New Parliamentary Alliance to Discover and Eradicate Anti-Semitism in Canada

New parliamentary alliance to discover and eradicate antisemitism in Canada PDF Print E-mail
Written by Lynne Cohen   
Tuesday, 09 June 2009

OTTAWA – The Jewish community of Canada can take heart. At a Parliament Hill press conference and reception last week, the federal government launched the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism (CPCCA), a 21-member, all-party alliance dedicated to discovering and eradicating antisemitism in Canada.

MP Irwin Cotler, co-chair of CPCCA’s precursor group, the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism, explained why Canada was launching the new coalition now. He quoted Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel, “who recently shared his anguish at the global resurgence of antisemitism: ‘[I have] the feeling of urgency, if not, emergency, that we believe antisemitism represents and calls for. I must confess to you, I have not felt the way I feel now since 1945. I feel there are reasons for us to be concerned, even afraid…now is the time to mobilize the efforts of all of humanity.’”

Such sentiments galvanized 125 leaders from more than 40 countries to gather in the UK last February for the historic founding conference of the International Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism (ICCA). At that meeting, many experts presented evidence “of a new, escalating, sophisticated, globalizing, virulent and even lethal antisemitism reminiscent of the atmospherics of the 1930s and without parallel or precedent since the end of World War II,” said Cotler.

This founding conference adopted the London Declaration to Combat Antisemitism, which calls on all governments to react decisively to the global resurgence. Thus, the CPCCA.

“This is a critical move by Parliament at a critical time,” said Frank Dimant, executive vice-president of B’nai Brith Canada. “The world cannot wait until antisemitism gets even worse, and history tells us it will get much, much worse. We applaud the government of Canada for taking this step. B’nai Brith will lend any and all support and expertise to this historic endeavour.”

MPs Scott Reid and Mario Silva, CPCCA’s chair and vice-chair respectively, announced at the press conference that the coalition will almost immediately conduct a national inquiry. They extended an invitation for written submissions – of up to 2,000 words – by any individual or group, to be submitted no later than July 31.

The two MPs also said that hearings will be held next fall to gather oral testimony on the extent of Canadian antisemitism and on potential solutions. The CPCCA will make a public report of its findings no later than spring 2010.