CJC condemns vile flyer attacking Bob Rae during leadership race

Now that leadership has passed, I don't want to dwell on it all that much. So when I talk about Bob Rae here, consider him a Liberal candidate in the coming election and not the third place finisher in quite possibly the most entertaining leadership race since Trudeau took it.

This was a flyer released by the Canadian Arab Federation during this past week's leadership convention. Quite frankly, I don't even know where to begin. There is nothing rational about the statements made here. First attacking Bob Rae for undering the truth about the Israeli-Palestinian situation, than bringing his wife into the mix for being a sitting member of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), and finally so callously tossing around the word 'aparteid.' What I have to say will not be nearly as level headed as the CJC, so I will let them talk it from here.




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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December 6, 2006

For immediate release

CJC condemns vile flyer attacking Bob Rae during Liberal leadership convention.

TORONTO ? Canadian Jewish Congress strongly condemned a flyer (click here to view flyer) (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=ovkct9bab.0.5icct9bab.aiqaz8aab.5238&ts=S0218&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cjc.ca%2Fdocs%2FRD%2F191_rae%2520flyer.doc) distributed at the recent Federal Liberal Leadership Convention and which was widely emailed by the current president of the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) and others. The flyer was sent to Liberal parliamentarians, the large Equity and Accountability GTA Yahoo email list and, according to reports, Muslim delegates to the convention.

?The flyer attacks Bob Rae by repeatedly and derogatorily labeling him as an apartheid supporter,? said CJC National President Ed Morgan. ?It also tars him by association with Jewish community organizations disparaged with ill-willed and inflammatory accusations. The flyer sinks to an even greater low by drawing Mr. Rae?s wife, Arlene Perly-Rae, into this exercise in vilification, gratuitously identifying her as a Canadian Jewish Congress vice president. This is little more than a thinly disguised reference to her being Jewish, an irrelevant criterion unless one is attempting to awaken the basest of prejudices,? Morgan added.

Morgan noted that CJC and past presidents of CAF have shared with other ethnocultural and faith communities a commitment not to allow passionate differences over conflicts overseas to result in uncivil discourse and communal antagonisms.

?It is unfortunate and reprehensible that the message of this flyer cast aside Canadian values and engaged instead in fostering group divisions of the worst kind,? he said.

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Contact:

Wendy Lampert

National Director of Communications

Canadian Jewish Congress

wlampert@on.cjc.ca (mailto:wlampert@on.cjc.ca)