In June of 1939, a ship called the MS St. Louis carrying 907 German emigrants fleeing Nazi Germany made it to the shores of Canada at Halifax, Nova Scotia. At that time Canada’s Prime Minister was William Lyon MacKenzie King and Frederick Blair was the director of the Immigration Branch of the Department of Mines and Resources. Canada refused to allow the MS St. Louis to dock in Halifax. After Canada’s rejection, the St. Louis was forced to return to Europe, where, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 254 of the passengers perished at the hands of the Nazis.  Mr. Blair was directly responsible for the refusal to dock. Mr. Blair’s photograph is featured on the posterboard retelling our church’s history, as he was one of the founding members of our church.

Mr. Blair developed and rigorously enforced strict immigration policies and is most remembered for his successful effort to keep Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany out of Canada during the 1930s and the war years that followed. After the war, between 1945 and 1948, the Immigration Branch accepted only 8,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors. That record is arguably the worst of all possible refugee receiving states. Mr. Blair’s enforcement of anti-Semitic immigration policies sealed the fate of thousands of European Jews who would have escaped death had Canada not turned them away.

While we acknowledge Mr. Blair’s contribution to our church’s history, we herein also acknowledge the sin of antisemitism in his policies and we, as a church, have publicly repented of our past association with his shameful and sinful views related to antisemitism. While we are unable to erase the stain of that sin from our history, we can commit to loving and caring for our Jewish neighbours as they continue to suffer today from a resurgence of antisemitism. It is our commitment to do so, to the best of our ability, by the grace of God and in the name of Jesus Christ, our Jewish Saviour.

If you would like to view the night we sought to repent over this issue, please go here (especially starting at the 47:30 mark).