Ottawa, ON – The Hon. Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and the Official Opposition, released the following statement on the National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Nazism and Communism in Europe:
“During the 20th century, the world was confronted with evil twin socialist ideologies, Nazism and Communism.
“The racist cult of the Nazis instigated the bloodiest conflict in human history, resulting in the deaths of millions of people worldwide. Their repulsive, evil ideology ultimately led to the systematic murder of over 6 million Jews in the Holocaust – a tragedy of unspeakable proportions carried out with heartless cruelty.
“Across Eastern Europe, a different kind of oppression had taken root. The communist policies of the 1920s spread devastating poverty across the Soviet Union. Forced labour camps overflowed with innocent people in a campaign of terror launched by Lenin and his successors. From 1932-33, Joseph Stalin’s ruthless tyranny led to the forced starvation of millions of Ukrainians in the Holodomor – a genocide as part of the Soviet’s ‘Russification’ against the Ukrainian peasantry who resisted their communist policies.
“Today, 84 years to the day since the Nazi-Soviet pact was signed, we remember the tens of millions of victims of Communism and Nazism in Europe. Together with all those who love freedom, we stand against the repulsive ideas that bred such hatred, and we recommit to defending justice and liberty wherever it is under attack. May we forever remain on guard against fascism, communism and all other forms of socialism.”