Pursuant to notice of June 25, 2025, moved:

That, in light of findings and orders from the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court on the situation in Gaza, the Senate call on the Government to examine the risk to Canada and Canadians of complicity in violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and to report on its findings within three months of the adoption of this motion.

He said: Honourable senators, on this solemn day, exactly two years after the killing of over 1,200 men, women and children in southern Israel, I am calling on this chamber to reflect on the horror of that day and the horror of its aftermath every day since — not just in Israel but also Gaza and the West Bank.

I condemn the killing of innocent civilians on October 7, 2023, which has been described as the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. I also condemn the recent attacks on Jews in synagogues and community spaces, in Manchester, Berlin, Warsaw and Tokyo, as well as right here in Ottawa, where an elderly woman was attacked at a grocery store just a month ago. The Jewish community is reeling from these assaults and has called for more action against anti-Semitism and more education about the Holocaust.

Even though we are four months away from International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we would do well to mark every day leading up to January 27 in the way that the occasion was meant to serve: as a solemn commitment to remember the 6 million Jews and millions of others murdered by the Nazis and to say “never again” to genocide.

We need to mark every day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day because we are allowing again today what was to be never again. I can see how difficult it is for many of us to contemplate the idea that the modern state representing a Semitic people who suffered so much at the hands of the Nazis could inflict unspeakable horror on another Semitic people. There are those who say that it is anti-Semitic to suggest that the State of Israel could be committing a genocide against Palestinians, but that argument is disingenuous and illogical. It also dishonours the very purpose of Holocaust remembrance and the spirit of “never again.”

There are, of course, some who deny that a genocide has taken place. Genocide has been described as “the crime of crimes” in international law, and the term has been used liberally to describe many troubling situations around the world where there have been serious abuses of human rights. I do not use the term lightly and defer to experts who apply strict criteria to a claim of genocide.

In the case of Israel’s assault on Palestine since October 7, 2023, the consensus that a genocide has happened is so overwhelming that we cannot look away. Just last month, a UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry —