Mount Royal MP Irwin Cotler rose in the House of Commons to congratulate Israel on its 60th anniversary and "on the building of a pluralistic, democratic state amidst relentless assaults and calls for its destructions – and for an enduing legacy of scientific, cultural, academic, and economic achievements."

The Opposition Critic for Human Rights said that "Israel is not only a homeland for the Jewish people … but a homeland of the Jewish people, a vehicle for Jewish survival and self-determination – of the reconstitution of an ancient people in its ancestral homeland."

Professor Cotler recited the age-old prayer for peace in Hebrew – Oseh Shalom Bimromov, Who Yaaseh Shalom, Alenu V’al Kol Israel, V’imeru, Amen – which in translation reads "May God who establishes peace on high, grant peace for us all, Amen;" and concluded with his own aspiration for peace – that "this 60th anniversary herald the end of terror and violence – and a real, just, and lasting peace for all peoples in the Middle East."