Mr. Speaker, what happened in the House last week was shameful: the introduction of a Nazi as a hero, someone our vets fought against, part of an SS division that massacred Jews and Poles.
What is as shameful is the Prime Minister's failure to rededicate to fighting and calling out fascism and Nazism in our midst. Let us not forget that 1.1 million Canadians fought and 97,000 were killed or wounded fighting with our allies to liberate the world from the Nazis. Let us also not forget that we are a country that refused to admit Jewish refugees from Nazism in the 1930s, but admitted SS Nazi combatants in the 1950s.
At a time when Canada and the world are seeing the rise of neo-Nazism and fascism, the Prime Minister has failed to speak out. As Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
In the name of the victims of Nazism, Jews, Poles, progressives, LGBTQ people, Roma and millions of others, let us remember and let us learn from history: never again.