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Canada’s antisemitism envoy stated Saturday’s annual day to mark the atrocities dedicated towards Jewish individuals in the course of the Second World Struggle is extra essential and extra poignant this yr amid what she described as a rampant surge in anti-Jewish sentiment sparked by the most recent conflict within the Center East.
“This yr’s commemoration has a very sombre tone, nearly a foreboding, because of the alarming rise in antisemitism around the globe and much more sadly, right here, in our personal treasured Canada,” Deborah Lyons stated at a ceremony on the Nationwide Holocaust Monument on Friday.
She attributed the temper to an increase in antisemitism that has come because the Israel-Hamas conflict nears its fourth month, leaving Jews in an “prolonged state of mourning” and going through grief and concern.
They’ve needed to see individuals deny, justify and even have fun hostage takings and an October bloodbath in Israel, Lyons stated in reference to the Oct. 7 assault that killed at the least 1,200 individuals and launched the most recent conflict.
“We as Canadians can not, and we won’t, let the reality of the Holocaust be distorted nor be denied,” she stated.
“It’s our particular person and collective duty to take action.”
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Greater than six million Jews have been systematically killed by Nazis and their allies between 1933 and 1945.
In more moderen months, police and members of the Jewish group have been sounding alarms a few rise in antisemitism for the reason that Oct. 7 assaults by Hamas militants. Through the assaults, greater than 1,200 individuals in Israel, together with tons of of civilians, have been killed and about 240 individuals have been taken hostage.
Well being authorities within the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip say greater than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed all through the conflict, and plenty of others have lived by way of common bombardment by Israeli airstrikes and had entry to water, electrical energy and different provides minimize off.
As Lyons spoke, dignitaries and members of nationwide Jewish associations crammed the viewers, soaked by freezing rain in the course of the one-hour outside ceremony. Most carried black umbrellas.
“We’re not going to let a couple of raindrops hassle us on this solemn day,” stated Lyons, a former ambassador to Israel who was named particular envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism in October.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre attended however didn’t make speeches, every reciting a prayer as a substitute.
Each issued statements on Saturday acknowledging the spike in antisemitic violence in Canada.
SEE ALSO: Canada criminalized ‘condoning, denying or downplaying’ the Holocaust: is it working?
Gov. Gen. Mary Simon echoed a few of Lyons’ sentiments on Saturday, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau focus camp that’s come to be acknowledged as Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Simon stated the current and fast rise of antisemitism in communities throughout Canada and around the globe is “regarding.”
“Nobody must be focused, harassed or abused due to who they’re or what they consider,” she stated in a press release.
“Once we see hate rising in Canada — in all its types and iterations — we can’t be silent.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Jan. 27, 2024.
— With information from Laura Osman in Ottawa
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