Canada to formally apologize in November for turning away German Jews in 1939
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will formally apologize in November for turning away a boat of German Jews seeking asylum in 1939, which led to the deaths of more than 200 people.
Trudeau says it was a moral failure on the part of the government of the day.
The MS St. Louis ship had 907 Jews, who were fleeing Nazi persecution, aboard when it was turned away from both Cuba and the United States before a group of Canadians tried to convince then-prime minister Mackenzie King’s government to let it dock in Halifax.
King was unable to convince Frederick Blair, the director of the immigration branch of the federal Department of Mines and Resources, to allow them into the country.