The wave of vandalism that hit Jewish cemeteries in Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa last week was unanimously condemned by the House of Commons on Tuesday.
The deputies endorsed a resolution by Liberal Party House Leader Jean-Robert Gauthier deploring acts of racism and intolerance manifested by the desecration of cemeteries.
The resolution called “on all Canadians to reject such destructive and violent incidents.”
The House resolution followed a gathering of 1,500 people of various faiths and backgrounds at a memorial service in Ottawa on Monday, to protest the desecration of the local Jewish community’s only cemetery, in nearby Gloucester.
Many headstones were knocked over and spray-painted with swastikas.
Politicians, community representatives and others participated in the service.
Liberal opposition leader Herb Gray, an observant Jew, said, “We the living, Jews and non-Jews alike, must give a categorical rejection to this. If Jews in Canada can’t be safe, then no minority in Canada can be safe. Evil will triumph if good men and women do nothing.”
Because of the Memorial Day holiday in the United States, the JTA Daily News Bulletin will not be published on Monday, May 28. Because of Shavuot, there also will be no Bulletin on Thursday, May 31.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
