Yom Hashoah - Holocaust Memorial Day

Tuesday April 25 was Holocaust Memorial Day. I was one of the readers during the ceremony "Unto Every Person there is a name."

In the legislature, I spoke briefly

"Mr. Speaker, I would like to join my colleagues today, Holocaust Memorial Day, in remembering the tragedy of the Holocaust, the 6 million people who died, and the 1.5 million children who died, and in joining others in the resolve to do everything in our power here and elsewhere to prevent such tragedies in the future.
This Holocaust Memorial Day has a special meaning to me this year because I was in Jerusalem in February and had a chance to visit the Holocaust Museum. What an incredible experience going through and seeing the many stories.
After I read at the memorial, "unto every person there is a name." After I had read some of the names this morning, I had a chance to talk with one of the survivors who has lived here in Winnipeg now for many years. It was very moving, both on the one hand to hear her speak of the pain that is there every day for her even now, so many years later from the many people whom she knew and she lost in the terrible tragedy that was the Holocaust. But, Mr. Speaker, in spite of that pain being there every day, she has contributed in Manitoba in many, many ways, including working with children at the Children's Hospital for many years.
I think it is an important opportunity to salute those who have come through this terrible experience and, yet, have been able to contribute in one way or another so much here in Manitoba and others, of course, around the world.
This is a real opportunity to remember and to recommit ourselves to preventing this sort of thing from ever happening again. "