November 19, 2024
OTTAWA – With the Federal Government preparing to modernize its research support system, B’nai Brith Canada urged a parliament committee Tuesday to deny public funding to projects or institutions that do not align with the federal anti-racism strategy.
The Government announced its plans for the new “Capstone Research Funding Organization” (CFRO) in June. In early November, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research (SRSR) invited public-interest groups such as B’nai Brith to give recommendations to improve the system.
“Federal government grants have historically been used to fund ‘research’ that was in direct contradiction of Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy, which includes antisemitism,” said David Granovsky, B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Government Relations. “Now that the Government is aiming to modernize its federal research support system, there is an opportunity for policymakers to adopt our recommendations to ensure that the funding programs align with the anti-racism strategy.”
B’nai Brith identified specific examples of this trend in a four-page written submission to SRSR. In one 2015 case, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) awarded $35,000 to a project called “Choreographies of Resistance,” which appeared to justify violent terrorism against Israel, the world’s only Jewish State. In 2019, $24,923 went to a professor at Wilfred Laurier University so that she could produce a “Canadian Muslim Voting Guide,” the content of which undermined the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their ancestral homeland.
“B’nai Brith made two key recommendations to SRSR to assist the committee,” said Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Research and Advocacy, who testified on our organization’s behalf during SRSR’s session Tuesday. “Firstly, the new CRFO can urge the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research (SSHRC) to leverage their agreements with post-secondary institutions to require them to ensure that research is conducted in compliance with Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy. This recommendation dovetails with a submission we presented last May advocating for initiatives to counter the surge of antisemitism on Canadian university campuses.
“Secondly, the new CRFO’s governing structure and programming must include Jews within any Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) policies. This will help to eliminate any bias or oversights on the part of the organization itself and bring the new CRFO into alignment with Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy.”
