Canada‘s government has removed a plaque inaugurating the country’s first National Holocaust Monument after critics blasted it for not mentioning Jewish people or anti-semitism.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke to a crowd at the memorial’s opening on Sept. 27, detailing the government’s commitment to fight xenophobia and anti-semitism. But the plaque only referred to the honoring of “the millions of men, women and children murdered during the Holocaust,” the Guardian reports.
Critics of Trudeau jumped on the lapse.
“If we are going to stamp out hatred toward Jews, it is important to get history right,” Conservative lawmaker David Sweet said on Oct. 3 at the country’s House of Commons. He also asked whether Trudeau planned to fix the “profoundly obvious omission.”
In Justin Trudeau's Canada the new Holocaust Monument plaque doesn't mention Jews, Anti-Semitism or the 6 Million. pic.twitter.com/byPGME6V6S
— Linda Frum (@LindaFrum) October 3, 2017
In Justin Trudeau's Canada the new Holocaust Monument plaque doesn't mention Jews, Anti-Semitism or the 6 Million. pic.twitter.com/byPGME6V6S
— Linda Frum (@LindaFrum) October 3, 2017
Heritage Minister Melanie Joly told Sweet that the plaque had been taken down and will be “replaced with language that reflects the horrors experienced by the Jewish people,” the National Post reports.
Trudeau isn’t responsible for the omission, but this is the second time he has been caught up in a Holocaust commemoration mistake. He was criticized in 2016 for failing to mention Jews during his statement on International Holocaust Memorial Day. He later corrected the oversight in a tweet.