The push is on in the House of Commons to try for the establishment of a national Holocaust monument in Ottawa.
Tim Uppal
A motion was introduced in the house last week by Tim Uppal, Conservative MP for Edmonton-Sherwood Park, as private member’s Bill C-442, “An Act to establish a National Holocaust Monument.”
The bill passed first reading on Sept. 18 and is now being reviewed by a committee to ensure it is sound before it comes up for second reading.
Uppal’s bill also has multi-partisan support. Liberal MP Irwin Cotler and New Democrat MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis have both endorsed it.
In an interview last week, Uppal told The CJN the idea to push for the monument came in the spring from Peter Kent, minister of state for foreign Affairs (Americas) and MP for Thornhill – one of the country’s largest Jewish ridings. He said Kent responded to Uppal’s earlier request to solicit ideas from colleagues for their private member bill priorities, as he had drawn a “good” number at the beginning of Parliament this session.
Uppal explained that MPs all draw numbers to determine in which order they are allowed to present private bills. He drew number 51, and the government is currently looking at Number 47.
“I was presented with a number of ideas, but this is one that really resonated with me. Interestingly, after I had decided on [accepting Kent’s proposal], I ended up going to Israel with the Canada-Israel Committee in July. Being there, and learning what I did about the Holocaust and Israel, just made me feel more reassured that this was the right thing to do and get this bill passed,” said Uppal, who is Sikh.
“I looked at this as a Canadian. Knowing Canadians need this, not just for the Jewish community,” he said. “As a Sikh, as a visible minority in Canada… I think the root of all hate is the same, whether we’re talking about anti-Semitism or racism in general.”
Although Uppal has the political spotlight on him for this bill, Uppal said the credit for the idea should go to Laura Grosman, right, a fourth-year public administration student at the University of Ottawa who is minoring in Canadian Jewish studies.
Born and raised in Thornhill, Grosman, 21, is also executive director of the Canadian Memorial Holocaust Project.
She said she first approached Kent with her idea “over a year ago,” before he was elected – a family friend with a connection to Kent helped broker the meeting, she said – after a discussion with one of her professors on the theme of Canadian contributions during World War II and the Holocaust.
“I explained to him what I hoped the monument would be able to signify and why I felt it was important for the government to do now,” she said, adding that Kent has since supported her initiative “in any way he could.”
Kent was unable to sponsor the private members bill himself because he’s a cabinet minister.
“I wanted a place to reflect on those whose lives were cut short by the brutality of the Nazis, as well as to honour the Canadians who fought against state-sanctioned hatred and anti-Semitism. This monument will be a beacon to remind Canadians of the need to remain ever vigilant to protect the world from tyrannical oppression and atrocities against mankind,” Grosman said.
As a grandchild of survivors, she said she’s always had a “very intense interest” in the Holocaust because of her family history.
“I was shocked to realize there was no Holocaust memorial [in Ottawa]. I always thought there would be something,” she said. The realization prompted her to take up the cause of a monument in Canada.
If Bill C-442 passes, the government will have one year to assemble a National Holocaust Monument Development Council, derived from public applicants who “possess a strong interest in, connection to, or familiarity with the Holocaust,” according to the draft.
Grosman said she’ll be the first one to apply.
Once in force, the bill requires that the council is assembled within one year and that it has three years to complete its mission. It will then be the council’s responsibility to decide upon the final location of the monument, its design and also to organize fundraising to pay for the monument.
In a statement last week, Cotler said Grosman’s initiative for a national Holocaust monument “will embody the imperatives of the act of remembrance and of the remembrance to act.”
Wasylycia-Leis said the project is part of Canada’s “obligation” to victims and survivors of the Shoah “and indeed to all of humanity that we never permit the unprecedented evil and hatred of the Holocaust to be forgotten or repeated.”
Uppal said barring an election, which would scuttle all bills being considered in the current parliamentary session, he’s hopeful his bill will pass by the end of the year.
Canadian Jewish Congress CEO Bernie Farber praised the bill as “an important statement” by the government and said his organization has supported Grosman’s idea from its inception.
“To recognize, in some tangible fashion, probably the worst example f genocide in modern history… it could stand as a warning for generations to come.”
