The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Kamal Khera, Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities, released the following statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day:
"Today we mark 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp in occupied Poland, where 1.1 million people were senselessly killed - one million of them Jews. We solemnly remember the over 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust as well as the other victims of Nazism including 500,000 Roma and Sinti and numerous 2SLGBTQI+ persons, persons with disabilities and political dissidents persecuted and killed by the Nazis and their collaborators.
"Preserving the stories of these innocent lives and educating ourselves about the Holocaust and the hatred that fueled it is essential. It is all the more relevant given the rise of antisemitism in Canada and around the world in recent years. Canada strongly condemns antisemitism, Holocaust denial and distortion, and the glorification of terror and hate speech. These acts of hate and intimidation are deplorable and unacceptable.
"That is why museums, monuments and memorial sites such as the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa, the Toronto Holocaust Museum, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, the Montreal Holocaust Museum and the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada exist. We must ensure that the truth of the Holocaust and the stories of survivors are never distorted or denied. This is particularly important given the dwindling number of survivors in Canada and the loss of first-hand accounts of the Holocaust.
"Canada's Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons, works to combat antisemitism and promote Holocaust remembrance. Canada recently launched our first Action Plan on Combatting Hate and released the Canadian Handbook on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism to better identify and prevent hate. We are also providing critical funding for the memorialization of the Holocaust, including for the Montreal Holocaust Museum and the National Holocaust Remembrance Program.
"Let us use the flames of remembrance to illuminate the future. Let us use the lessons of the past to stand against antisemitism, racism and intolerance. And let us uphold human rights and dignity for all."
