Honourable senators, I am joining you in paying tribute.

Last week in New York, Senators Pate, Dasko and I, with Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations and hundreds of Canadians, stood together in tribute to the 18 Canadians who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, including Danielle Moore, with Manitoba roots, who was one of the youth delegates of the United Nations Association in Canada delegation en route to the UN Environment Assembly.

Today, I also pay tribute to the victims of the terrorist attack that took place on Friday, March 15, in New Zealand, when one man murdered 50 Muslims in two mosques while they were at prayer. The youngest victim was only three years old. This was a terrorist attack that does not fit the popular stereotype of terrorist attacks.

As we saw just a year ago, on January 29, in Sainte-Foy, Quebec, when six Muslims at prayer were murdered, this is terrorism fuelled by notions of white supremacy and Islamophobia.

Less than five months ago, at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, 11 Jews were murdered by a shooter who invaded their Shabbat morning service.

The Internet is riddled with language of hate and threats of terror from those who are the haters. Words matter, and the words we use to describe these events matter. Genocide starts with words. Language has the power to shape thoughts, and thoughts the power to shape actions. Uttering by words can be an indicator of bigotry, and bigotry can be the basis of justification for discriminatory and harmful actions.

Consider this example — just one of many and one of the shortest I found — on the website for some sporting clubs here in Ontario:

We also have a muslim mosque that collected just 75 signatures to ban assault weapons . . . and this muslim petition of just 75 signatures is what the government is noticing; yet, our tax paying citizens’ petition of 75,000 signatures against Bill C-71 gets ignored as if it never existed.

If you find yourself dismissing this example as just words, think again. We have an obligation to all of those who have lost their lives to hatred and who live their lives in fear of threats to use words that convey the truth of what is happening around us. We must define such attacks on places of worship as terrorism. We must identify and expose xenophobic haters and hold them accountable.

Targeted attacks based on race are on the rise in Canada. We need to pay close attention to hate speech, whether directed at Indigenous peoples, Jews, Muslims or others seen as different in some unacceptable way to the haters. Thank you. Meegwetch.