Remarks by the Honourable Jason Kenney, P.C., M.P. Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism at an inquiry panel of the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat anti‑Semitism

Ottawa, Ontario, February 8, 2010

Minister Kenney appears before the
Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to
Combat Anti-semitism.
– Ottawa, Ontario – February 8, 2010

As Delivered

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to all the members of this informal committee of the House of Commons and Parliament. I believe that this committee is a very good example of how parliamentarians can work together in a non‑partisan way.

I really would like to commend all of the members of the committee, Mr. Chairman, and I think that the fact that this inquiry is undergoing here in our Parliament is a reflection of Canada’s leadership role in combating anti-Semitism.

I note that Canada had the largest delegation at the international conference of parliamentarians combating anti-Semitism in London last year. Several of you were there, and I also note that at the global summit on anti-Semitism in Israel recently, Canada also had, I think, the largest parliamentary delegation.

I should note, and I think observers and media should note, that the participation of all of the MPs in these activities abroad and these activities here have been at their own expense, that there is no parliamentary defraying of the expenses of people who have been giving of themselves, their time, and frankly their money, to make this study and this involvement possible.

In particular, I would like to single out for praise my colleague, the Honourable Member for Mount Royal, whose tireless efforts over the years to fight anti-Semitism have epitomized the term public service. While vigorous debate and sometimes sharp disagreement between political parties is an essential part of democratic discourse, we should never let that put into doubt the commitment of individual parliamentarians, such as Mr. Cotler, to combating hatred and injustice.

Mr. Chairman, just over a week ago, I travelled to the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau to represent the Government of Canada at the 65th anniversary of the liberation of that infamous place. It’s almost impossible to visit Auschwitz and not be haunted by the spirit of those who perished there, to walk in what is literally the world’s largest graveyard. It had a profound impact on me, for there is no place in the world that more clearly illustrates the uniquely durable and pernicious hatred that is anti-Semitism and the mass violence that it can result in.

I also, while there, attended a conference of ministers of education hosted by the Polish government to review current research and other work around the world that concerns education, social programs and cultural initiatives related to the Holocaust. Not only did the conference inform me of progress being made in these areas, particularly throughout Europe, but it convinced me even more that we must maintain Canada’s zero tolerance approach and global leadership in combating anti-Semitism, and I think that was widely recognized at the conference I attended.

I would now like to summarize what my department is doing to combat anti‑Semitism. I will also talk about Canadian initiatives on the international scene.

First, with regard to Holocaust education, I believe that there is a clear link between recognition of and education about the Holocaust and anti‑Semitism. Obviously, the greatest manifestation of anti-Semitism was the Shoah. The efforts to deny the Shoah as a historical fact are a manifestation of contemporary anti-Semitism.

So supporting Holocaust education in Canada to teach future generations the lessons of the Holocaust and the effects of xenophobia including anti-Semitism is one of our principal objectives, as is taking a strong stance internationally against all forms of hatred including anti-Semitism, working domestically through our multiculturalism program to build bridges between different cultural and faith groups and to recognize past policies that kept Canada closed to Jewish refugees before and during the Second World War, and finally, working to collect hate crimes data from the police forces across the country to develop a clear picture of hate crimes in Canada and their targets.

I believe you just heard from the police services about that, and forbidding citizenship or permanent residence to anyone under investigation for, charged with, or having been convicted of a war crime or a crime against humanity and revoking citizenship for those who have vetted such crimes and who lied about it in the process of immigrating to Canada. These are some of the efforts in general pursued by my ministry.

We are also supporting efforts, such as yours, to investigate and combat anti-Semitism in Canada. Mr. Chair, as you know, Statistics Canada indicated that in 2007 15% of hate crimes reported to police targeted Jewish people. This accounted for two-thirds of hate crimes targeting a religious group even though Jews make up only about 1% of Canada’s population.

