Conservative MP wants answers after National Holocaust Monument flub

CTV National News: Monumental oversight A new Holocaust monument in Ottawa has drawn international criticism due to a serious oversight. Glen McGregor reports.

OTTAWA – A Conservative MP is looking to get answers after the plaque Prime Minister Justin Trudeau inaugurated at Canada’s new monument to the Holocaust did not mention Jewish people.

David Sweet has filed an order paper question asking the government to answer for the oversight. In the question—essentially a formal request for information that the government must respond to—Sweet says he wants the government to say who gave final approval for the text on the plaque; and who was the highest ranking official in the Prime Minister’s Office that signed off on the text.

The monument just west of Parliament Hill was inaugurated by Trudeau and Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly on Sept. 27. It was installed to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, which included six million Jewish people.

Sweet brought up the oversight in the House of Commons daily question period on Tuesday, saying it failed to mention anti-Semitism or Jewish people by name.

"How could the Prime Minister permit such a glaring omission of reference to anti-Semitism and the fact that the millions of men, women, and children who were murdered were overwhelmingly Jewish? If we are going to stamp out hatred toward Jews, it is important to get history right,” he said.

In response, Joly announced the government has removed the placard and said they will be replacing it with “language that reflects the horrors experienced by the Jewish people.”

The language on the original plaque commemorated “the millions of men, women and children murdered during the Holocaust and honours the survivors who persevered and were able to make their way to Canada after one of the darkest chapters in history.”

It typically takes up to 45 days for the government to answer these submissions.

Senator Linda Frum tweeted this image of the plaque: