For Immediate Release
Toronto, October 1, 2003… B’nai Brith Canada responded strongly today to a letter that has been circulated in the Thornhill area that includes racist comments about the Moslem community in Canada. The letter urged that residents vote for the Liberal Party in Thursday’s provincial election on the grounds that the Conservative Party’s private school tax credit will result in Muslim schools teaching hatred of Jews.
“If the conservative party is elected”, the anonymous letter reads, “the Muslim schools will take advantage of this new funding and expand, leading to immediate catastrophe beyond your wildest imagination.” The letter also denounces the NDP as being “vehemently antisemitic and anti-Israel”.
“This is a clear attempt to foment discord between the Jewish and Muslim communities”, said Thornhill resident Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President of B’nai Brith Canada. “We denounce this sort of fear-mongering in the strongest possible terms. We have passed on this letter to the Hate Crimes Unit of the York Regional Police and have alerted our contacts in the Muslim community.”
“Muslim parents have as much right to educate their children according to their religious imperatives as other parents do”, observed Toni Silberman, Chair of the Ontario Region of the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada. “The basic premise behind the Education Tax Credit was precisely to recognize and support a parent’s faith-based prerogative. In a multicultural and diverse society, how can that be unjust?”
B’nai Brith Canada, the Jewish community’s leading human rights organization, has been in the forefront of advocating for the Education Tax Credit for parents choosing faith-based education for their children.
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For more information call Joseph Ben Ami, Director of Communications at (613) 294-7313
B’nai Brith has been active in Canada since 1875 as the Jewish community’s foremost human rights agency.
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