This week, The Suburban published the Statement of Principles against Antisemitism from my Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal entitled “Montreal For All!” Please read it on page 13 of the paper. Read it and act!
The statement is endorsed by an extraordinary cross-section of Quebec business, professional, cultural, academic, media and community leaders. It reflects a simple conviction: Montreal must remain a city for everyone. Freedom of expression and peaceful protest are fundamental democratic rights. But intimidation, hatred, harassment and violence are not. Nor should political institutions become vehicles for rhetoric that divides Montrealers or makes any community feel targeted or unwelcome.
I urge you in the strongest terms possible to contact the Mayor of Montreal and your city councillors and tell them to reject Projet Montréal’s anti-Israel motion. The motion contains serious misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric that will further fuel the antisemitism Montreal’s Jewish community has already endured.
Whatever one’s views on Israel, Gaza, or Canadian foreign policy, Montreal City Council should be working to bring citizens together — not passing divisive declarations on international conflicts that risk setting communities against one another.
Read the statement, share it, and make your voice heard at City Hall by email, calls or letters,. Tell the Mayor and your councillors to choose the rule of law, factual debate, public safety, and social cohesion. And go to this site and sign the online petition against this motion.
Montreal’s city hall has no business commenting on international affairs, but should instead be focusing on Montreal affairs.
Montreal belongs to all of us.
Beryl P. Wajsman,B.C.L.,LL.B.,KCR is President of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal