Statement by Minister Rodriguez on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day)

OTTAWA, May 1, 2019

Beginning at sunset this evening, Canadians join with Jewish communities in Canada and around the world on the occasion of Yom HaShoah to commemorate the 6 million innocent Jewish men, women, and children murdered by the Nazi regime and its collaborators during the Holocaust.

Today, let us pay tribute to the resistance of the Jews who fought against these atrocities and honour the courage and resilience of the more than 40,000 Holocaust survivors who chose Canada as their new home. We thank these survivors and their descendants for helping make Canada a welcoming, inclusive and prosperous country that is stronger for its diversity.

As the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism, I encourage Canadians from all backgrounds to honour the memory of the millions of Jews who were persecuted and murdered during the Holocaust. In this period of resurgent antisemitism and xenophobia, it is our moral imperative to never forget and to take action to ensure sure that such horrors are never repeated.