B’NAI BRITH CANADA QUESTIONS WISDOM OF CHOMSKY HOSTS

Toronto, November 8, 2002

Canadian Media Must Ask Professor Chomsky to Explain Himself

For Immediate Release

Toronto, November 8, 2002… Professor Noam Chomsky of MIT will be in Toronto and Hamilton next week. He will be speaking at the University of Toronto, at McMaster University, and at Hamilton Place, as well as at the Bloor St. United Church on Sunday evening. B’nai Brith Canada questions the wisdom of these institutions in giving this individual a platform. Why?

Rochelle Wilner, President of B’nai Brith Canada, commented: “Professor Chomsky will undoubtedly put forward his views on American foreign policy while lecturing and talking with the media here. It is important, even critical to ask, though, what credibility this man has. Chomsky trivialized the genocide of millions of Cambodians because that fact interfered with his world view. He has made accusations against Israel, at variance with the facts, simply to prop up his untenable hypotheses. Canadians need to ask: How can Noam Chomsky be trusted to speak the truth here when his own words demonstrate a manipulation, even a disregard of facts to suit his political views?”

Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President, asked: “Since when does the United Church provide a platform for a man who defends Holocaust deniers? For a man who trivialized the genocide of millions of Cambodians? Chomsky claimed that in attacking the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, the US was ‘apparently trying to murder 3 or 4 million people.’ (October 18, 2001, lecture at MIT) Supporting such outrageous views reflects poorly on these institutions, but for the United Church, it contradicts their very policies. In their policy on Racism section 3.6, the United Church of Canada states that it works ‘to create or maintain just relations with persons of racial and ethnocultural minority.’ Is that policy served by consorting with a defender of Holocaust deniers?”

-30-

For additional information contact:
Frank Dimant at 416-802-1057

B’nai Brith has been active in Canada since 1875 as the community’s foremost advocacy and volunteer organization.