In its Budget Implementation Act of 2022 tabled on April 28, the federal government included provisions criminalizing Holocaust denial. Not only do we applaud this initiative, we have also been calling for it for some time.
Already last February, Conservative MP Kevin Waugh (Saskatoon–Grasswood) introduced Bill C-250 on the subject, bringing the issue to the fore in the House of Commons and, with the commitments made in the 2022 budget, it is clear that this important measure in the fight against anti-Semitism receives widespread support among elected officials.
The Holocaust is one of the most documented historical facts in human history, by perpetrators and victims. As stated by M.and Martin Imbleau in the pages of To have to of March 16, 2007: “Holication denial is a form of anti-Semitism and racism. »
Thus, denying the Holocaust is an indicator, yes, of hatred of the Jew. But it is also a disturbing marker of radicalization, which society as a whole will one day inevitably bear the brunt of. What begins with the Jews never ends with the Jews.
So the question is not whether Holocaust denial is shocking, offensive or hurtful.
According to the latest data from Statistics Canada, Jews make up 1% of the Canadian population, yet are the target of 62% of reported hate crimes directed at a religious group. As stated in an interview with To have to in June 2021 Irwin Cotler, former federal Minister of Justice and special envoy of Canada for the preservation of the memory of the Holocaust and the fight against anti-Semitism, anti-Semitism has reached a level not seen since the end of the Second World War.
The sources of anti-Semitism are multiple. Hatred of the Jew can obviously emanate from the far right, but also from the far left as well as from extremist Islamist circles, as shown by an in-depth investigation by the European Union.
This is why it is necessary to equip ourselves with several instruments in order to fight against this cancer. The ban on Holocaust denial is one such instrument.
We believe that this can be done while respecting the freedom of expression protected by both the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Other democratic countries with as strong freedom protections as us, such as France, Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic, have banned Holocaust denial as a form of hate speech. . Last January, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution against Holocaust denial.
Anti-Semitism evolves and changes according to places and times. Jews have been – and are – attacked for their religious beliefs, for their identity as an ethnic or national minority, for their application of the right to self-determination. This is why our collective toolbox must include a variety of tools to combat this toxic and pernicious ideology.
We are thinking in particular of the inclusion of the Holocaust in the school curriculum, an effective and muscular strategy to combat online hate including an independent regulatory regime and the obligation placed on social networks to be the first responders in the fight against hate on their platforms, financial support for setting up a program similar to the UK’s Community Security Trust, better training for law enforcement, prosecutors and judges to tackle hate crimes.
The fight against anti-Semitism requires a commitment from all sectors of society, supported by willing public authorities. Prohibiting Holocaust denial is central to this challenge. As Imbleau wrote above: “The equation is simple: to rehabilitate racist thought, the stain that is the Shoah must disappear. This is what we cannot let happen.