Harper honours not deserved

On Dec. 1, the Jewish National Fund will be holding an event to raise funds for the Stephen J. Harper Hula Valley Bird Sanctuary Visitor and Education Centre in Israel. The facility itself sounds like a wonderful place to visit and an important and safe refuge for migrating birds. Yet it is ironic that a prime minister who is responsible for making it more difficult for families to find protection in Canada would have this facility named for him.

Consider, in 2012, the Stephen Harper Conservative government significantly altered more than a half century of progressive policy regarding Canada’s treatment of refugees. Included among the changes:

• New rules that discriminate between individuals based on their country of origin and how they arrived in Canada;

• Measures creating serious challenges in the refugee determination process, which could lead in some cases to the deportation of individuals to their home countries and a real risk of persecution or worse;

• Unreasonable limits on certain humanitarian protections;

• Drastic cuts to health care coverage for refugees (including ill children and pregnant women).

How Canada treats the most vulnerable among us – particularly those fleeing violence, war, and persecution – is of particular concern to the Jewish community. Because of our own history, we share a special bond with refugees. The federal government’s current policies, and its resulting treatment of the Roma people in particular, are inconsistent with Canada’s postwar tradition of compassion and tolerance. Policies regarding the treatment of people seeking refuge should be guided by humanitarian values, not crass political calculations.

We recently helped form the Jewish Refugee Action Network (www.jran.ca) to advocate for a reversal of the government’s agenda on refugees. Our concerns are shared by legal experts, settlement workers, and health professionals from many faith and cultural communities. A key element of our work will be educating Canadians, including within the Jewish community, about the harmful effects of the government’s policies towards refugees.

We hope that the prime minister will reflect on these concerns and engage in a dialogue with us to rectify this injustice.

Steering Committee members on behalf of the Jewish Refugee Action Network:

Stephen Lewis – Honorary Co-Chair

Michele Landsberg – Honorary Co-Chair

Rabbi Arthur Bielfeld – Founder

Ken Rosenberg – Chair

Dr. Philip Berger

Bernie M. Farber

Mary Jo Leddy

Maureen Silcoff

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Charter incites anti-Semitism

I am outraged and extremely concerned about the proposed charter of Quebec values and how this could potentially impact the Jewish community, and other religious communities, in Quebec and across Canada.

I feel that Bill 60 is shocking, given our country’s history of freedom of religion. Anti-Semitism and xenophobia will always exist, but when a government, such as the government of Quebec, not only condones but incites these activities, the acceptability of giving voice to these virulent thoughts, increases exponentially.

This charter has the potential to take away jobs for Jews and for other religious communities, force Jewish and children of other religious communities out of public schools, and discriminate against  businesses of Jews and other religious communities.

Where does it stop? What religious freedoms and freedoms in general, are next on the chopping block? Have we learned nothing from history?

Saying that this charter affirms “secularism” is misleading because Christian people and Christian traditions are not affected.

As far as I am concerned, if this is what Quebecers want, then let them separate from Canada and be their own country. Then Canada can impose sanctions on them for violating human rights.

I call on all Canadians across the country to vigorously protest this potential violation of religious tolerance and human rights in our precious country.

Susan Goldberg

Toronto

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Former neo-Nazi must repent

I just read David Lazarus’ article about Csanád Szegedi (“Former Hungarian neo-fascist – a Jew – to speak at Chabad,” The CJN, Nov. 14).

He quoted Devorah Shanowitz, who said, “If we can fix what is broken, then we should be given permission to fix things.”

Is she narrow minded, or naive? The only one who must and can fix it is Szegedi himself. How?

By immediately standing up in front of the Hungarian and the European parliaments in Budapest and Brussels, condemning his own previous statements and apologizing for his hostile attitude against the Jews and Israel. At the same time, he must denounce everything that his former political party, Jobbik, and Hungarian neo-Nazis were and are standing for. Then he must repent publicly through the printed and electronic media.

If he will do this between now and December, I will believe and trust him, and I shall go to the meeting and shake hands with him. But if he does not, then we can be assured of his real intentions and his turncoat/opportunist, career-Jewish personality.

Peter Sipos

Côte Saint-Luc

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Beware the French teacher

As we know, in order to find gainful employment in Quebec, immigrants are urged (required, mandated) to take French courses. Financial aid is granted by the Ministère de l’Immigration et des Communautés culturelle.

Tania Longpré (“PQ candidate backtracks on JGH comments” The CJN, Nov. 21) teaches French to immigrants. If Longpré happened to be the first official representative of “La Belle Province” that I, as a new immigrant might meet, I’d turn tail and run to another province in a heartbeat!

Rhona Samsonovitch

Montreal West