban Review Conference, or Durban II. We refused to allow Canada's good name to be tarnished by an event where examples of anti-Semitism under the UN flag and auspices were flourishing openly, including the circulation of copies of Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and explicitly anti-Semitic symbolism.

Our stand was vindicated when Durban II was used by former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to purvey his particular brand of horrific high-octane anti-Semitism. We will continue down this path to ensure that Canada's name is at the forefront of those combatting this hatred, at the forefront of those reinforcing our values, and at the forefront of those calling together all around the world, who recognize anti-Semitism for the plague on our values that it has been for centuries.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Mr. Chair, we have talked about how well Canada is doing, relatively speaking, and how other countries are doing in this area.

We brought up the United Nations several times in tonight's debate, and a lot of the time it has been about how the UN as a body, in my view, has let the side down, has let the cause of anti-Semitism down, because of all the instances where bodies of the United Nations have voted unanimously, or in a majority fashion, to condemn Israel above all other states combined.

It does not imbue one with a lot of optimism from the point of view of the international community, as embodied by the United Nations, that we in the world writ large are acting to stamp out anti-Semitism.

I know my colleague, the minister, has great experience in those kinds of environments, in the UN, international politics, and international arenas. I wonder if he could comment on the state of the United Nations and the way that body and its member states are collectively approaching this challenge, and what we can perhaps do as a smallish member of that body to help it change the course a little.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Mr. Chair, that was an excellent question by the distinguished member for Edmonton Centre.

It reminds us all that the United Nations serves some purposes. It is a home for discussion of humanitarian issues. It is a home for discussion of international security issues. We do not have another forum like the Security Council. It is a home for progress on issues like maternal, newborn, and child health, where Canada has shown leadership. Our Prime Minister has shown leadership.

However, in recent years it has become increasingly not the home of issues that need a home and that deserve to be at the centre of the international community's attention. One of those issues is anti-Semitism, where the United Nations, far from being a centre of excellence or a centre of discussion and action to stamp out this behaviour, has instead been a misguided organization, throwing out the welcome mat to those who would spew this hatred and this poison and disseminate it, giving them a platform, giving them a loud speaker.

There are three ways in which that happens. First are fora like Durban, anti-Semitic fora where free rein is given to views that are not just historically inaccurate and nonfactual, but that represent hatred towards a particular group. For the United Nations to be associated with such events is shameful.

Second, there is the tolerance of many in the United Nations, state and non-state actors, who reject the existence of the State of Israel and call for a jihad war, the elimination of the State of Israel. This is a voting member of the United Nations. There is no other member state of the United Nations whose existence and borders are not recognized and indeed negated by dozens of other members of the United Nations. Instead of asking those dozens of countries what their problem is with the existence of a democracy that has self-determined its constitution and institutions, the United Nations all too often victimizes Israel.

Third, there is the inconsistency of the United Nations with regard to terrorism, particularly Islamic jihadist terrorism. There have been flashes of insight on the part of the UN, terrorist lists for al Qaeda and the Taliban, a few other contributions to the global fight, but for the most part the United Nations has been notably schtum in refusing to name and shame, let alone take action against, the state and non-state actors. Here I emphasize the words state actors who continue to support organizations like ISIL, al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and others who in addition to victimizing civilians, in addition to fighting wars, proxy wars in many cases on behalf of states, have anti-Semitism as one of their stocks in trade.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

Mr. Chair, I would be pleased to split my time with the hon. member for Mount Royal, who is, I believe it is fair to say, our Parliament's scholar, historian, and collective conscience on human rights issues and who has been a great architect of the Ottawa protocol. I would love to hear a little more of his thoughts on that particular topic.

I have appreciated the discussion here tonight. It has been very valuable to me, and there are two essential messages that have come forward that must be communicated.

One is that anti-Semitism will not be tolerated no matter where it occurs, whether it be on the borders of Israel, in a European capital, or, God forbid, here on Canadian soil.

The second message, of course, is that this cannot be empty rhetoric. This message has to come with a resolve to protect and with a call to action. To those who are threatened by anti-Semitism, we must be firm: never again.

Members might wonder what exactly the member of Parliament for Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte from Newfoundland and Labrador would be able to offer to this particular debate. I have an interesting perspective to offer.

I am an Irish Newfoundlander, and many Newfoundlanders are Irish. In 1968, my constituency decided that the best person to represent us in this chamber was a man named Jack Marshall.

