shame

As I have previously written in my blog - my mother spent three years in Auschwitz. Those who were not gassed immediately upon arrival performed slave labour under unimaginable conditions. There was one choice place to work in the camp that many vied to be asigned to: the office where belongings and property stolen from the victims was sorted and stored. If you worked there, you had access to better food rations and treatment not available to others. It was a small island of comfort in a sea of hellish cruelty. The nickname of this paradise was "Canada" - a name that for the prisoners symbolized riches and peace.

When I moved to the real Canada in 1980, I could not imagine that 25 years later, Pierre Pettigrew, the federal Minister of Foreign Affairs would be laying a wreath on the grave of Yasser Arafat - a mass murderer who throughout his wretched and evil life on this planet did his best to emulate the architechts of Auschwitz with regards to the amount of Jewish blood on his hands.

Shame on you, Mr. Pettigrew and shame on your government that dares to sully the name of our country - the symbol of hope, peace and calm to so many all those years ago behind the electrified barbed wire fences of Auschwitz.