Tara Walton/CP Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a town hall at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., on Jan. 15, 2019.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has given a full-throated defence of his condemnation of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement during a historic apology for how Canada turned away Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust. "I will continue to condemn the BDS movement," Trudeau said during a town hall at Brock University in St. Catharines Tuesday night. The movement, a focus of debate on many university and college campuses, calls for economic boycotts of Israel's goods and services over its treatment of Palestinians. A man in the audience rose to thank the prime minister for his formal apology in November for the shameful 1939 government decision to send the MS St. Louis, an ocean liner carrying 900 German Jewish people, back to Europe. Earlier: Trudeau backs Conservative motion blasting BDS movement

Tonight at Brock University @JustinTrudeau was asked to apologize for his condemnation of the #BDS movement. His response, "I will continue to condemn the BDS movement." Thank you Prime Minister for standing against BDS.🙏 pic.twitter.com/1ntzXvCDnH — Michael Levitt, MP 🇨🇦 (@LevittMichael) January 16, 2019

In 2016, Liberal MPs backed a Tory motion in the House condemning the BDS movement as something that "promotes the demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel." Then-foreign affairs minister Stéphane Dion called the motion a failed attempt to divide the House. Though the motion passed easily by a vote of 229 to 51, three Liberal MPs — Larry Bagnell, René Arseneault, and Nick Whalen — voted against it. Arsenaut later told iPolitics "it restricts too much of freedom in Canada to criticize any state." NDP and Bloc Quebecois MPs also voted against the motion over concerns about free speech. NDP foreign affairs critic Hélène Laverdière said at the time that New Democrats don't support the BDS movement and believe there are "far more effective" ways to help Israel and Palestinians. "However, just because we do not support it does not mean that the House can condemn people who peacefully support another idea," she said. "We will find a solution through informed debate and engagement, not by condemning people or disrupting dialogue." Current NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, a former member of Ontario's legislature, spoke out against a similarly successful push to condemn the BDS movement at Queen's Park in 2016.