MONTREAL — Liberal MP Irwin Cotler went on the attack against the Conservative government’s stance on Iran, suggesting that Stephen Harper’s words of support for Israel are at variance with his government’s actions.

“The prime minister has done excellent work in his statements with regard to Israel, but words are not as important as deeds,” the Mount Royal incumbent said at an all-party panel discussion organized by the Jewish community last week.

Cotler had little difficulty scoring debating points against neophyte Conservative candidate Andrea Paine’s representation of Harper as a principled, unequivocal supporter of Israel and the Jewish community. Paine, who was an aide to Human Resources and Social Development Minister Monte Solberg, is running in the riding of Lac St. Louis.

Both Cotler and Paine said in their opening remarks that which party is more supportive of Israel and Jewish concerns should not be the key issue for voters, but they then proceeded to enumerate what the Liberals and Conservatives had done or not done in this area.

Paine said the Conservative caucus is “virtually” unanimous in its support for Israel, which she said Cotler and Outremont New Democratic incumbent Thomas Mulcair, who was also on the panel, could not claim of theirs.

Cotler criticized the Harper government for not supporting a bill he presented last year calling for the prosecution of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide in the International Criminal Court.

Addressing Paine, he added, “And why are there four Canadian trade commissioners in Iran right now promoting trade with Iran?”

Cotler also attacked the Conservatives’ claim that they changed Canada’s voting pattern on anti-Israel resolutions, noting that Canada voted for seven such resolutions last year.

Paine said Harper is clearly opposed to any buildup of nuclear arms in Israel, but the Conservatives had not voted for Cotler’s bill, because they were waiting to see what Israel’s position was on such an initiative.

“We were not sure what the position of the Israeli government actually would be. We were also concerned that if the bill passed, the pro-Palestinians would spin that into a victory for themselves,” she said.

“We were being cautious and waiting to follow Israel’s lead.”

Cotler corrected her saying that Israel is behind the attempt to prosecute Ahmadinejad.

The discussion, moderated by Canadian Jewish Congress regional treasurer Robert Presser, also included Carole Freeman, the Bloc Québécois incumbent in Chateauguay-St. Constant, and Claude William Genest, the Green Party candidate in the riding of Westmount-Ville Marie.

Genest, a film producer, broke up the mud-slinging with his lively account of how he discovered, after growing up a “hockey-playing, French-Canadian, baptized Catholic” that he was, in fact, Jewish.

He was in his 20s, broke and travelling in Israel at the time. After his self-discovery, he spent two months in a yeshiva in Jerusalem.

He’s changed course since then, and admitted that today he lives with a Palestinian woman.

He avoided discussing the Middle East conflict, and stuck to his party’s goal of creating a sustainable economy that’s not dependent on oil.

Mulcair, who was elected in a byelection last year after many years as a Quebec Liberal politician, also presented his Jewish credentials: his wife is a Paris-born Sephardi woman. He also mentioned his trip to Israel this past spring.

Freeman talked about her introduction this year of a bill that would amend the Criminal Code to make it a hate crime to vandalize any buildings, such as schools and community centres, identified with a religious or ethnic minority.

She was the only candidate to wish the audience a good holiday, concluding with “Happy Rosh Hashanah,” her only remarks not in French.

The candidates took only written questions from the audience, which were selected by the organizers.

One questioner wrote: “The Liberal record on Israel pales in comparison to that of the Harper government, and the Jewish community feels taken for granted by the Liberals.”

Asked how he reconciles his support for Israel with “certain elements hostile to Israel” in the NDP, Mulcair said he didn’t know any.

“Some do have slightly different takes on issues, but what is important is the position we take at the end of the day as a party, and I am extremely comfortable defending them today.”

Freeman had to defend Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe’s participation in a huge demonstration in Montreal two years ago during the war in Lebanon. “That demonstration was for peace; it was not anti-Israel,” she said. The presence of a small number of Hezbollah supporters was denounced on the scene by Duceppe, and later in a press release, she said, a position that Federation CJA president Marc Gold thanked him for in a letter.

Gold opened the discussion by stressing how important it is for every Jew to vote for the candidate of their choice, and the federation is urging the community to use the advance poll on Monday, Oct. 6, if Oct. 14, the first day of Sukkot, is not possible.

The discussion was sponsored by the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee, the Quebec-Israel Committee and CJC.