Sixty-nine years ago after the Second World War the term "never again" was coined by the United Nations to ensure that the human catastrophe called the Holocaust would never again happen.This has turned out to be in large measure an empty promise since our generation has witnessed the Cambodia killing fields, the Rwanda genocide, Srebencia and Kosovo and little is being done about the current tragedy in Syria.
The Holocaust was undoubtedly one of the darkest events in human history. The German Reich under Adolph Hitler systematically killed approximately six million Jews in gas chambers, including Gypsies, Slavs, communists and homosexuals. So what has that to do with modern day Canada, you say?
I personally was shocked to learn that a new global poll shows Canadians to be more likely to be anti-Semitic than Americans with 14% of Canadians as compared with 9% of Americans likely to harbour anti-jewish sentiments. We are talking about 4.8 million Canadians, and since hatred towards any minority group runs clean against core Canadian values as expressed in our Charter of Rights and freedoms this has to be a serious problem. Over 40% of Canadians do not even know there was a Holocaust.
The bright side of all of this for Canada is that Stephen Harper and Jim Baird believe actions speak louder than words prompting Robert Singer, the chief executive officer of the World Jewish congress to pay high tribute to the Canadian Government calling Canada "the leaders in human rights" in standing up for minorities around the world.
We can be proud as Canadians that Canada fights anti-Semitism with tough laws yet recent anti-Semitic events do with the current conflict in Gaza are happening right now in Canadian cities.
Anti-semitism in any form needs to be denounced by politicians, educators, the media and anyone in a position to make a difference because it is completely at odds with core Canadian values and a great evil. In this case silence is a great sin.
