Minister Chagger Statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

OTTAWA, January 27, 2021

Today, in Canada and around the world, we honour the more than 6 million Jews persecuted and murdered during the Holocaust. Countless other innocent people were also victims of the Nazi regime’s atrocities because of their ethnicity, faith, sexual orientation, disabilities, or political views.

In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly declared January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This date marks the anniversary of the Soviet army’s liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp.

On this day, we also honour the courage, strength, and resilience of all Holocaust survivors and their descendants, some 40,000 of whom came to Canada. In 2017, the Government of Canada unveiled the National Holocaust Monument in the heart of Canada’s Capital to recognize their invaluable contributions in shaping the Canada that we know today and ensuring the lessons learned from the Shoah will resonate for generations to come.

While our government will never accept any form of hate or intolerance, Canada, sadly, is not immune to violence, xenophobia, and antisemitism. In 2019, we adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism in Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2019–2022 as another tool to help combat antisemitic attitudes, behaviours, and Holocaust denial.