Due to the jurisdictional and political divisions that exist in Canada a major telephone equipment company may be able to slip through a contract with an Arab power that contains an anti-Israel clause stipulating “no commercial relations with Israel and no branches or agencies in Israel.” Northern Telecom, the largest telephone equipment suppliers in Canada and the supplier to Bell Canada, is considering supplying equipment to the Emirates Telecommunications Corp, Ltd.
The bidding form for the contract contains a boycott clause and one official of the firm, Dick Wertheim, has told the press the company is considering the contract though he “could not answer as to what route we might find to satisfy the boycott clause.” A second official, Roy Cottier, the vice president of corporate relations, said the company would not honor a clause like that. “We do not break the law.”
However, the law, or rather laws, are unclear. The Province of Ontario has a full-dress anti-boycott law categorically forbidding companies in the Province to agree to curtail trade with Israel in return for doing business with Arab states. The federal government of Canada was about to pass such a law recently when the general elections intervened. What is on its books now is only a requirement for firms to report requests to agree to such boycott clauses with no serious sanctions attached.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
