MONTREAL — Montreal city council adopted a motion Feb. 22 “deploring” the boycott campaign against a St. Denis Street store that sells footwear made in Israel.
Mayor Gérald Tremblay
But it was not unanimous. The vote was 38 to 16.
The motion was proposed by Mayor Gérald Tremblay and supported by his Union Montréal party, which holds a majority of the seats. It was opposed by opposition leader Louise Harel and members of her Vision Montréal, while the third party, Projet Montréal, was split. Its leader Richard Bergeron left the chamber when the vote was taken.
The store, Boutique Le Marcheur, is located in the Plateau Mont-Royal borough, which is represented by Projet Montréal. Since October, the group Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) has been staging small demonstrations outside the store on most Saturday afternoons to protest its sale of Israeli-made BeautiFeel merchandise.
PAJU supports the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel for its alleged violations of international law and Palestinian human rights. The group accuses the Israeli government of pursuing a policy of apartheid against non-Jews.
The council motion states that, “by virtue of the principles of free enterprise and the free market, the municipal council supports the owner of this business, Monsieur [Yves] Archambault, who has been established on this street for 25 years.”
The council also declared its support for the understanding on co-operation between the governments of Quebec and Israel, which was signed in 1997 and renewed in 2007.
Tremblay introduced the motion by saying that the months-long demonstrations outside the store are contrary to the spirit of the city’s Charter of Rights and Responsibilities, which upholds “tolerance, peace and inclusiveness.” That document stipulates that “every citizen has the duty to refrain from behaviour that would infringe on the full exercise by others of their rights, thereby undermining the dignity and quality of life of all.”
While citizens have the right to protest in the exercise of their freedom of speech, he continued, such action can cross the line into harassment when carried on for so long against a single merchant. He noted that only two per cent of Le Marcheur’s merchandise comes from Israel.
“Never in Montreal have we prevented demonstrations… But there are abuses of protest, there are abuses of rights,” he said. The mayor also said that the demonstrations are “harming Montreal on the international scene.”
The motion sparked a heated debate of nearly an hour’s duration.
Harel countered that the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms supersedes the municipal charter, guaranteeing the freedom of expression, including demonstrations. She also said this wasn’t an issue for a city council.
Harel, a former Parti Québécois cabinet minister, recalled that she had participated in many boycott campaigns, including the selling of South African wines in Quebec. (She has in the past been a critic of Israel as well.)
Projet Montréal councillor François Limoges argued that it’s not the role of a municipal council to “interfere and tell citizens ‘you are committing an offence of opinion.’”
On Feb. 9, a similar motion was tabled in the Quebec National Assembly, supported by members of the three major parties, but it wasn’t debated because sole Québec solidaire member Amir Khadir refused to give his assent. He said his party’s position is that the Quebec-Israel agreement should be suspended until Israel ends its “discriminatory” policies against the Palestinians.
On Feb. 12, PAJU extended its demonstrations to the Naot store across the street from Le Marcheur, in what it calls “phase II” of its goal of making St. Denis an “Israeli apartheid free zone.”
Naot is an Israeli firm founded in 1942 and based at Kibbutz Naot Mordechai. It sells its footwear and accessories worldwide, including across Canada.
PAJU denounced any political interference in its campaign as being contrary to democracy. Legislators have no place discouraging or denouncing a peaceful call for the boycott of consumer goods, said PAJU president Bruce Katz. Such a campaign is part of the freedom of expression, he said, reiterating that the campaign is not against the stores themselves, but the Israeli products they sell.
PAJU claims its boycott campaign is endorsed by 18 other groups, including the Ligue des Droits et Libertés, Fédération des Femmes du Québec, Independent Jewish Voices, unions such as sections of the Confédérations des Syndicats Nationaux, as well as the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and Québec solidaire.
However, the party’s co-leader, Françoise David, said in a Feb. 9 statement that the Québec solidaire “neither organized nor promotes the demonstration against Le Marcheur.” But she did condemn the focus on Le Marcheur as an attempt to deflect attention from the plight of the Palestinian people.
The Quebec-Israel Committee hailed the city’s support for Le Marcheur as proof that there is now “a consensus among Quebec’s political elite that the BDS movement is not welcome here, that is against Quebec and Montreal values,” QIC executive director Luciano Del Negro said.
He noted that although Vision Montréal officially opposed the motion, a number of its members stepped out of the chamber before the vote, which he interprets as an abstention.