December 10, 2024
OTTAWA – A House of Commons committee has endorsed several key recommendations put forward by B’nai Brith Canada.
“The Committee’s report is welcome news for all Canadians,” said David Granovsky, B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Government Relations, after the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights (JUST) released its latest report Tuesday (coinciding with International Human Rights Day). “Going forward, we urge the Minister of Finance to ensure the next Federal Budget includes funding for programs designed to improve International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism literacy on Canadian campuses.”
In the official report, Heightened Antisemitism in Canada and How to Confront It, B’nai Brith is cited extensively as a leading authority on monitoring antisemitism, including references to our 2023 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents in Canada. The final report also contains several of our policy recommendations. One of these was that the Government should develop a strategy to equip post-secondary students with an understanding of IHRA.
The Committee also echoed one of the main concerns B’nai Birth expressed in its August, 2024, pre-budget submission, which urged the Government to align federal funding with Canada’s existing anti-racism strategy. Past recipients of such funding, including grants administered through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), have used these awards to spread antisemitic misinformation.
This past May, Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Research and Advocacy, testified before JUST as a witness for the committee’s study. We also provided a written submission.
“The Jewish community is grateful for JUST’s recommendations, but additional actions are required to prevent the further spread of antisemitism on Canadian campuses,” Robertson said. “B’nai Brith has developed a Policy for Counting Antisemitism on Campus (PCAC) to help universities respond to antisemitic incidents. We would like to see institutions incorporate this into their policy frameworks.”
PCAC is one element of B’nai Brith’s 7-Point Plan for Combating Antisemitism in Canada. Another aspect of PCAC included in JUST’s report is that “the full diversity of the Jewish identity be acknowledged within Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion frameworks.”
Robertson concluded: “It is gratifying to see the report acknowledge that Zionism and Jewish indigeneity to the Land of Israel are inseparable from Jewish identity.”
