Speaking points for the Honourable Jason Kenney, P.C., M.P. Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism at the “M.S. St. Louis Era: Looking Back, Moving Forward” conference

Ottawa, Ontario
June 1, 2009

As delivered

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Thank you very much.

On behalf of our government and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, I welcome every one of you, particularly the survivors who are here and in particular the international delegates. I would like to thank our partners, the United States department of State, the French Foreign ministry – the French ministry of Foreign Affairs, the United States Holocaust Museum and the Memorial of ha–Shoah. I would especially like to thank our Canadian partner and co–host, B’nai Brith for its hard work in making this happen.

This conference marks the culmination of more than two years of work in Canada, as part of our efforts to seek membership in the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF). It is also the result of decades of dedicated efforts by scholars, educators, holocaust survivors and public institutions and it is a testament to the wealth of holocaust knowledge we have in Canada and around the world.

Conferences like this are essential and the involvement of government is essential, but ultimately if we, as a society, are to learn the lessons of the past and avoid repeating the connection between anti–Semitism and anti–Semitic violence, these must be lessons for our entire civil society and government cannot do this by itself.

Ladies and gentlemen, The Prime Minister is deeply committed to holocaust education, research and commemoration, a fact that I think was in part recognized last night when he received the Simon Wiesenthal international leadership award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center. This award recognizes his effort and his leadership to deal with the education of the historical reality of the holocaust, but also to confront modern manifestations of anti–Semitism.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the voyage of the St. Louis. As we know, it sailed from Europe in 1939 but was not allowed to land at its original destination of Cuba. Although a group of prominent members of Canadian society lobbied the Canadian government, the St. Louis was unable to find refuge on the trip to protect its passengers from persecution by the Nazi regime. Now the Canadians here will know that exactly what form the response of the Government of Canada the dominion government at the time took.

I find it particularly appropriate that I stand before you as the Minister of Immigration, because it was a deputy minister of my predecessor portfolio, the man responsible for immigration to Canada, who infamously said at that time with respect to Jewish refugees seeking protection in Canada, that “None is too many”.

After the ship returned to Europe, we all know the sad story and that many of these people who sought refuge and protection from us, from the United States, from Cuba, eventually perished in the Shoah. While the St. Louis never entered Canadian waters, it became a symbol of anti–Semitism that occurred in Canada and elsewhere at the time of the holocaust.

Today however, our government takes a zero tolerance approach to anti–Semitism and this is what drives the initiatives that Canada now takes. This conference and the project of which it is part underscore, we hope our pending membership in the international task force. I hope to be in Oslo at the end of next month to see that come to fruition. I also intend to visit Prague late next month to represent Canada at the 10th anniversary of the original conference on holocaust era assets, an issue very important to Canada because it was this country that received a disproportionately large number of survivors following the Second World War.

We are helping to teach Canadians about the St. Louis incident along with the events and attitudes that underscored it. And in keeping with this effort, I am happy to announce today that our government, through its community historical recognition program, will contribute $984,000 to help B’nai Brith Canada develop and operate a national task force on holocaust research, remembrance and education.

Composed of scholars, legal experts and educators, the group will include holocaust survivors and members of the Jewish community. It will support further research around the St. Louis tragedy, prepare and publish material for high school students relating to civic responsibility and help to train Canadian educators involved in holocaust education.

This action by Canada demonstrates that we are not content to follow the actions of other countries, but intend to be a leader in combating anti–Semitism and racism just as we were in our decision to withdraw from the irredeemably anti–Semitic Durban review process. Our leadership promotes the fundamental Canadian values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law and has been demonstrated by several other efforts, including our support for vulnerable community institutions to improve their security.

As you know, in 2003 all parties in the House of Commons and the Senate passed a bill to mark the national holocaust memorial day, the Yom ha–Shoah. We did so because all of us who are elected understand the need to mark a day which marks the singular crime against all humanity.

In 2007, I traveled to Prague to represent our formal application for membership to the task force and this month, at the task force plenary session in Oslo, Canada will present its application for full membership in the ITF and we would like to thank our liaison countries, France and the United States, for their support of our efforts.

By seeking full membership, Canada is committing to act and to support the task force’s efforts to engage all people, teach future generations the lessons of the holocaust and help prevent future acts of genocide. We seek participation in the ITF as an opportunity to share in the lessons of the holocaust and to learn about the approaches of other countries in holocaust related initiatives. We also feel that we have much to contribute to the international community and the task force. I’m sure that many of you will have feedback about the direction that we are taking in these matters and we will look forward to hearing it.

I should add as a personal note that just last week, I was in Israel and spent several hours at Yad Vashem, but several hours wasn’t long enough for me to make my way properly through the magnificent new museum. That trip followed a recent trip I had to Kyiv in November of last year where I visited and laid a wreath at the Holocaust Site at Babi Yar, where 33,000 Jewish Ukrainians were mowed down. A few weeks later, I was in Mumbai where I visited Nariman House, the Lubavitch center in Mumbai. I marveled at the fact that the hatred which motivated the violence that I saw there was essentially the same hatred that motivated the mass killings at Babi Yar.

As I was entering Tel Aviv last week, we drove in front of the night club where dozens of young Jews were slaughtered a decade ago for the crime of being Jewish. And I contemplated that, just as the hatred that inspired the killings at Babi Yar continues today in a place like Mumbai, so too that hatred that is remembered at Yad Vashem and inspires the violence that we see in Israel and throughout the world today.

And so we must learn the lessons and that is what this conference is about. Last year, at the Yom HaShoah commemoration, Prime Minister Harper said about the holocaust that it was, “genocide so premeditated and grotesque in design, so monstrous and barbaric in scale and so systematic and efficient in execution that it stands alone in the annals in human evil.”

Gatherings such as this demonstrate that there is hope to stamp out the hatred that led to the holocaust and that leads to violence against Jews today – hope that is renewed, not only by combating anti–Semitism, but in promoting a true and lasting understanding of human dignity that can protect all human beings in the future.

Canada will continue working to ensure the memory of the Holocaust is never lost. I’m confident that this conference will contribute to holocaust education and remembrance in this country and abroad.

I wish you all the best in your discussions and deliberations and look forward to hearing about the research that emerges from your efforts.

Thank you very much.