The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, June 24, 1993-Page 3
By RON CSILLAG
TORONTO - National Jewish organizations have expressed best wishes to Canada's next prime minister, who is no stranger to the Jewish scene.
Kim Campbell will be sworn in this Friday and it is hoped she follovys the lead set out by her predecessor. Brian Mulroney, who won hearty praise from Jewish leaders for his consistently strong stand on Israel and for his government's action on domestic Jewish concerns.
"I wish her well." said Canadian Jewish Congress president Irving Abella.r "She did as good a job as justice minister as any of her predecessors. We're hopeful she will continue to prove herself a friend of the Jewish community." .
Campbell's sensitivity to issues raised by B'nai% Brith Canada "reflects her sensitivity to the wide-ranging concerns of a multitude of Canadians and augurs well forthe future of Canada," noted BBC executive vice-president Frank Dimant. who was an official observer at the convention that picked Campbell to replace Mulroney.
The new prime minister's first ftill- , scale exposure to Canadian Jewish concerns was when she was handed the justice portfolio in 1990 and with it, the difficult dossier on prosecut-jng Nazi war criminals living in Canada.
Between then and her move last January to the defence and veterans' affairs ministry, there were three high-profile cases invblving suspected war criminals. .
Michael Pawlowski of Renfrew, Ont. was charged in December J 989 in connection with the deaths of 490 people, mostly Jews, killed in the Soviet Union. Charges against him were dropped in.March }992 when a judge rejected the uise of videotaped evidence. "
Stephen Reistetter of St. Catharines
was arrested in January 1990 and charged with kidnapping 3,000 Jews and sending them to Nazi death camps. The charge was dropped in March 1991 when a key witness died.
Kim Campbell
Radislav Grujicic, an 81-year-old Windsor resident, was charged last December with having committed murder and kidnapping in Nazi-(Kcupied Yugoslavia in 1943. That case is still before the courts.
Despite the legal frustrations and slow pace of prosecutions in this country, "she did what she could, do." said Milton Harris, chair of CJC's war crimes committee. "None of her predecessors did more than she
/did;"-: .■^.
Harris's lukewarm endorsement may stem from the now-notorious episode exactly two years ago in which Campbell .stormed out of a scheduled meeting with Harris and other Congress officials when she learned reporters were in tow.
To this day, Harris insists protocol was not violated.
' 'Advising the media (of a meeting] is standard practice, unless you're told otherwise. No such advice was given us." ;
In any event; the widely-reported
sniib prompted Mulroney to telephone Harris and reiterate his govem-ment's commitment to prosecuting suspected war criminals.
A week after the flap, Harris and Campbell met, with no reporters present, and as Harris puts it, "I told her the best thing that happened was that she had aboned that iheeting" because of the subsequent media attention.
Six weeks later, the two agreed to a 20-minute telephone call, which turned into an hour. Harris used the occasion to talk not only about prosecutions but about staffers in the Justice Department's war crimes unit he felt were not up to snuff.
During that call, "she made a considerable point of the fact that she had lived in Vancouver's Jewish community for 15 years and that she remained strong on [prosecutions].
"I believed her. This was one of the most sensitive issues.. I have to assume her sensitivities to Jewish issues will play a positive role (in Campbell's leadership]."
Testifying before a House of Commons justice committee a year ago, Campbell set a deadline of March 1994 for the gathering of evidence agaiinst the government's priority cases, rumored to number 45.
She emphasized, however, that the door will not close on more prosecutions after that date but she declined to specify the number of cases before the Justice Department.
At the time, Campbell said she had directed more money and manpower to the war crimes unit than had been originally allocated and that she was regularly approving travel by her staff to European countries to gather evidence.
Last November, B'nai Brith sent Campbell a list of 50 recommendations on war criminals, among them that her department steer away from at-home prosecutions and moVe toward stripping of citizenship and deportations.
set
By PAUL LUNGEN
TORONTO r- The Council of Jewish Federations of Canada (CJF), the umbrella organization for the country's 10 federated comniunities, is establishing a nationwide task force on Jewish continuity.
The CJF.Canada Commission on Continuity is urg^ ing each federated and ujifederated community to establish its own task force to study the issue, said commission chair Aaron Brotman. The national committee will serve as a clearing house for the exchange of information, data, resources and ideas and will be linked tp the U.S. federations' efforts in the field, he added.
The new national committee will also "play the role of facilitator in this area and try to work but some of ihejurisdictionzil problems that may come up," said Bert Abugov. the CJF staffer servicing the committee.
Brotman. who chairs a task force on continuity in Toronto, said the national committee is asking organizations like Canadian Jewish Congress;, Jewish Immigrant Aid Services, the Canada-rlsrael-Sbmmittee, the United Israel Appeal, B'nai Brith Youth Organization, Jewish Studeiits Network and the federations to delegate representatives to the committee. He said inclusion of young people is a key element to the new commission.
The commission will be directed by a steering com--mittee of about 20.
With recent statistics showing the rate of intermarriage approaching 30 percent in Toronto (and around 50 percent in the United States), continuity has become the pre-eminent issue facing North American Jews, Brotman said. _ ■ ;
The overriding purpose of the committee will be to
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address the issue of continuity and identify the steps that may be taken locally and nationally to ensure the future viability of the Jewish community.
Brotman said the issUe of continuity will be on the agenda at the upcoming CJF General Assembly, to be held in Montreal later this fall.
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