Attempts to erase the lauding of a Nazi veteran from Canada's records are shameful.

Today’s Liberal motion to erase the honouring of a veteran of Hitler’s forces from Canada’s record is the antithesis of remembrance.

On Monday, Liberal Government House Leader Karina Gould attempted to move a motion to erase all records of the Speaker of the House of Commons recognizing a veteran of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (a Nazi division), during the address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's to Canada's House of Commons. 

This decision was horrendous. But you shouldn't hear why from me.

This story is my colleague Marty Morantz's to tell.

Marty, the Member of Parliament for Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley and a member of Canada's Jewish community, vigorously opposed the motion. But when he attempted to stand up and put his rationale for his positions on the record, Liberals tried to silence him. 

Marty’s full thoughts on this matter are important. Before you read them (below), I strongly encourage you to watch the video footage of this intervention here.

Much love, ~ MRG.

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There's a reason why Jewish community members repeat the mantra, "never again."

The generational trauma of the Holocaust has been born by a people who have had to fight wars on multiple fronts: overcoming the scars of millions of lost lives, rebuilding for the future, and confronting those who seek to erase the stain of Jewish genocide from human history.

But if there's one thing that Jews know, it's that when history is erased, lessons are forgotten. 

Adolph Hitler's Nazi regime knew this fact well, too. It's why they attempted to erase the proof of their crimes instead of atoning for them or submitting themselves to justice. It’s also why Jewish associations worldwide continually seek to remind the world of the systemic, state-sponsored genocide of over 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime. And it's also why Holocaust deniers try to whitewash the Nazi regime's atrocities.

Friday's historic visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Canada should have been beyond reproach. However, the invitation and lauding of a veteran of Nazi forces - a veteran of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS - in the House of Commons, inexplicably given by the Speaker of the House and not stopped by the Prime Minister's Office or any other of the countless people in Canada's protocol, foreign service, or national security apparatus, is inexcusable.

This incident gave the Russians a proof point for their propaganda, did a profound disservice to President Zelenskyy, and stained Canada's credibility in the global community. 

However, this event should not be erased from the records of Canada's Parliament.

Instead, the records of Canada's Parliament should be filled, from here on in, with recognition from Canada’s current government of the utter inexcusability of this affair, atonement from this government for failing to prevent it from happening, and acknowledgement that the root of this incident was an unsavoury tendency of Canada's current government to attempt to use convenient revisionist history for political gain.

Instead of erasing what happened on Friday, Canada’s government should work to ensure that our Parliamentary records be now filled with government statements of apology to Canada's Jewish communities for a broken system that allowed a veteran of Nazi forces to be lauded. The fact that Canada's allies like Poland and Slovakia suffered grievous losses at the hands of the division that the individual in question fought with should now be imprinted in the Hansard by our current Prime Minister. And our Parliamentary records should now also be filled with reminders of how important it is to remember the past so that future generations do not whitewash the future.

It has been said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. That Canada’s Prime Minister was absent from the House of Commons on Monday, and instead of being accountable for Friday’s incident sent his House Leader out to attempt to erase the record of its occurrence, is inexcusable.

Yesterday’s Liberal attempt to strike Friday's incident from the records of our nation was an ugly reminder of what survivors of the Holocaust know too well: that we must never forget. Deleting the text of the Speaker's words from Hansard would have only one purpose: to try to forget what happened, to wash the record clean.

Under no circumstances should Members of Parliament allow the Liberal government to erase the records of what happened.

Instead, we should be united in ensuring that Canada’s government take responsibility for its failure. The government must put onto the record a formal admission of culpability and a request for forgiveness. But most importantly, they should deliver action that sends a clear message to the world that such an egregious lapse of judgment will never happen again.

And if they can't or won't do that, instead of attempting to erase history, they should abdicate the position of power they hold, because they will have lost the moral responsibility to keep it. 

History is rife with examples of attempting to erase history.

Lest we allow ourselves to forget that thanks to what the Liberals attempted to do today, Canada is no different.

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Marty Morantz is the Member of Parliament for Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley and the Vice-Chair for the Canada-Israel Inter-Parliamentary Group.