October 9, 2017: The difference one person can make

By Michael Regenstreif

“Someday, when people gather around a national Holocaust monument in Ottawa, one person in particular will be proud of its establishment. She’s University of Ottawa student Laura Grosman. At 21 years of age, she has worked tirelessly for two years… to get the federal government to honour Holocaust victims by erecting a national monument in Ottawa.”

So wrote Benita Siematycki in the November 16, 2009 edition of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin.

A decade after Laura first articulated a vision of Canada having a monument in the national capital, the National Holocaust Monument – as it is now officially known – was dedicated in Ottawa on September 27.

From its conception to its dedication, the National Holocaust Monument involved many people and organizations, elected officials and government bureaucrats. It took a decade, millions of dollars and much perseverance by so many to accomplish.

But it all started with a vision articulated by a determined teenaged student at the University of Ottawa. While we’ve told Laura Grosman’s story before in the Bulletin, it bears repeating at this important time as a reminder of the remarkable difference that one person – no matter how young they may be – can make.

Ten years ago, Laura took a course on the Holocaust taught by Professor Rebecca Margolis of uOttawa’s Vered Jewish Canadian Studies program. She learned that Canada was then the one Allied country that fought the Nazis during the Second World War that did not have a national Holocaust monument.

Two significant factors influenced Laura’s determination to see a national Holocaust monument built in Ottawa. “The first is her family history. Laura’s paternal grandfather was a Holocaust survivor who never spoke much about his past. When he died, says Laura, his story went with him. The second factor is Laura’s fascination with all things political. She is a self-professed political junkie and loves nothing more than being involved in the political system,” wrote Siemiatycki in 2009.

“It’s pretty embarrassing for someone like me who’s involved politically to know that Canada is the only Allied country that doesn’t have a national monument. We have a national Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony that’s held where we can place them. That’s not acceptable to me,” she told Siemiatycki.

Laura came to uOttawa after growing up in Thornhill, a suburb north of Toronto, and as a politically aware young person she began to enlist federal politicians in supporting her cause. The first to come on board was her own MP, Liberal Susan Kadis, who began the process of drafting a private member’s bill to establish the monument.

Laura wanted the establishment of the monument to be a nonpartisan effort and other MPs she enlisted in the cause included Richard Marceau of the Bloc Québécois (who is now general counsel and senior government adviser at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs), and Conservatives Peter Kent (who defeated Kadis in the 2008 election) and Tim Uppal.

Kadis’ private member’s bill to establish the monument died when the 2008 election was called. She was defeated in Thornhill by Kent who was subsequently appointed to cabinet. As a minister, Kent could not sponsor a private member’s bill but the torch was picked up by Uppal, an MP from Edmonton.

Uppal’s bill – Bill C-442, an Act to Establish a National Holocaust Memorial – was passed in 2011 and the National Holocaust Monument Development Council was created to work with the federal government to acquire the land for the monument across from the Canadian War Museum, commission the design, raise the millions of dollars necessary to build the monument funds (matched by government funding), and oversee the construction. All of that took another six years.

But it all started 10 years ago with Laura Grosman, a teenager who found it unacceptable that Canada did not have a national Holocaust monument; a teenager with an ambitious dream and the dedication to make that dream a reality.

March 22, 2010: The Passover message remains important in our own time

By Michael Regenstreif

Welcome to what we refer to as “the Passover edition” of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin. Not because it’s the issue that comes out during Passover – that will be the next issue, which we’ll send to the printer before the first seder night – but because it’s the last issue that comes out before Passover. As it’s the Passover edition, we’ve included a number of feature articles that deal with the holiday – or, at least, holiday food. For some reason, the JTA Passover features this year were mostly food-oriented. As well, several of our columnists have focussed on Passover themes.

Passover has always been my favourite of all the Jewish holidays. It’s not the food – although I do actually like matzo – or even the enduring seder rituals that make this my favourite Jewish holiday; it’s because I find the Passover message of freedom from slavery and oppression to be so inspirational.

During Passover, we remember the slavery endured by the ancient Israelites in Egypt and celebrate their struggle for freedom and the exodus from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. The Passover Haggadah reminds us that we, like everyone in every generation in the thousands of years since the exodus, must view ourselves as personally moving to freedom from the bondage of slavery.

The remarkable thing about the message of every generation having this personal vision of the exodus from Egypt is that the tradition almost seems to be telling us explicitly to apply the Passover message to our own time.

Jews are not the only people to be inspired and galvanized by the Passover message. When African American slaves in the United States were struggling for their freedom from slavery, just 150 years ago, they took inspiration from the biblical story of the Jewish escape from slavery. The code name of Harriet Tubman, the leader of the Underground Railroad that helped slaves escape from slavery in the American South to freedom in Canada, was “Moses.” The code name for Canada was “the promised land.”

Today, thousands of years after Moses led the Jews out of Egypt, oppression and slavery still exist in our world. As Jews, we remember the six million murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, but we also remember that the Nazis turned millions of Jews, including so many who were murdered, into slave labourers. That was in the 20th century, just decades ago.

It’s estimated that there are 27 million slaves in today’s world. Clearly, the journey from slavery, begun by Moses, continues in our own time.

IAW resolution fails in Parliament

Last issue, I commented on the rare show of unanimity in the Ontario Legislature when MPPs passed a resolution condemning Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). That same unanimity was not to be found, March 11, when two resolutions in the House of Commons were defeated for lack of unanimous consent. Conservative MP Tim Uppal proposed a motion in the House that condemned IAW for seeking to delegitimize the State of Israel with the “apartheid” label and voiced ongoing support for a two-state solution; and Bloc Québécois MP Claude DeBellefeuille proposed a motion that denounced both the “apartheid” label for Israel and the labelling of critics of Israel as “antisemitic,” and that also expressed support for the right of both Israel and the Palestinians to their own states.

Because the resolutions needed unanimous voice votes in order to pass, Hansard doesn’t tell us how many MPs voted against either of these motions, only that they did not pass. However, I was forwarded an email that NDP MP Libby Davies sent to IAW supporters saying she voted against both resolutions.

Happy Passover

On behalf of the staff, advisory committee and contributing columnists and reporters at the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, I extend our best wishes to all for a joyous and happy Passover. Chag Sameach.