Kenney will travel to Norway, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and France, where he will represent Prime Minister Stephen Harper at various commemorative events.
On June 24, he attended a conference hosted by the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF) in Oslo. During the conference, he announced that Canada's application for full membership of ITF had been accepted.
"Membership in this important body provides Canada with an opportunity to work internationally to combat racism and anti-Semitism," Kenney said in a news release.
"This Government believes it is critically important to be engaged in efforts to teach future generations the lessons of the Holocaust and help prevent future acts of genocide."
To become a full member, Canada had to complete a baseline study on the current state of Holocaust education, remembrance, and research in Canada and complete a project in liaison with ITF members.
During the remainder of the trip, Kenney will meet with senior government officials and pay his respects at various memorial and historical sites commemorating the Holocaust.
In Budapest on June 27, he will represent the Prime Minister at the Official Commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the Demolition of the Iron Curtain. Two days later he will attend the Holocaust Era Assets conference in Prague. He also plans to visit Terezin Memorial, the site of a former concentration camp.
While in France he will commemorate the Dominion of Newfoundland's heroic contributions in the Battle of the Somme at the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial on behalf of the Minister of Veterans Affairs.
The memorial is dedicated to the Newfoundlanders who lost their lives on July 1, 1916 during the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
The battle was the regiment's first major engagement, and during an assault that lasted about 30 minutes almost the entire regiment was wiped out. The memorial site consists of 74 acres of preserved battlefield which encompasses the ground over which the men advanced.
