Ottawa, ON – The Hon. Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and the Official Opposition, released the following statement on Black Ribbon Day:
“Eighty-six years ago, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed in Moscow. This agreement infamously included secret protocols by which Nazi Germany and the USSR would divide and occupy their neighbours – an act of treachery remembered as one of history’s most disgraceful.
“Mere days later, Poland was invaded. The peoples of that region quickly found themselves divided between Communist and Nazi tyranny, each bringing its own repressions and horrors.
“But today’s commemoration is not only about remembrance of past injustice – it is also about hope for the future. Because it was also on this day in 1989 that the Baltic Way sent Moscow a powerful message. Freedom-loving people across Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia quite literally joined hands in solidarity against Communist oppression, an act that hastened the end of the Soviet Union.
“Today and every day, Conservatives stand proudly in opposition to the dual evils of Communism and Nazism: remembering both their countless victims and the many brave souls who fought for freedom.”