Jewish Leaders Meet with Prime Minister Martin
Joining the prime minister were Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, Minister of International Trade Jim Peterson and Elinor Caplan, member of Parliament for Thornhill.
Groups represented were Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA), UIA Federations Canada, the federations of Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and B’nai Brith Canada.
“We came together as a unified delegation to convey to the prime minister the apprehension and concern in the community following these despicable acts,” said CJC national president Keith Landy.
“We wanted to thank him and the senior members of his caucus who loudly and publicly condemned the recent incidents and to encourage such open denunciations as a template for responding to future acts of anti-Semitism and any manifestations of hatred.”
Said CIJA co-chair Brent Belzberg: “We wanted to reinforce for the prime minister the notion that the resurgence of contemporary anti-Semitism is a global phenomenon that transcends borders.
“We appreciated [his] undertaking to enhance Canada’s leadership role in the international campaign against anti-Semitism, both in the context of multilateral forums and Canada’s bilateral foreign relations.”
Acting CJC national executive director Manuel Prutschi urged Martin to stay the course in Canada’s campaign against international terrorism both at home and abroad.
“We conveyed the community’s concern that terrorism is, and will continue to be, a real threat to national security,” said Prutschi. “We encouraged the government to make the case to Canadians that counter-terrorism measures remain necessary in a world where no country is immune to terrorist attacks.”
CIJA co-chair Steven Cummings said the delegation “also sensitized [Martin] to the profound physical, psychological and financial impact of the heavy security burden the community is bearing and that this very need constituted an infringement on our rights as Canadians.”
Cummings said Martin “gave a very sympathetic hearing to the human side of the various security measures the community is forced to undertake at our schools, synagogues and other communal institutions… we asked the prime minister to consider what the government could do to assist us in this process.”
The delegation also engaged Martin in a discussion of racism and discrimination in Canada and the need to maintain civil discourse.
“We agreed that it would be advantageous for the government to explore its role in promoting core Canadian values, such as respect for diversity and pluralism, to help maintain civility and act as an antidote to expressions of hate irrespective of the source or the target,” said CIJA’s chief executive officer Hershell Ezrin.
Other members of the delegation included UIA Federations Canada president Shoel Silver; chair of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, Leslie Gales; president of Montreal’s FEDERATION CJA, Sylvain Abitbol; president of the Ottawa Jewish Community Council, Arnon Vered; CJC director of government relations Eric Vernon; B’nai Brith Canada national president Rochelle Wilner; B’nai Brith Canada executive vice-president Frank Dimant; B’nai Brith Canada director of communications Joseph Ben-Ami; and director of national affairs of the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Leo Adler.