Three Montreal area members of the federal Parliament have called for a parliamentary investigation of an anti-Israel poster and pamphlets produced by the Quebec teachers union and distributed to teachers in the provincial schools. The poster and pamphlet accuse Israel of “genocide” against the Palestinian people.
The protesting MPs — David Berger, Pierre Deniger and Celine Hervieux-Payette — were joined by Dr. Luc Larivee, chairman of the Montreal Catholic School Commission, who condemned the poster because “the role of teachers is not to take one side or another in political or ideological disputes.”
Yvon Charbonneau, president of the 70,000-member teachers union, said the poster and pamphlets were distributed to teachers for their information, not as teaching material and to raise funds for the victims of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.
The three MPs have asked for a parliamentary committee to study racism all over Canada and to investigate the activities of the Quebec teachers union. They charged that the union headquarters in Montreal houses a wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization which operates under the name of “Quebec Movement to Fight Racism.” According to the MPs, that organization is linked to the “International Organization for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, ” based in Tripoli, Libya which is, in turn, linked to the World Council for Peace. The MPs claimed the latter is a “puppet of Moscow.”
Charbonneau acknowledged that his union headquarters houses a Palestinian information office which “disseminates information about the Palestinian cause. The teachers union is anti-Zionist but not anti-Semitic, “he said.
According to Charbonneau, the MPs are trying to divert attention from the visit here tomorrow of former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon. He said his union and affiliated organizations planned to demonstrate in front of Sharon’s hotel tomorrow to protest his presence in Canada.
The Canadian Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith and the Canadian Zionist Federation have called for a mass rally outside of teachers union headquarters to support Israel and denounce Charbonneau as “an enemy of the Jewish people.”
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