![Prime Minister Stephen Harper and members of the international Jewish group Chabad Lubavitch honoured Jewish victims of Novembers Mumbai attacks on Parliament Hill yesterday. [photo credit: Christopher Pike, Reuters]](http://www.vinnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/pmcan.jpg "pmcan")
Ottawa – Anti-Semitism is an evil so profound that it is ultimately a threat to all Canadians, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday while attending a ceremony to honour Jewish victims targeted during last year’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
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The ceremony, held on Parliament Hill and attended by Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney and several other MPs, was organized by Chabad Lubavitch, an international Jewish group that operates centres in more than 50 countries.
Its centre in Mumbai was among the targets in the series of co-ordinated terrorist attacks throughout the city in November. The rabbi, Gavriel Holtzberg, and his wife, Rivka, were among six people killed in the building. Their two-yearold son and his nanny escaped.
Mr. Harper expressed his condolences over the couple’s murders, calling them senseless and brutal and said they were “affronts to the values that unite all civilized people.”
The Prime Minister said that sadly, the “age-old hatred, anti-Semitism remains an ever-present evil in our world today.”
“Anti-Semitism is a pernicious evil that must be exposed, that must be confronted, that must be repudiated, whenever and wherever it appears. Fuelled by lies and paranoia we have learned from history it is an evil so profound, indeed as we saw in Mumbai, that it is ultimately a threat to us all,” said Mr. Harper.
“Under our government, Canada will remain an unyielding defender of Jewish religious freedom, a forceful opponent of anti-Semitismin all of its forms and a staunch supporter of a secure and democratic state of Israel,” he told the applauding audience.
The Prime Minister said the quick instalment of a new rabbi at the Chabad Lubavitch centre in Mumbai sent a powerful signal that the Jewish people will “never bow to violence and hatred.”
“When it comes to standing against hate and intolerance, none have persevered, none have been as resolute as the Jewish people,” he said.
they people got the point: chabad is standing strong and ready to start over
chabad was allways strong what is there to start over my friend
Canada has a long history of tolerence to various faiths. Jew have been welcomed in Canada and have prospered.
Canada is an ideal example in the way they fight anti-semitism. they are one of Israel’s biggest supporters and were the first country to boycott DurbanII
Canada is simply the place to be!
Canada owes a lot of Hakoros Hatove to Reb Stephen Harper.
Prime Minister Harper is a breath of fresh air after a long list of Canadian leaders who constantly followed the lead of other countries hostile to Israel. He certainly has no political reasons to be friendly to Jews who make up only a tiny fraction of Canada’s population. He should be recognized as a true friend “machaside Umois Haolam.”
The Harper government has been consistently pro-Israel including during the Lebanon war and in the Gaza. As #9 puts it–Chretien was another story. they just take the Jewish vote for granted and the Jewish areas vote liberal without thinking.
The PM also told the assembled that Canada will always remain a home for the Jewish People. He cetainly does not hesitate to make politically incorrect statements. He has nothing to gain a some to lose by supporting Israel and making such comments. I agree he appears to be mechasidei umos haolam. Moshiach tsaiten!