Mr. Speaker, Yom HaShoah approaches. It is the day we remember the victims of the Holocaust; the men, women, and children who were executed in the fields of Ukraine; those who were murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Treblinka; those assigned to slave labour who starved to death in Dachau. More than 6 million Jews and millions of non-Jews perished.
My predecessor, Irwin Cotler, often quoted the phrase, “Holocaust did not begin in the gas chamber, it began with words.” This is true. Words led to incitement to hatred, which led to pogroms and murder.
We must never remain silent in the face of incitement to hatred. The Holocaust took place over 70 years ago, and few survivors remain. It is our sacred duty to ensure that all Canadians know what happened.
We should never forget.