04/13/2026
Today, on Yom HaShoah, we pause to remember the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, and the countless others who suffered under the N**i regime and its collaborators.
We remember the victims not as numbers, but as individuals. Each with a name, a family, a future that was stolen. Entire communities erased. A civilization in Europe that was nearly extinguished.
We also honour the survivors who rebuilt their lives from the ashes, many of whom came to Canada and helped build the Jewish community we know today. Their resilience is a testament to the strength of the human spirit, and their stories remain our most powerful weapon against denial and distortion.
But remembrance alone is not enough.
This year, Yom HaShoah comes at a time when antisemitism is no longer a distant memory or a relic of history. It is here. It is visible. And it is growing.
In Montreal, across Canada, and throughout the Western world, Jewish communities are facing threats, harassment, and violence at levels we have not seen in generations. We have seen open displays of hatred, calls for violence, and even the glorification of the very ideology that led to the Holocaust.
The fact that Jewish institutions now require heightened security, that children must be protected simply for attending school, and that Holocaust commemorations themselves are treated as potential security risks, should alarm every Canadian.
It is a profound moral failure that, in 2026, Jews once again feel unsafe in cities like Montreal.
Yom HaShoah is not only a day of remembrance. It is a warning.
A warning of what happens when hatred is tolerated, when evil is rationalized, and when societies lose the courage to defend their most basic values.
We cannot allow history to repeat itself, not in its original form, and not in any new form it may take.
That requires more than words. It requires action. It requires leadership. And it requires a clear and unwavering commitment to confronting antisemitism wherever i
