Francais
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Feb 01, 2008 statement by Irwin Cotler on the issue of Holocaust Remembrance

Statement by Irwin Cotler


Mr. Speaker, this week we commemorate the International Day of Holocaust Remembrance, the 63rd anniversary of the liberation of the death camps, of the liberation of the surviving remnants of 'Planet Auschwitz', the most horrific laboratory of mass murder in history, reminding us of the dangers of state-sanctioned cultures of hate, of incitement to genocide, of the dangers of indifference and silence in the face of radical evil.

We remember and we pledge, and this must not be a matter of rhetoric but a commitment to action, that never again will we be indifferent to incitement and hate; that never again will we be silent in the face of evil; that never again will we indulge racism and anti-Semitism; that never again will we ignore the plight of the vulnerable; that never again will we be indifferent in the face of mass atrocity and impunity. 

We will speak and we will act against racism, against hate, against anti-Semitism, against mass atrocity, against injustice and against the crime of crimes, whose name we should even shudder to mention, genocide, and always, against indifference, against being bystanders to injustice. For in our day, more than ever, qui s'excuse s'accuse, whoever remains indifferent indicts himself or herself.