Holocaust Remembrance Day
April 13, 2010
"Speaker, I am privileged to rise today on behalf of the PC Caucus and recognize Holocaust Remembrance Day or Yom HaShoah.
"This year marks the 67th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Commencing last Friday and continuing this week, ceremonies are being held in Ontario and across Canada to commemorate and remember the six million Jews who were slaughtered in the Holocaust.
"I also represent the riding of Thornhill, a constituency with the largest Jewish population in any of Ontario?s 107 ridings.
"Virtually every Jewish family in Thornhill has recorded in its own history the effects of what Hitler called the Final Solution and what we call the Holocaust. In fact, this could be said of any Jewish family living in Ontario today.
"Every individual who is remembered and honoured at this week?s ceremonies was someone?s mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, daughter or son.
"We mark Holocaust remembrance for these very individuals whose voices have been silenced, whose lives were tragically taken away during this darkest period of modern history.
"As their names are read in this week?s ceremonies, we bring these individuals back to life.
"These ceremonies not only allow us to pause and honour these six million individuals and the families who loved them, but they remind us all of the lessons to be learned from these horrific crimes committed solely out of hatred.
"During my attendance at the Yom HaShoah Commemoration at the Shaar Shalom Synagogue in Thornhill yesterday, I thought of the extreme and hateful emails I received in response to the motion I debated in this House in February on Israeli Apartheid Week.
"I thought of the threats made against the member for Parkdale High Park who, in supporting my motion, spoke only of peace and justice.
"And I thought, yes, a society as open and diverse as that of this great province, still needs to be reminded of the tragedy of the Holocaust.
"In lighting candles yesterday evening to honour the victims, I also thought of my father?s parents. As citizens of Germany, they worked hard and wanted what all of us do - to contribute to society, to raise a family, and grow old in peace. While my father fled Nazi Germany and came to Canada by way of England as a Jewish refugee, his parents remained behind and became two of the six million lost in Nazi concentration camps.
"Grandparents I never met whose lives were ended out of hatred. I, myself, carry the name of my grandfather, Emil Shuermann.
"And I am pleased to see that the lessons learned from the Holocaust were remembered and discussed at a special forum on bringing war criminals to justice hosted yesterday by the Law Society of Upper Canada. Entitled ?From Nuremburg Forward?, the session focused on effective responses to war crimes, and Holocaust era efforts to bring perpetrators to justice.
"It is up to us as members of a free, open and diverse society to ensure the lessons learned from the Holocaust and other genocides are passed on to future generations.
"We must always remember that without the freedom and openness that Canada offers to us all, many of us would not be here to remember those six million people who came before us.
"Six million people who were killed in the most heinous crime ever committed against humanity.
"We must always remember and we must always say: Never again."