Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present in the House today a petition signed by 1,058 Canadians, related to a very sad chapter in Canadian history. Members will remember that about eight years ago, our former prime minister Justin Trudeau rose in the House to apologize for the treatment of Jewish refugees in the Second World War, including the refusal for the MS St. Louis to dock in Canada, sending 900 Jews back into Nazi-occupied Europe. They were fortunately given refuge, but with the start of the Second World War, many of them were actually killed.
The petition relates to Jewish refugees who were sent here from the U.K. who were actually interned, some of them alongside Nazis, for up to three years during the war. The petition asks for us not only to educate Canadians as to this and for the government to devote money to education but also to install proper commemorative plaques at all the nine different sites where Jewish refugees were interned for up to three years, and to do outreach programs to high schools, etc.
At a time of rising anti-Semitism, this is a very important initiative, and I will work with them to do this.