Jack was Jewish. There were a lot of Jews in my riding, but we did not vote for him because he was Jewish, and we certainly did not vote against him because he was Jewish. He was the best person for the job. In fact, he was so very popular and such an effective advocate for veterans right across this entire country, as he was for his constituency in each and every matter that was important to it and to the people of Humber—St. George's—St. Barbe at the time, that the prime minister of Canada had to elevate him to the Senate, because that was the only way to free up the seat. He was a phenomenal representative.

His successor was a kind of a twist of irony. A by-election was held when Jack Marshall was elevated to the Senate, where he so well served this country and every veteran that ever served in uniform. His successor was a young man by the name of Fonse Faour, a Lebanese Canadian who was 24 years of age. We did not vote for him because he was of Lebanese descent, and we did not vote against him because he was of Lebanese descent; we voted for him because he was the best person for the job. Therefore, I come from a perspective that all things are possible. That is the way we are.

With that in mind, I went to Israel last year. I wanted to learn more. We received some great briefings and met with the Canadian representative to the Palestinian authority. Four days into the trip, Hamas started firing rockets into Israel, indiscriminately, for the sole purpose of killing innocent civilians. Hamas, the terrorist organization, was doing what it does.

That was the most profound experience that anyone could possibly imagine. It was transformative for me.

Anti-Semitism is real. It is very active in this world. The events in Montreal prove that it is on the rise. Is it on the rise everywhere? I think it is.

Yesterday, because I have been an outspoken advocate for peace and for the right of Israel to exist and to protect itself, I received a message from within my own constituency suggesting that I was acting like a Nazi for my beliefs and my sincere conviction that peace can happen, that Israel has the right to exist, and that action against anti-Semitism must be taken.

These are the perspectives that a man from Newfoundland and Labrador who sits in this chamber can offer to this debate. Not only do we have to communicate that anti-Semitism is not to be tolerated, but we have to send a message to the Jewish community, to those who would advocate for peace and for harmony, that we will not stand idly by, no matter what corner of the globe or part of Canada we are from.

I will conclude with that one perspective. This is an issue that should captivate us all. We have a duty to action and a duty to protect, and it is inherent in each and every one of us.

[Maria Mourani, Independent, Ahuntsic, QC]

Mr. Chair, I have been in the House since this debate began. I have still not asked any questions or made any comments. I was listening to the other members speak. I was also listening to my colleague who just spoke.

I must admit that I am having difficultly understanding. Is it safe to say that criticism of Israel is not necessarily anti-Semitic? Anti-Semitism is being racist toward Jewish people. Anti-Semitism is a form of hatred, racism and incredible violence.

However, as I listen to my colleagues, I feel like I no longer really understand. It is as though criticism of Israel is equivalent to anti-Semitism. I have a hard time understanding that. I think that we can be critical of a government's policies without being anti-Semitic. There are Jews in Israel who criticize the state of Israel and there are Jews outside Israel who may also criticize Israel's policies.

We need to be careful not to confuse these things. Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or racism toward blacks or people of any colour is one thing. Criticizing a government's policies is quite another.

Perhaps I misunderstood my colleagues, but I must admit that I sometimes have a hard time following them. I would therefore like to ask the member who just spoke if it is possible to criticize Israel without being accused of being anti-Semitic.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

Mr. Chair, the hon. member has confused the message and the debates a lot. If I could offer some perspective, having been to Israel and attending the Knesset, the debate in Israel is pretty intense at times. Israelis are very forward thinking. Israel is a very democratic nation that serves its best interest by serving democracy. There is always debate.

However, to suggest that if one offers criticism to Israel, that somehow one is anti-Semitic has never been an utterance that has ever occurred on the floor of this chamber through the course of this debate. What we have said, collectively and very clearly, is that anti-Semitism is a very real phenomenon that is born in hatred. It is not born in criticism, not in public discourse of fair minded people and fair minded values. It is born on hatred. It incites violence and it will create an era of intolerance.

If that is the message that has confused her in this chamber, I also feel it becomes so painfully clear that the message could be confused elsewhere. That is why we have to speak out so loudly, so forcefully and so clearly to define anti-Semitism as a hatred and a violence that will not be tolerated. Those who seek peace, who seek discourse, as we did at Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, who embrace all cultures and all citizens will all have a place. That is the lesson maybe we can all take home from this.