M-T
The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, September 24, 1992-Page 5
Canada
IS re
By RON CSILLAG
TORONTO -
If the Oct. 26 federal referendum on the constitution is approval by less than 50 or 52 percent of Canadians, "there will be trouble," controversial author Mordecai Richler warned here last week.
Unless the deal receives a resounding Yes, Quebec francophones will blame "les autres" and there will be a backlash against the province's minorities, including Jews, Richler told some 500 people at Shaarei Shomayim Congregation in a rambling talk sponsored by the Jewish National Fund.
Richler. who created an uproar in Quebec with his book Oh. Canada! Oh, Quebec! Requiem for a Divided Country, said he thinks the referendum result will be close.
"It's a dog's breakfast, a real mess." he said of the package. "I will grudgingly vote yes. although J don't understand why we need 32 more MPs." he said.
Hard-core Quebec separatists will view a weak yes vote as a reason to keep up the struggle for independence and unrest willincrease. said Richler.
But even if the constitutional deal is approved, young Jews will continue to tlee. Quebec: "not because they're Jews but becau.se they're English-speaking and feel unwelcome."
Richler's main argument in his book and in an article in Ttw New Yorker last year is that Quebec w^as and remains a fundamentally xenophobic. anti-Semitic and tribal
society — sentiments rooted in the Catholic church, various nationalist movements and the French press. He also ridiculed the province's harsh language laws.
Richler last week described the anti-Semitism of Quebw: in the 1930s
Mordecai Richler
and '40s and said he found "thousands" of anti-Jewish articles in back issues of Le Devoir.
Anti-Semitism in Quebec today is "a problem, but not a large problem.' ' Most discrimination in the province is directed at blacks, he noted.
Richler was raked over the coals in francophone circles for saying Quebec is riiore anti-Semitic than other Canadian provinces.
But he defended his statements, saying he based them on three separate surveys, all of which concluded that anti-Jewish feelings run higher in Quebec than elsewhere.
"I didn't commission, write or tamper with the findings. I was merely the messenger."
Richler said he has "nothing but contempt" for the "wretched" St. Jean Baptiste Society, citing a full-page newspaper ad the nationalist group ran recently, warning that French may become imperiled by non-francophones and newcomers to Quebec.
He said Quebec's culture will be better protected wiihjn Canada than if the province separated.
Richler spent a good part of his prepared speech blasting officials of Canadian Jewish Congress, Quebec region, calling them "court Jews."
He's had a running battle with Congress ever since CJC denounced his book in the French press. Richler contends that those who made the statements had not read the book.
Richler said he was "pleased" by the response from B'nai Brith Canada, which distanced itself from the author's statements.
Richler said he has received "sustained hate mail and threats.against my family" as a result of the book.
"1 don't need any lessons in bravery from the mealy-mouthed, resoundingly mediocre bureaucrats" of ■CJC: ■ .
ess to support 'yes
By PAUL LUNGEN
TORONTO -
Calling it "Canada's last best chance" to avoid a possible national crisis, Canadian Jewish Congress is mobilizing its regional structures to support the "yes" vote in the Oct. 26 constitutional referendum.
"This is probably the most important constitutional question in Canadian history since 1867," said Congress president Irving Abella. "We owe it to ourselve as Canadians, not just as Jews, to vote to keep Canada together.
"The message that emerged loud and clear from our national plenary assembly in Toronto last May was that we Jews cannot afford to be spectators in the most fundamental constitutional discussion in our history," he said. "There can be no disinterested bystanders as Canadians confront their future."
Abella said Congress wrote to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney soon after the Charlottetown meetings to show its support of the constitutional agreement.
He said Congress is hoping to get its members and supporters to work for the "yes" side and serve as resource people and provide information about the vote. He said Congress' national unity committee, chaired by Max Bernard of Montreal, will be meeting with its counterparts from the Hellenic Canadian Congress and National Congress of Italian Canadians to plan strategy to best
promote the yes vote..
The Congress president, who is a professor of history at Toronto's York University, said "unless there is a supportive voice, we're asking for trouble. . ! What will be left is bitterness, hard feelings and perhaps the breakup of the country."
While acknowledging that the con stitutional deal is imperfect, Abella . said "we're voting for the principle of keeping the country together and working out the [agreement's] anomalies later."
* * * * *
Max Bernard, chairman Of Canadian Jewish Congress' national unity committee, promised an all-out national campaign to get the Canadian-Jewish "yes" vote as the days dwindle down to the historic Oct. 26 referendum.
