April 05, 2004
Ottawa, Ontario

STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER

Last night’s firebombing of a Jewish school in the Montreal suburb of St. Laurent is an attack on freedom. The attack against a place of learning, where young children gather is an offence against all that Canadians cherish.

But the assault was not directed against the Jewish community of Montreal. It is an act of violence directed at all Canadians and one to which we must collectively respond.

Like all Canadians, I was horrorstruck by recent events in the Toronto area. A Jewish cemetery desecrated and damaged. A mosque made the target of an arson attempt. A synagogue vandalized, its stained-glass windows shattered, its walls degraded with symbols of hate.

This is not my Canada. This is not our Canada.

We as a nation and as a people take great pride in the fact that women and men and children from around the world are able to come here -- choose to come here -- to a country in which they can express themselves with the deepest freedom and be themselves with the deepest joy, all without fear of persecution or harassment, without fear of hateful slurs being spray-painted on their front door. In Canada, we celebrate our diversity, for it makes us stronger. And because of this we are the envy of so many in the world.

Cultural, religious and racial respect occupies a permanent place in the very bedrock of our society. And that is why we must always respond to manifestations of hatred with collective and heartfelt condemnation. History has demonstrated vividly and all too terribly that there are perils to silence and consequences to indifference. We must all express our outrage so that the most distant corners of this vast land echo with the words of our deepest values. The words of those who rejoice in Canada’s multicultural splendor.

We must never forget that each of us is lessened when any one of us is the object of hate.

Canadian authorities will work diligently to identify, apprehend and punish the perpetrators of this crime. But the task of ensuring that ours is an open society where all faiths and nationalities can live in peace and security is a responsibility shared by all Canadians. There is no room for the kind of blindness that led to these acts and I know that Canadians will reject not only these examples of hatred, but the lack of mutual understanding and intolerance that breeds such attitudes.