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The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, January 12,1984 - Page 3
CoMmtmity se^ Criminal Code
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TAMMY KAROL
EDMONTON —
Herb Katz, chairman of the Edmonton Jewish Community Council and a board member of the Edmonton Jew i s h Federation i$ presenting a brief to ah Alberta government committee on racism next month.
TheEJCfelraffiliated with Canadian. Jewish Congress' Joint Community Relatibiis Committee and the EJF is the ■/parliament'' of the city's Jewish community.:
The provineiall;|^-ap-pobited Committee on Toleriince and Underr standing has been traveling across Altierta
to hear briefis from some 150 Individaals and groups. In Calgaiy there were presentatldns from the B'nai B'rith's League for Human Rights, the Calgaiy Jewish Community Council and the National Councii of Jewish Women [CJN Nov. 31.
The committee's mandate Is to recom-
mend to the minister of education ways in which to foster greater tolerance arid respect for human rights in the education system.
Katz's brief will be presented Feb. 20 when the committee is in Edmonton. The Ghitter committee will also hear a brief by the Edmonton
Pixmnce eonducts media blitz
EDMONTON —
The province's Human Rights Commission has ended its 2-month long series of radio, tv, and newspaper advertisements to fight racism in Alberta but other projects in the HRC campaign are expected to continue this year.
An estimated $542,000 has been allocated by the Alberta government to the HRC for the overall campaign. Launched Oct. 6, it is headed by Marlene Antonio, chairman of the province's HRC, and Les Young, Alberta's labor minister (CJN, Oct. 20).
The campaign ads ran until Dec. 18. Three advertisements appeared six times in 10 daily Alberta newspapers and two of the three ads were used twice each by 145 provincial weeklies.
Also, the HRC ads were carried at least 18 tiiries on each radio station in Albertav As well, CBC, CTVand the mde-pendent ITV network and their affiliate stations broadcast the anti-racism commercials a minimum of 14 times during the 2-month period.
Theme of the HRC campaign is "Alberta is for all of us,'' and advertising has been coordinated by Hayhurst Communications of Calgary.
Pat Sherbhi, HRC's public affairs ofiBcer, said the second portion of the campaign is preparation of a Ikraldet on racism, along with a numl>er of posters. They wiU l>e mailed province-wide to schools, churches and other religions organizations and to special interest groups.
Alt>erta Culture and the HRC wiU also be sending out tills month 52 profiles of ethnic communities in AU>erta. The profiles, wldch include a segment on the Jewish community, are 600 words in length and weeldies and dailies are lieing aisked to lun them as a pubBc service.
Sherbin said many^ callers to the HRC have' been "quite happy" about the recent ad campaign. She noted that there has been complimentary response from members of the Jewish community.
"Some people have
complained that in recessionary times the Al-berta government shouldn't be spending money on this type of campaign. We have also gotten some hate calls, but there's no way to stop hard core bigots," Sherbin added.
She pointed out that there has been an increase of letters at the HRC from school children who want to know more about racism.
A special feature of the ad campaign was a Dec. 10 essay contest held in conjunction with International Human Rights Day.
Children were asked to write about some aspect of racism or about interiiational human rights. There were three categories for entries submitted: one for 4-6-year-olds, one for 7-9-year-olds and one for 10-12-year-olds.
Press releases detailing the contest and publicizing International Human Rights Day were sent by the HRC to churches, synagogues and other religious organizations.
raasm
Sherbin stressed that
although the media ad portion of the HRC campaign is over the HRC will continue with its regular educational programs and work oh other projects such as posters and pamphlets which will help combat racism.
According to Sherbin, the "catalyst" for the HRC and the government to takt more affirmative action against racism was the "Keeg-stra affair."
But she pointed out that the campaign idea wias initiated in response to a general rise in racism over the last 18
months.
t.K.
Hebrew School on the-20th. -
A final report on the committee's findings is expected to be completed next December and one of its chores will be to review Alberta's entire school curriculum from grades 1 to 12 to ensure that there are no • aspects of school programs which encourage tolerance and misunderstanding. An interim report is due on Feb. 15.
Katz said he will review his brief this month with Howard Starkman, president of the EJF and a presentation will then be made before the federation's 40-member governing board. Members are representative of the city' s Jewish community.
Once the board hears Katz's brief its members will discuss some of the recommendations he proposes.
Recommendations include changes in some aspects of provincial laws such as the Alberta Individual Rights Protection Act.
According to Katz, this act was passed by the Conservative government when it came to power in the 70s. Currently it is concerned with ' discrimination on . the basis of gender in regard to employment.
Herb Katz
But Katz recommends that the mandate of the Alberta's Human Rights Commission be expanded to include discrimination on the basis of religion.
Katz is also pushing for changes in the hate literature provisions of Section 281 of the Criminal Code. He claims the amendments will aid prosecution of disseminators of hate literature:
The EJF chairman said he will also speak before the cqnunittee about the legal and educational ran&catioiis of the Keegstra affair. [Keegstra, a former teacher in Eclrviile, Alberta, was fired from his job last year for telling students that thte Holocaust was a hoax.]
"We (the Jewish community) want to explain .whywe're so exorcised about Keegstra. We feel the government and the population in general doesn't understand how dangerous Keegstra's ideas are," Katz explained.
Another of Katz's recommendations calls for mandatory teaching of the Holocaust, province-wide. He also wants the establishment of a core of inspectors to check what teachers are instructing children in the classroom.
According to Katz, others presenting briefs in Edmonton include the Franco-Albertan Society and a Metis group.
The Committee oh Tolerance and Under-. standing is now heading to southern Alberta (Jan. 15-19). Its participants include a representative from the south Asian community and one from the native Indian community.
At its head is Ron Ghitter, a prominent Jewish lawyer firom Calgary who is a former member of Premier Peter Lougheed's cabinet and who is a supporter of federal Tory leader Brian Mulroney.
The committee has a $350,000 budget, two full-time staff and 13 members.
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