The 2008 audit of anti-Semitic incidents by B’nai Brith Canada notes a 9% increase of reports of such incidents between 2007 and 2008 with reports from the latter year being the highest number recorded since they began their audit.

Mr. Chairman, let me address what we have been doing to address these growing incidents of anti-Semitism at the domestic level.

First of all, I think we need to look back to our own history. I just finished reading what is a classic Canadian study of popular history None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948, published 20 years ago by Irving Abella and Harold Troper. It details, in terrifying colour, the policy of the Government of Canada circa 1933 to 1948 to keep the doors of Canada closed to European Jewish refugees as the lead-up to, during and in the immediate aftermath, of the Holocaust.

I was aware of the general policy that it describes but I must say it’s strongly recommended reading for all members of this inquiry and parliamentarians in general to see how anti-Semitic attitudes in public opinion manage to influence a public policy in such a pernicious way that according to the authors Canada had the worst record in the western world in providing safety to European Jews facing annihilation.

For many in the popular imagination that policy which lasted some 15 years was most clearly exemplified by the S.S. St. Louis, which was of course denied entry to the ports in Cuba, the United States and eventually Canada.

I mention this, Mr. Chairman, because I think if we, as parliamentarians or the government or Canadians, are to really get a handle on this issue we really need to look to our own past and we need to come to terms with it and we need to realize that Canada has been far from perfect in its own past in this respect. That’s why we launched, within the framework of the community and national historic recognition programs, a $2.5 million fund dedicated specifically to research commemoration and education of immigration restriction measures of European Jewry in that period.

I’m pleased to report to you that this helped to fund a major international conference on the issue held in Toronto last fall. It also worth noting that every three years, a national task force on Holocaust research, remembrance and education is being administered by B’nai Brith Canada. As well, I anticipate announcing shortly another major project with the Canadian Jewish Congress which will lead to a permanent memorial to the victims of the St. Louis and others, who Canada rejected, during that sad period.

Mr. Chairman, I think another issue that is of domestic importance, of course, is the growing threats and violence against facilities in Jewish and other vulnerable communities. That’s why our government created a security infrastructure pilot project to provide grants for community institutions such as synagogues and Jewish schools, but also mosques and Islamic schools and other installations that may face hatred or violence.

These core grants cover 50% of the cost of additional security, up to $100,000, so that these institutions can protect themselves against the threats and harassment they so often face.

Mr. Chairman, I believe it’s also very important that in the framework of our multiculturalism policy we increasingly put the emphasis on building bridges of understanding. In the past decade or so there’s been focus on anti-racism programming, which is obviously admirable, but in my own judgment some of that programming has had questionable results.

My own personal view on this is that hatred and racism are questions of the heart, and you don’t change people’s hearts by putting up posters or circulating videos – although that stuff is useful in terms of raising consciousness. I think the ultimate antidote to hatred, including anti-Semitism, is personal relationships, personal encounters where people can personally see that the stereotypes they may hold are not true.

That’s why I put an emphasis in the multiculturalism program and funding projects that bridge the gap between certain cultural communities.

My model project is the Somali-Jewish mentorship project in Toronto, which we are funding. It is bringing together young Canadians of Somali origin – many of them grew up in refugee families and have faced social exclusion and had very limited opportunities – typically with professions and businesses owned by Jewish Canadians, many of whose grandparents or parents arrived here as refugees with nothing and faced discrimination and persecution as well.

I think it’s a beautiful project because it gives these young people economic opportunities, but it also helps young folks who may have heard less than flattering things about people in the Jewish community an opportunity to find out that’s not true and vice versa. It’s my aspiration to see that happen on a much broader basis.

Also, Mr. Chairman, we are concerned about some of the manifestations of what I would call the new anti-Semitism on our university campuses. I am concerned that some of the more extreme examples of anti-Zionism that are manifest in Israel, like apartheid week, have made many Jewish students at our university campuses feel unsafe. We have publicly encouraged university administrators to do what they can to provide a space of protection and civil discourse on these issues and not to allow hatred to inform the campus debate on those issues.

