Mr. Speaker, I am humbled to rise today to speak on behalf of the Bloc Québécois in response to Canada's apology to passengers of the MS St. Louis.
In 1939, in the early days of the Second World War, when Germany was fully under Nazi rule, Canada refused to welcome 907 Jewish refugees coming from Hamburg. These 907 people were fleeing ever-worsening persecution in their country.
Six months earlier, they had lived through the Night of Broken Glass, during which Adolf Hitler's troops burned down hundreds of synagogues and thousands of Jewish-owned businesses, killed 91 people and arrested 30,000 others, sending them to what would later become concentration camps.
On board the ship that was to save their lives, these 907 people first landed in Cuba. Cuba refused to help them. The ship then set course for Florida. The United States denied them asylum. As a last resort, the 907 passengers tried their luck in Halifax. Canada denied them asylum. In fact, Canada did not just say no. When asked how many Jewish refugees Canada would be willing to take, the federal government, through its then immigration minister, responded, “None is too many”. These 907 Jews were therefore sent back to Europe to face certain death. Just a few months later, two-thirds of the passengers were living under Nazi occupation, and 254 of them were killed in the death camps.
Today we honour their memory and that of all those passengers. We commend the Canadian government's decision to apologize for the role it played in their lives, in their deaths, and in the lives of their loved ones.
This is one of the worst imaginable examples of lack of compassion and humanity. It is anti-Semitism. That is a loaded word, but unfortunately it is the word that best describes what happened.
The value of hundreds of people's lives was denied for no other reason than their religious beliefs. Canada was not immune to religiously motivated hatred of the other—and neither was Quebec immune to anti-Semitism, much to our regret. Anti-Semitism also found fertile ground in Quebec, which was struggling under the heavy yoke of the church at the time.
It is vital that we acknowledge that today. It is vital that we remember that we were not always on the right side of history, that we too can choose the wrong path. It is vital that we keep alive the memory of those who were condemned to death by our blindness in 1939. That is the best way to ensure that we remain vigilant against intolerance.
In closing, I would like to speak directly to our fellow citizens of the Jewish faith.
Less than two weeks after the terrible anti-Semitic crime in Pittsburgh, I want to assure them that they can count on the support of our party and on the solidarity of Quebeckers. Quebec will remain united against even the smallest expressions of hatred. We will stand shoulder to shoulder. This is how we will ensure that tragedies like the one that befell the passengers of the MS St. Louis will never happen here again.