Message from the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism

I invite you to attend the conference "The St. Louis Era: Looking Back, Moving Forward." It is hosted by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and B’nai Brith Canada in partnership with the US Department of State, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the US Holocaust Museum, and the Memorial de la Shoah.

 This conference is the culmination of more than two years of Canada’s efforts to seek membership in the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF). It is also the result of over 30 years of work by academics, educators, civil society groups, Holocaust survivors and governments at all levels in Canada.

Together, these people have worked to ensure that Canadians and people around the world never forget the Holocaust and learn the important lessons it has to teach.

And we have learned from the past. More than a year ago, I announced that Canada would refuse to participate in the racist Durban process because we had serious concerns that the failings of the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, would be repeated at the 2009 Durban Review Conference.  In 2001, the Durban Conference degenerated into open and divisive expressions of intolerance and anti-Semitism. Unsurprisingly, we were vindicated in our decision to withdraw from the sequel.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the fateful voyage of the MS St. Louis. Although the ship never entered Canadian waters, Canada’s failure to offer refuge to its passengers is viewed as reluctance to protect those seeking refuge from the persecution, and later the genocide, of the Nazi regime.

I invite you to take part in this event June 1-2, 2009 at Sutton Place in Toronto. I look forward to joining Canadian and international participants and our French and American partners in a broad and stimulating event that should contribute to the field of Holocaust education, remembrance and research in Canada and abroad.

Sincerely,

The Honourable Jason Kenney, PC, MP

Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism