NEW After hearing thousands of last words, this hospital chaplain has advice for the living
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
When Dr. Agnes Klein took the podium at the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa, there was silence.
Klein, who says she never thought of herself as a survivor, was just three years old when the war broke out. She survived the Holocaust by hiding on a farm in Romania.
"My husband was a concentration camp survivor and he never wanted to speak of his experiences. However, current circumstances and increasing hate have forced me and have made me and induced me to speak out," Dr. Klein said.
In an emotional and powerful speech at an International Holocaust Remembrance Day event in Ottawa, Klein stressed the importance of remembering the millions of victims murdered by the Nazis during the Second World War and underscored the need to stand up against antisemitism and hate.
"As long as we remember their names, they continue to be alive in some ways because it reminds us that those were people who loved and lost, contributed to society, were generous, courageous and resilient," she said.
On Jan. 27, 78 years ago, Soviet troops liberated the most notorious concentration camp -- Auschwitz-Birkenau. While roughly 7,000 prisonners were liberated that day, over 1.1 million people, the vast mostly Jews, were murdered by the Nazis there. Across the world, Jan. 27 has been designated International Holocaust Rememberance Day.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was also among the speakers. He urged Canadians not to be complacent and to call out hatred whenever they come across it. Acts of hateful and antisemitic rhetoric, he said, are coming from "dark corners of our society."
“Hate is being amplified online and on other platforms and so we cannot and must not be complacent," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the event. "All Canadians, especially those of us here who are leaders, need to stand up and call it out plainly and loudly.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poililevre also encouraged Canadians to call out “utterances of hatred and antisemitism.”
“When we do that, and only then will we live up to the privilege and the honour it is for us to live here as Canadians.”
According to Statistics Canada, the number of police-reported hate crimes increased by 27 per cent in 2021, with an increase in hate crimes targeting the Jewish community went up 47 per cent.
Lisa Levitan, whose grandfather survived a concentration camp, is an advocate for the global End Jew Hatred campaign. The grassroots movement says it aims to eliminate Jew hatred through peaceful action and education.
"He instilled in me the importance of ensuring that we remember, that we never forget the horrors," she said. "It is our duty as the next generation to make sure we remember."
A teacher in Ottawa, Levitan says antisemitism has become too common in schools and "that's a problem we need to end."
"The fact that it is resurfacing to such immense levels ... is unacceptable."
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
French police cordoned off the Iranian consulate in Paris on Friday, where a man was threatening to blow himself up, Europe 1 radio and BFM TV.
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
An apparent Israeli drone attack on Iran saw troops fire air defences at a major air base and a nuclear site early Friday morning near the central city of Isfahan, an assault coming in retaliation for Tehran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Canadian banks that refuse to identify the carbon rebate by name when doing direct deposits are forcing the government to change the law to make them do it, says Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.