Sep 16, 2003
CJC to United Nations envoy: “Profound concern over resurgent antisemitism in
Canada”
OTTAWA — In its role as the democratically elected organizational voice of the
Jewish community of Canada, Canadian Jewish Congress today briefed United Nations’
Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia
and Related Intolerance, Doudou Diène on the contours of contemporary
antisemitism in Canada. A series of remedies were suggested to help eliminate
this scourge. Here at the invitation of the federal government, Mr. Diène
will be visiting five cities in 10 days, meeting with government officials,
Aboriginal communities and leaders, and representatives of diverse ethnic, racial,
religious and other non-governmental organizations. Eric Vernon, CJC director
of government relations, appeared before Mr. Diène this morning at a
session held at Ottawa City Hall.
Mr. Vernon began by expressing appreciation to the Special Rapporteur for including
antisemitism as one of the core issues of his probe into racism, racial discrimination
and xenophobia in Canada, particularly in view of the insidious efforts by certain
member states of the UN to deny antisemitism its due place in any examination
of contemporary racism. He also noted that CJC was pleased that his examination
of antisemitism correctly focused on the term uniquely as a hatred of Jews.
The CJC representative then highlighted the alarming increase in antisemitic
hate and attacks on individuals and Jewish community institutions, including
several serious incidents, in the past three years. He notes that Canada was
not immune to the international upsurge of antisemitism in the wake of the renewed
campaign of Palestinian violence against Israel. “We told the Rapporteur that
if he wanted to gain insight into the contemporary domestic manifestations of
antisemitism in Canada he had to understand this phenomenon in its international
and Middle Eastern context. We pointed to the distressing breakdown of civil
discourse in Canadian society that has created a permissive atmosphere in which
legitimate vigorous expressions of political opinions have crossed the line
to antisemitism, thereby threatening basic Canadian values of respect for diversity
and free speech. In reference to events such as the Concordia riot that prevented
former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking in Montreal,
we indicated to the Rapporteur that while we must guard against irrational fear
of the foreigner, we cannot allow foreign enmities to take root and manifest
themselves in Canada.”
In addition to the call for enhanced civility in public discourse, CJC noted
several other remedies for the Rapporteur’s consideration in his future liaison
with the Canadian government and his report to next year’s session of the UN
Commission on Human Rights. These included full acknowledgement of the place
of antisemitism in the UN anti-racism lexicon; sustained and consistent implementation
of Canada’s anti-hate and human rights laws and policies to protect vulnerable
minorities; active participation of government leaders as well as leaders of
civil society in the public campaign against antisemitism and racism; and the
ongoing institutionalization of Holocaust memorialization and education, including
an appropriate monument in the national capital.
Representatives from CJC Quebec Region will appear before the Rapporteur in
Montreal on September 17th and a delegation from CJC Ontario Region will make
a presentation at a hearing in Toronto on September 25th. The two groups will
focus on providing additional details of local and regional instances of antisemitism,
hate speech, hate crimes, and campus activity.
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416-631-5844
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