Bernard, who is also chairman for CJC Quebec region's community relations committee, said at the first regional executive meeeting of the 1992-93 year that despite the faults it might have, the deal cobbled together by the provincial premiers is still an agreement worth supporting.
"It is a compromise deal," ac-knowledgwl Bernard, a lawyer by profession, "but it's damn close to what the [Jewish, Italian and Greek] coalition has been supporting," including a "bit improved" distinct society clause for Quebec, promoting minority language rights, and articulating Canada's regional concerns.
The coalition to which Bernard referred is the three-community coa: lition that has spent the last year and a half meeting with their constituents and political leaders across Canada with the aim of bringing them into the process, clarifying the constitutional issues, and developing a common position.
On August 27, the coalition came out in favor of the constitutional agreement, and on Sept. 4 CJC president Irving Abella said CJC would be mobilizing its regions to support the campaign for the "yes" vote.
Bernard also gave an indication of how down and dirty the campaign is already getting.
"No" supporters Jean Dorion, head of the St. Jean Baptiste Society (SJBS), Parti-Quebecois leader Jac-que Parizeau, and PQ vice-president Bernard Landry are now "specifically referring to the coalition" as part of their campaign, Bernard said.
And Landry, he added, has already attempted to "demean the solidarity of the coalition. "The coalition fired off a letter to Dorion after the SSJB published ads in the French press claiming that the francophone population of Montreal was in a "free fail" as a result of the "non-francophone" population growing at five times the rate of francophones.
"Now we're hearing this 'newcomer' stuff again," Bernard said.
Bernard regrened that the coalition was not able, as planned, to travel to other regions of the province to consult with business leaders and average Quebecers.
CORRECTION
The advertisement for Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Canada appearing August 27; 1992, should have read "Intensive Integration Program with language training, vocational preparation, Judaica programs and adjusTment counselling."
The CJN apologizes for any inconvenience.
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ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE REDEMPHON
A PRAYER FOR COMPASSION
From the Machzorfor YomKippur
Grant a happy future for Your people; restore the Sanctuary to our midst; exalt the Mountain that is the most exalted of all mountains; raise the glory that has been cut down; brighten the darkness of Your desired Abode; bestow glory upon the (city) which sits alone; You alone shall enwrap her with sovereignty; remove disgrace from the city; shake off the wicked from Your dwelling-place; show mercy to Your congregation; take Your beloved to your heart; make a new covenant with her; let her life be precious in Your eyes; cleanse her vyith pure waters; settle her in the city where David camped; raise the stature of (Israel, who is compared to a) palm tree; proclaim to all our love; walk in the midst of our camps; seek the redemption of our exile; reveal the. end of exile when You will acquire us again; come swiftly to have mercy upon us; proclaim that we are Your chosen people and we will acknowledge You as our G-d.
THE AFTERNOON OF EREV
SHABBOS
Whoever takes note of what is happening in the world can see that the present time iserev Shab-hos (Friday afternoon) before candle-lighting time... AH the troubles and tribulations of the past and the present miracles constitute an immersion in boiling water to remove all uncleanliness, in order that our people should be able to receive the worthy guest whose arrival—speedily, in our own days — is being awaited by the eager eyes of our Jewish brethren throughout the whole world, including the Holy Land.
The world's erev Shabbos is a busy day of preparation for the imminent holy Shabbos day.
♦ * ♦
May G-d ^ant us all a Happy and a Healthy Neiu Year. ■ A year in ivhich zve will all be redeemed from exile and be lead by the righteous and healthy Moshiach to our land Eretz Israel.
The author of Bayis Chadash records that "in the days of our forefathers... people used to pray the evening service and read the Shema so early before sunset on erev Shabbos, that the rav of the city, who was one of the eminent scholars of former times, used to • go out to stroll by the banks of the river after the evening Shabbos meal together with all the prominent householders, and they would return to their homes before nightfall."
From this we may differ that even though we are many years before the end of the sixth millennium," so early before sunset," we are already able now to welcome "the day which is entirely Shabbos and repose," through the arrival of our Righteous Moshiach; we are already able now to partake of the festive "Shabbos meal," and be served the meat of the Leviathan and of the wild ox, and the precious aged wine.
THE BIRTHPANGS OF MOSHIACH
We are now at the conclusion of the exile. We have already been through the labors of berurim — with all their attendant trials. Moreover, we have also been through the "birthpangs of Moshiach," those awesome events that took place in our generation.
It is nowclear and obvious that we are standing at the threshold of the Redemption. It is the duty ofeveryjew to be concerned with the welfare of his fellow, old or young, and to rouse him to teshuvah.
Termore inptmMm tm MosMmh i:ail the neu^toll frm
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