Mr. Chairman, on the international level, of course you know that I, along with many of you, participated at the London inter-parliamentary conference. We were delighted to see Canada have the largest delegation there. As you know, at that point, on behalf of Canada, I invited the international coalition to consider hosting their next conference in Canada. We hope that will happen, and my ministry stands ready to participate as a funding partner if and when we’re able to find the legal parameters within which to do so.

Let me also say that with respect to anti-Semitism, it’s well known that Canada was the first country in the world to withdraw from the United Nation’s Durban review conference, or Durban II. This was based on our concerns about what happened at the first Durban conference, which included, of course, the most terrible, egregious examples of anti-Semitism, including circulation of copies of the Chronicles of the Elders of Zion and explicitly anti-Semitic symbolism.

With the lead-up to Durban II, we were concerned that, with Iran as the vice-chair – a country that is explicitly dedicated to the elimination of the only Jewish country in the world, with all of the NGOs from Durban I being invited back, with many of the organizing meetings being held on Jewish high holidays thereby obviating the participation of Jewish delegates, with this and many other, the refusal to allow Canadian Jewish NGOs to participate, it seemed clear to us that there was a high chance of a repeat of some of the terrible developments at Durban I.

I think we were vindicated. Certainly a number of countries, including European countries, followed our lead.

I should also point out that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, through its office of the director of human rights, the ODIHR had a high-level meeting in 2007 in Bucharest, which I attended. There was a debate there about whether or not ODIHR and the OSCE should continue a particular focus on anti-Semitism.

I announced that the new policy of the Government of Canada was that we did encourage the continuance of a special rapporteur and process focused on anti-Semitism – not to the exclusion of other forms of hatred, which could be dealt with in other ways – but I argued on behalf of Canada that we needed to recognize the uniquely durable and pernicious form of hatred that is anti-Semitism.

Mr. Chair, I would also like to report to you that we were pleased to be accepted as members of the International Task Force for Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research in Oslo in June of last year.

This organization, which has 27 member countries, focuses on education in remembrance of the Holocaust. However, before we could become a member, we had to submit a study of Holocaust education in Canada.

So there was a baseline study required of us to submit to the ITF, which was very useful because it required our ministry to go to all of the provincial ministries of education and sort out exactly what was the provincial content on Holocaust education. We’d be happy to share that with you.

Also, to become a member of the ITF, we had to undertake a pilot project as a liaison country, which we did in partnership with France and the United States, and that pilot project was in fact a conference we held last year on the immigration restriction measures focused on European Jews.

Also, Mr. Chair, slightly off the focus of your study, I did participate as well at the International Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague, which has created a new permanent institution, the Terazine Institute, to focus pressure, effectively, on countries to track and identify assets that were stolen from Jewish families during the Holocaust.

This is an important issue. This is an issue related to anti-Semitism because in some countries the refusal to participate in international efforts to restore Jewish assets to the families of Holocaust victims is, I would argue, motivated in part by anti-Semitic public sentiments. That’s why Canada is lending its full moral and practical support to that effort.

Of course, Mr. Chair, I could continue. I’ll just close with a statement by the Prime Minister, who said, following his visit last summer to Auschwitz-Birkenau:

“I was moved beyond words by what I saw; to revulsion, anger and, most of all, a deep, aching sadness for the millions of innocents who perished. But I also felt hope. Hope because of the indomitable spirit and strength of the Jewish people. Hope that left behind the horror of the Holocaust and moved forward to build the thriving modern democratic State of Israel. And also hope, because today most people in most civilized countries recognize anti-Semitism for what it is: a pernicious evil that must be exposed, confronted and repudiated whenever and wherever it appears; an evil so profound that it is ultimately a threat to us all.”

Thank you. I would be happy now to take your questions.